Back from Puerto Rico...corals look better!

[Anonymous]

Last summer I was in PR at this time and I noticed that the corals had died back quite a few inches from the previous year. The algae was out of control. This year was a different story. The corals grew back and look stronger than I have ever seen them over the last five years travelling there up to three times a year. There was much less algae,which was probably due to the mass population explosion of sea urchins and large blue tangs.

In one area I saw about 10 E.crucifer anemones in a 2 foot radius. Another thing I noticed was a tremendous amount of calupera(of numerous types)growing,along with halimeda. The other algaes like dictyota and valonia were scarce.

I was very pleased to see the strong comeback of anemones and stony corals. This of course is only at the N.W. corner of the island. I cannot say how the rest of the island is fairing except for an article in the papers saying how the reefs around Vieques are growing.

Anyhoo,just thought you would all like the good news.

The bad news is the Puerto Ricans papers have jumped on the wagon of shark hating. Showing front page photos of slaughtered sharks with men and their children smiling like they just slew the devil himself. Sad.

Take care,

Dan

 

[SPC]

Dan, thanks for the info, any ideas as to why this recovery has occurred?
Steve

 

[Bobzarry]

I was there in May......got a chance to do some snorkling both north east and south west. Every thing looked great and sooooo much life.


Bob

 

[bezzer]

Wasn't there alot of bad tropical storms and hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico last year?
I would suspect this effected the reefs last year and has since then had a chance of regrowing and florishing this year.
Good to here the reefs in Puerto Rico are doing well.
Thanks for sharing the news.

Brian

 

[Bomber]

Ditto on the Keys and the rest of the Caribbean/TWA. We're still seeing outbreaks of black band and yellow band.
Monitoring iron levels and Saharan dust.
All in all, a positive past 5 years.

Jerel

 

[Anonymous]

The areas I normally frequent when I am there are beaches used heavily by the public. I spend much time there pulling bottles,cans,and plastic cups from the water. But I did notice that the nuisance algaes were not as prevelant as the previous years. I saw more calupera and sea grass. With less dictyota,valonia,and bryopis. I noticed many large bristleworms,big blue tangs,sea hares,and nudibranchs.

The only reason that I don't believe that it was hurricanes,or lack there of,is because the side of the island I frequent has not been struck directly by a hurricane for a few years. Last years problems may have been caused by a large amount of disolved organic compounds. It is just a matter of finding out if the nutrients are being utilized by the fauna and infauna or are suddenly not present.

Dan