As of now, we are over halfway through our program’s reef week! Our professors have arranged to have speakers and activities as a group to learn more about the reef surrounding us and how to preserve it. On Monday, we had a speaker from Roatan Marine Park talking about the initiatives they have put into place to assist in the restoration of the the island’s environment. We learned that there are sea turtle reward programs in place to protect baby sea turtles from being poached. Also, it is actually encouraged to hunt lionfish here because of their status as an invasive species. As of now, they are the only fish in the area that spearfishing is allowed. All of these programs are set in place for the betterment of the reef and are focused mainly on education and community involvement to heal the environment around them.

We also went to the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences in Anthony’s Key Resort which had a speaker there explaining to us how reef restoration works. For those who are not familiar with the process (like I wasn’t until a few days ago), the most common form of restoration stems from coral trees that are set up to reproduce and replace old, dead coral. The two most commonly farmed coral are Elkhorn and Staghorn because they grow the fastest at about 10mm per year. We also learned about something called micro-fragmentation and it essentially unlocks the secret to making traditionally slow growing coral grow up to 40 times faster! These restoration efforts will hopefully save the dying reef and it offered up a glimmer of hope to those of us very concerned about the reef’s future.

Yesterday, we also had the opportunity to listen to the speaker, Mickey Charteris. He has identified, photographed, and published over 1,500 species on the reef right off the coast of Roatan! He has been diving here for over 20 years and still finds new species to this day. It was fascinating to hear him speak and I learned so much more about the reef and all of the animals it houses and feeds. After hearing him speak about all of the amazing creatures that we could discover on the reef, it made everyone want to jump back into the water and find some of them!

Until next time!