Mexican Divers Try To
Fix Storm-Wracked Coral Reef
November 21, 2005 — By Catherine Bremer, Reuters
MANCHONES REEF, Mexico — Mexican
scuba divers are struggling in surging seas to repair one of the world's
biggest coral reefs after it was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma last
month.
Buffeted by strong currents, it takes three divers to hold broken chunks
of coral in place and tie them down with plastic straps that are tricky
to fasten even above the surface.
After an hour of silent underwater work in Mexico's turquoise Caribbean
waters, several pieces of the fragile coral gardens are back in place.
"We got some good work done but it's moving a lot down there; it makes
it very difficult," said diver Monica Escarcega, panting as she surfaced
from the Manchones coral reef off Isla Mujeres and clambered onto a
waiting boat.
"There's still a lot of live coral down there which is great, but we
have a lot more work to do, and this weather's not helping," said Luis
Guerra, water pouring off his wetsuit as the dive boat lurched over a
huge swell.
Weather in the area worsened Friday as Tropical Storm Gamma brewed off
the coast of Honduras on its way toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
As well as battering luxury resorts and clawing away entire beaches in
Cancun, Wilma damaged up to half of the spectacular coral reef chain
that runs along Mexico's Caribbean coast, biologists say.
Mexico's reefs are part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef which runs for
hundreds of miles to Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, and is second only
in size to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It first won fame in a 1961
documentary by French filmmaker Jacques Cousteau shot off Mexico's
Cozumel island.
The coral devastation not only hurts the marine ecosystem, but it is one
more blow to Cancun's ravaged tourism sector, which normally sees
boatloads of vacationers and diving enthusiasts heading out daily on
snorkeling and scuba trips.
UNDERWATER GLUE
Three weeks after Wilma, the only dive boats out of Cancun carry 40
professional divers hired by the government to clear debris from the
reef and repair the coral, hoping to speed up its agonizingly slow
recovery time.
Coral grows just a few millimeters (fraction of an inch) a year, so left
to its own devices the reef would take decades to recover -- especially
as clumsy snorkelers and passing ships often chip off bits of coral.
Pollution is another threat.
"If we leave it to nature, the pressure of tourism and water
contamination don't give the coral much chance," said Juan Carlos
Huitron, who is in charge of the repair mission.
"We can't change the rate at which coral grows, but we can try and make
sure more of it survives."
The scuba teams use various means to fix broken coral back in place,
including metal rods inserted in holes drilled into rocks on the seabed
and glue made from cement mixed with sand.
The cement can only be applied on calm days, otherwise most of it seeps
away and dissolves before it can set.
"The reef is the ocean's most powerful ecosystem. A great quantity of
flora and fauna depend on its health," said Alfredo Arellano, regional
head of Conanp, the government body in charge of Mexico's protected
natural areas.
As well as damaged reefs and shrunken beaches, biologists are worried
about the damage Wilma did to local forests.
They estimate the area around Cancun lost some 1.98 million acres of
tropical forest in this season's storms and say the dead trees and brush
are a serious fire hazard.
"There is a lot of dead wood and leaves about. It's a latent danger,"
said Mauricio Limon, who headed a visit last week by Mexico's
environmental protection agency to assess local storm damage.
"Nature's capacity to recover from disasters is marvelous and the
forests will grow back. But it's certain we will see forest fires next
year."
Source: Reuters
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