BY RAY AUXILLOU, August, 2011
http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com/Back in the 1960´s , I was in the prime of my life, in my middle to the late 20´s. There was little or no information in the world, on the seas and fisheries of the Western Caribbean Sea. I published a few things and the next thing I knew I was getting letters from all kinds of international organizations from different countries. It seemed nothing was known then, of coral reefs, marine biology, or very little, for vast swaths of the tropical seas of the world, as far as marine biology went. With the assistance of AID, Agency for International Development, from the USA, the Ministry of Natural Resources in the UK, tropical research department, and the department in the USA called nowadays NOAA ( the Pascagoula, Mississippi base for their research ships, in a long period of a decade or more, by slow mail ( there was no internet back then ) I turned myself into a curious self educated marine biologist. The above agencies sent me all kinds of books and pamphlets on every subject under the sun, to do with the things I was researching.
Eventually I published not only magazine articles, but also some mimeographed books, I made on the island of Caye Caulker. There was not much in the way of affordable, or modern printing equipment in the British Colony at that time. Later I was invited to participate in two Caribbean Sea voyages on the USA Research ships, Oregon 1, and Oregon 2. Oregon 1 came specifically to check out the research in the Western Caribbean Sea, particularly British Honduras. The Oregon 2 Research trip, took me to Puerto Rico and that area, in regard to deep water fishing, of red snapper stocks, which at that time was my specialty of study in British Honduras. I became a courted and acknowledged international expert on the Western Caribbean Sea. It was heady stuff for a young man at the time.
I had developed the British Honduras Fisheries Research Station on Caye Caulker, which was mostly a one man deal. The idea to develop the fishing industry, from what it was then. In particular, I was curious as how to turn the research into making money as a fisherman. The UN FAO eventually got interested and invited me to work for them, but the hiring process took so long and interfered with my private sector earnings, I finally gave up on them. Bureaucratic processes can be very slow.
By the late 1960´s I had acquired a hotel, several boats and was then running an annual Marine Biology Expedition along with Dr. Henry Hildebrand, of the Marine Biology Department of the University of Corpus Christi. It was a three week affair, and I handled the logistics, scuba equipment and provided the boats. This went on for another 13 years, until the University of Corpus Christi was sold to the STATE and dropped their marine biology department. By the 80´s I was ready to get out of the marine life and try something else.
We scuba dived, both as marine biologists and as beginning tourism scuba diving expeditions in what was then a deserted bunch of atolls and barrier reef islands. Most habitations had been wiped out by Hurricane Hattie in 1961. There were few people out there back then. My favorite people were lighthouse keepers in different locations. What concerns us today, is the modern current era of reef research. I can tell you that the dead reef of today, is the same today as it was in the 1960s and the 1970´s. Live reef was sporadic. The most vibrant was at the surf line, where the waves break. Even so, the coral for the most part, except in patches seemed dead. Vast lengths of barrier reef were dead, with just the occasional live brain coral.
There are myriad inner sea reefs, EAST of the Placentia peninsular. Except at the very top, they were mostly composed of dead staghorn coral. The sea was about a 100 feet deep. I surmised back then, that the dead coral was due to effects of Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Since then there have been many hurricanes. Hurricanes do not have to strike the mainland of Belize to damage the coral reefs. Any very large hurricane between Jamaica, Cuba and Honduras will effect the atolls and reefs of Belize. I figured back then, that the tidal surge and storm waves were causing the dead coral. We are in Belize at the end of the bowling alley for hurricanes coming through the Caribbean Sea. We get hit most years, by high waves, if not high winds and the eye of such a storm.
Since then new researchers have put forth new theories. Undoubtedly population explosion over the islands and reefs are contaminating the sea and reefs with detergents, fertilizers and other pollution as causing damage to the reefs. Undoubtedly this is so. One of my duties for Dr. Henry Hildebrand was to keep a year round count of the Pelicans I saw on my boat travels. I reported faithfully by letter and gave him the numbers. The Pelican is top of the food chain and a barometer for the health of the reefs. I can tell you that Caye Caulker has NO PELICANS any more and there was a standard population up until the 1990´s of about 4 dozen resident pelicans. So there is a problem for sure. It is however, a new generation that have to figure out these things. All I can tell you on the dead reef observations, is that most of the Barrier reefs were composed of dead coral to depths of over a hundred feet, except right at the surface, where the breaking surf occurs. To claim that modern events are killing the reefs is just not historically true.
Between Hurricanes and probably sea water temperature changes, I believe we have cyclical phenomena that damages the environmental envelope for reef populations of coral. Recently new marine biologists have postulated about the interaction of many different denizens of the coral reefs as being decimated by overfishing. That too is probably true and has an effect on the life of the reefs. The environmental envelopment for coral reefs produces over 300 species that are necessary to the health of the coral reefs here in Belize. It is badly out of kilter to over fishing. However, that alone cannot make alive reefs that have been dead from my own observations for over 55 years.
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