The Undersea Wonders of Hol Chan
San Pedro residents have a personal connection to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. It's only about 4 miles south of Ambergris Caye and it provides jobs for the tour operators in the area who take visitors to the reserve. But aside from San Pedranos and tourists, not many Belizeans know or have even visited the site, although it is free for locals.
Well, on Monday Courtney Weatherburne went to find out more about the beauty and uniqueness of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and why there must be constant improvements made to better protect this underwater wonder.
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Seeing this frenzy of friendly nurse sharks near the surface is a wondrous sight. But snorkeling in the emerald waters with them is an exhilarating experience, as they swim unperturbed in their natural habitat.
Visitors from all over the world come here to Shark Ray Alley in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to snorkel and dive with these surprisingly sociable sharks. It is one of the main attractions in the reserve.
Kirah Castillo, Technical Manager, Hol Chan Marine Reserve
"The recreational site for Hol Chan is easiest to explain it is about 4 miles south of Ambergris Caye, the reserve in 2015 expanded so currently the reserve itself is not only south of Ambergris Caye but we also have portions of the reserve to the north and the eastern side and the entire western portion of Ambergris Caye is part of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve."
"At Shark Ray, people are able to get very up and close with nurse sharks, they are sharks, they are true sharks however they are not aggressive as other species so people, we do allow people to get in and snorkel with them and get up close."
"Most people visit the reserve for the channel, it is a small break in the reef, it is actually Mayan for little channel and we have a large biodiversity, the fish population, they are amazing. I will brag to say that you can't see it anywhere else in any of the other parks."
It's hard to argue with that after seeing it yourself. There are several species of fish in the reserve from groupers, snappers to jacks and barracuda among others. Aside from their fishery resources they are also known for their healthy corals, seagrass beds and mangrove ecosystems.
Castillo says that their effective management and monitoring plan along with several community based educational programs have contributed to the reserve's rich and healthy marine life.
Kirah Castillo, Technical Manager, Hol Chan Marine Reserve
"One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that we have had, while it is not a perfect system, we have relatively good enforcement and good management. We do a lot of education and outreach programs to try and encourage compliance, to try and encourage guides to take care of the area, we are one of the most visited marine parks in the country so on a busy day we can have 100 people visiting the park but there are certain rules and regulations that have been put in place in order to safeguard the area, in order to conserve the biodiversity, the coral cover to ensure that it is there to sustain the community in the long run."
"We have several different educational outreach programs, we go out in the communities, we work with the schools we also do research so we monitor the corals, we monitor the fish, we do a lot with conch and lobster we also monitor sea turtles, the sea turtle population for the area."
And The Hol Chan Marine reserve managers are working on a 5 year plan to enhance the reach of their community work and the effectiveness of their management system. One new feature of this plan is 24 hour surveillance at the reserve which they activated a couple months ago.
Kirah Castillo, Technical Manager, Hol Chan Marine Reserve
"We are in the process of developing our 5 years management plan, so for management we need to know what we need and where we are going and where we want to be in the next 5 years. So we just had our public consultation where we presented out to the community, the new policy to do strategies and like I said this is a 5 year program so that we can have some guidance, the organization itself has recently restructured and what we want to do is provide more services to the community, we want to provide more benefits, Hol Chan is one of the sites that many tours run to so it has economic impact to Ambergris Caye itself. It is very important to the tourism industry on the island so we want to ensure that we as managers are doing a good job, the plan will help us to stay focused as we move forward in the next 5 years. Apart from that, one of our management strategies has been is we have increased our surveillance at the site so we now have 24 hours surveillance, rangers are there all night which is something that is new that we have never had before, we have put out two marine stations in order to assist with this so the guys have somewhere to stay and they can function as a base while they are out there."
It's an evolving management plan for a Reserve that constantly faces new challenges above and below the surface:
Kirah Castillo, Technical Manager, Hol Chan Marine Reserve
"We are interested with great heritage for the country, we are interested with protection of this area so we have to do our part to make sure it works and it functions."
In terms of the reserve patrol base for 24 hour surveillance, a base is in the Mexico Rocks area which is a new attraction within the reserve. They plan on constructing another base for the rangers as well. Visitors are charged a $10 US dollar park fee and that money goes to a trust for management.
The gorgeous underwater shots are courtesy world renowned photographer Tony Rath.
A Lot To Know About Nurse Sharks
Last night you saw our feature on the Hol Chan Marine Reserve where our Courtney Weatherburne went snorkeling with nurse sharks in Shark Ray Alley. Now although these friendly sharks were just an arm's length away, visitors are not to touch them. The technical manager of the reserve Kirah Castillo gave some tips for tourists and spoke about their collaboration with Mar Alliance to better study these creatures.
Kirah Castillo - Technical Manager, Hol Chan Marine Reserve
"The Mar Alliance, their focus is on mega fauna and so for the past few years, they have been conducting research at shark ray alley to look at the population of the sharks and the rays and health of the population within the area. So they are doing that at different sites throughout the country but shark ray alley is one of those sites that they are studying to better understand the population size and the movements of the sharks. So we're working with them and they are doing the actual research and that information is fed back to us that we can use for management."
Courtney Weatherburne
"In terms of tips for tourist, it's not that you go and touch them or feed them, you're not supposed to touch or feed them?"
Kirah Castillo
"No, so we don't allow people to touch, harass or handle the sharks. We want them (animals) to be as comfortable but it can also be an accident for people grabbing and holding on to them. Rays have a thin mucus layer, so then you touch them, you release that and then they open their tissue to diseases, it's also safety for the animal as well. So why we do allow feeding at shark ray alley, we don't allow it to be done by guest and only by tour guides and even the tour guides are not allowed to be handling the sharks and the rays."
Channel 7
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