A Coral Love Story

Reflections from my recent ocean adventure…

I recently returned from a “girl’s trip” to Puerto Rico with five other women; we’ve been friends for 20 years! With navigating the pandemic and caring for a young child with respiratory challenges who had been hospitalized 4 times before the pandemic even started, it had been a long time since I’d spent time in the ocean. I could not wait to dive in!

From San Juan, we embarked on a hour-long journey to the coast of Fajardo for our planned snorkeling adventure. If you google “top snorkeling destinations in Puerto Rico”, tours in Fajardo heading to Icacos island are on the top of the list. As we set sail on the white and red catamaran that would glide us across the Caribbean Ocean to our destination, I sat on the boat deck soaking in the sun and the sights. I love the feeling of being out on the open ocean. It feels likes freedom. A 30-minute boat ride led us to an area renowned for its snorkeling and we each lined up to get our snorkel gear on. Brimming with excitement, I grabbed my mask and fins and jumped off the side of the boat into the warm, teal blue water.

As I entered the underwater world, the first thing I noticed were the jellyfish, SO MANY jellyfish everywhere! Every now and then you’d hear the shrill shriek of one of my girlfriends as a jellyfish swam up close and personal in front of their masks. As I swam closer to the coral reef, I expected to see a swarm of colorful fish, but hardly saw a handful. And then the picture became clear…hovering over the coral reef, I peered down and saw the brown, fuzzy patches of coral everywhere. The entire reef had died. No reef, no fish and no turtles. The lack of turtles also explained the enormous amount of jellyfish. You see, turtles eat jellyfish and keep populations in the right balance. Here it was, another example of how ecosystems can be thrown out of balance with cascading effects from impacts on one species and why biodiversity matters so much not just for wildlife but also for us humans. Everything is connected.

A coral reef is made up of colonies of coral polyps held together by a bony calcium carbonate structure. They are complex living organisms that are incredibly important ocean habitats for numerous species. In fact, scientists estimate that 25% of all marine species live in and around coral reefs. They serve as protective nurseries for fish, clams, seahorses, lobsters, sea turtles and even certain species of baby sharks.

And their benefits aren’t limited to ocean creatures, they also help protect coastlines from storm events and some compounds in coral reefs are even being used in medicine.

What I love about corals even more than their beauty is how they live cooperatively with other species. They live in symbiosis with algae, which live inside coral, protected through the corals’ tough skeletons. In exchange,the algae provide coral with food produced through photosynthesis. When water temperatures warm, as has been happening with global warming, the coral vomit or expel these algae, losing their key source of food and this process is what turns the coral to that bleached, white state you might have seen.

At the bleached, white stage, corals are sick but can recover if water temperatures come back down to cooler levels. If they remain warm over long periods of time, sadly, coral won’t recover. It’s just like a human having a temperature that never goes away, eventually you’ll die. When that happens, a different kind of algae overproduces inside the coral and on the outside it looks brown and fuzzy.

And this is what I saw that day on my snorkeling trip. I have been blessed enough to have snorkeled in stunning coral reefs from Belize to Turks and Caicos to the Galapagos Islands and had never seen anything like this. It broke my heart. Here it was, the reality of climate change and biodiversity loss staring me in the face.

With COP27 underway, more and more media outlets are reporting on the state of our crisis. It’s a story you’ve likely heard and it goes something like this: The planet is warming, we’re on track for it to keep warming to catastrophic levels, our action has been insufficient, we need to pick up the pace or we’re screwed. This story is true.

I’d like to offer a different story, one that flows from my love of nature and the ocean in particular: We humans are one species amongst many living on a wondrous planet. The biodiversity of our rainforests, oceans, mountains and tidal basins is mind blowing! All of life on earth is part of a single ecosystem, all intricately connected. Something that affects one species in one place eventually affects another somewhere else. This means that human survival is directly tied to the survival of the natural world around us because we, just like the apes, tigers, bees and birds are A PART of nature, not APART from nature. When more and more people start to grasp what this really means, truly adopt this worldview, that’s when things will change. When more people fall in love with all of life on this planet, we’ll be compelled to protect it, like a mother compelled to protect her child from harm.

Finding something in the natural world that is intriguing can be thrilling. Getting to know it can be enlightening. Falling in love with it compels us to protect it. This is how we save the world, this is how we save ourselves.

Related posts:

Have you ever wondered why things don’t work out for you and how you’re getting in your own way? Well, that’s what we’re talking about today. Clearing your path to success. I’m sure there have been…

Edgecoin is a Stable Coin that is backed by fiat currency and operates as an open payment system. This provides its users with the ability to conduct transactions anywhere in the world. Edgecoin is a…

Right at this moment, someone, somewhere around the world is trying to listen to their audience using an online form. Online forms equal data, they mean collecting responses from anyone who interacts…