Leaving Patagonia and Arriving in Honduras
In May I began the last stage of my R&A project, leaving behind the increasingly cold Chilean Patagonia and traveling up to the tropical Honduran island Utila. Utila is the smallest of the three major Bay Islands within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system, with a population of just 4,000 and an area of 45 km2. Despite its small size and remote location, the island is a hotspot for scuba diving tourism, attracting divers from all over the world due to its pristine reefs and abundant marine life. However, the island is also at the frontline of numerous challenges, namely overpopulation and climate change. Here I was joining the Honduran NGO BICA (Bay Islands Conservation Association) as a scientific advisor on their Coral Restoration & Monitoring programme. I was excited to witness yet another context of coastal climate change and to learn about the innovative methods that conservationists on this small island were employing to combat them.
The Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA)
Although Utila is renowned for its marine diversity, the increasing frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves in recent decades has led to a large decline in the health and extent of coral cover on its reefs. Similarly to the work of the NGO Reef Restoration Panama, whom I collaborated with in Panama whilst working with the Smithsonian Institute, BICA manages a ‘coral nursery’, where fragments of the branching coral species Acropora cervicornis are grown in a controlled setting. When fragments reach a size of 10-15cm BICA transplants them from the coral nursery back onto selected spots of the reef, aiming to increase the extent of healthy reef cover. If fragments are successfully transplanted, they continue to grow on the reef, eventually reproducing and leading to the growth of even more coral colonies. This methodology of reef restoration is increasingly popular globally, as it is recognized that a level of human intervention is needed to give reefs a helping hand in recovery. Emerging studies suggest that healthier and more biodiverse reefs are also more resistant to marine heat waves.
The aim of my work with BICA was to learn about their methodologies of coral nursery management, as well as to provide experience and knowledge exchange with the NGO Reef Restoration Panama.
My tasks included assessing the health of the fragments in the coral nursery and identifying and marking optimal spots on the reef where fragments could be transplanted (locations with environmental conditions suitable for this specific coral species).
The highlight of my visit was participating in three coral transplanting events, during which recreational diving volunteers and BICA employees transplanted coral fragments from the nursery onto the reef. Across the three days of work over 200 fragments were successfully replanted onto the reef. It was incredible seeing an ecosystem come to life before my eyes, as well as monitoring the transplanted fragments over the following weeks and seeing many of them survive the stressful move and and the increase in reef fish around them.
A short youtube video documenting one of the transplanting events can be viewed here.
Assisted Reproduction, An Innovative Coral Restoration Method
In addition to coral restoration, BICA is beginning a project on assisted reproduction with various brain coral species. Assisted reproduction is an emerging technology in the space of coral reef restoration, based on the science of coral reproduction.
Stony coral species reproduce by spawning, that is releasing their gametes into the water column at the same time as other colonies of the same species in a synchronised event. After release from the coral colony the gametes float to the surface of the water, where if gametes from two different colonies meet they then fuse together and develop into a coral larva which sinks back down into the water column. If that larva successfully attaches to a stony substrate it will begin to slowly grow and develop into a coral colony.
Coral assisted reproduction involves manually collecting gametes from coral colonies when they spawn, often by covering spawning colonies with nets, and then manually mixing gametes from different coral colonies on land/boat by use of syringes, thereby increasing the rate of successful fertilisation. These fertilised coral larvae are then released back onto the reef near the spawning site, where some of them will successfully attach to the reef and begin their development.
The first, and arguably most important, step of assisted reproduction is understanding when specific coral colonies spawn. This allows practitioners to understand where and when to collect gametes. The challenge with this is that various coral species spawn at different times, with additional differences within species across different geographical locations. On Utila it is known that brain coral colonies spawn 5-10 days after a full moon, typically within 10-15 minutes before or after sunset. For 5 days I joined a team of volunteer snorkelers monitoring brain coral colonies every afternoon to see if we could identify these allusive spawning events.
The methodology to do this involved a pair of snorkelers monitoring a brain coral colony for the hour before, and 15 minutes after, sunset. If the colony spawned the time and duration of the event was noted. After 3 afternoons of observation with absolutely nothing, suddenly 4 of the 8 monitored colonies spawned within minutes of each other. It was incredibly special to witness the reproduction of this species that has become so close to my heart over the past year.
With several more monitoring events in the upcoming months, BICA hopes that the spawning patterns of the selected 8 coral colonies are understood accurately enough that their next spawning event can be predicted, and an assisted reproduction procedure implemented.
Working with both Reef Restoration Panama and BICA has allowed me to develop a strong understanding of varying methodologies for reef restoration, all coming with their own benefits and challenges and requiring considerations such as budget constraints, volunteer availability and weather conditions. I hope that linking together these two NGOs will lead to a continued communication and exchange of experiences and resources between them, as they are both small-scale projects making a big difference in the Caribbean region.
Marine Plastic Pollution Monitoring & Turtle Nesting
In addition to working on the Coral Research & Monitoring team, during my free time I was lucky enough to participate in BICA’s other notable conservation initiatives.
BICA works with local secondary schools on the island allowing students to fill their community service hours through conducting regular beach plastic & bioplastic monitoring surveys. The data these students collect contributes to global projects such as the BreakFreeFromPlastic survey and the University of Portsmouth Big Plastic Survey. The level of plastic pollution on the beaches of Utila was both shocking and heartbreaking. In the UK I participated in many beach cleans but here the level of pollution is so high that it would never be possible for the beach to be fully cleaned by volunteers, instead the increasing/changing level of waste, the main companies found and the sources of the waste are simply monitored over time.
Another large aspect of BICA’s work is sea turtle nesting monitoring. Utila has some of the most frequently visited beached by egg laying sea turtles in the Caribbean and through extensive nighttime beach monitoring and collaboration with local hotel owners the BICA Sea Turtle Team identifies turtle egg nests, often relocating the eggs to a beach turtle sanctuary with safer conditions and monitoring their hatching. Tagging along on a nighttime beach patrol I was lucky enough to see a hawksbill turtle begin digging its nest, as well as to help relocate a nest to the turtle sanctuary that had been laid on a part of the beach heavily exposed to erosion.
Final Thoughts
Working with BICA was a lifechanging experience, allowing me to apply knowledge on coral reef restoration and community engagement that I had learnt from earlier stages of my R&A project, as well as to learn various new innovative techniques for coral reef restoration. Beyond this, what I loved about my time with BICA is that most of their employees were around my age. It was incredible to meet young passionate conservationists working to make a difference in their local communities.
As the final stage of my year-long project to learn about coastal climate change adaptation in various contexts, my time in Honduras really pushed me to utilize all the fieldwork skills I had picked up during earlier stages of the project, namely requiring extensive scientific diving and designing low-cost environmental monitoring programs. Additionally, the practice I had gotten with Spanish in earlier parts of my project is what allowed me to work with BICA, a fully Spanish-speaking organization. Working in my third language surrounded by fluent speakers was at first both challenging and intimidating, but it was also incredibly rewarding to realize that this year has allowed me to gain working proficiency in a third language. This opens doors to communicate with conservationists across the Spanish-speaking world, something I am sure will be incredibly useful for future collaborations.
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