Cozumel reef health

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Yellowdog

Contributor
Messages
242
Reaction score
98
Location
Maryland
# of dives
100 - 199
While I feel terribly for the citizens of Cozumel who depend on tourist dollars I think that the reefs ecosystem was strained to its limits before the Pandemic. The last time I was there in 2019 they had just started the closures. The poor health of the reefs, bleached or dead / dying coral and an absence of sea life was noticeable, at least to my eye. I got open water certified with my daughter in Cozumel around 2010 and have been there diving most years since so I witnessed the decline overtime but 2019 was quite a shock. In any case I am wondering if the Covid 19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for the reef. With fewer boats, divers, guests at the hotels and no cruise ships the environment has had a vacation and I am hoping the reef is thriving again. I am traveling to Cozumel in May with the family so I will get a chance to see first hand. Fingers crossed.
 
I think your 100% correct we have come here 3 times since Christmas. It’s been GREAT!! But I am not sure it’s the diving, but the ships, diesel, black water dumping, and so on. And they need the ship to survive. I was told this week that the taxes from tourists here pay for not only Cozumel but like 27% of Mexico’s expenses.
 
We came back last July right after the island opened back up, and the improvement in the reef was significant, in fact I think I described in a post as the best I'd ever seen in over 15 years. The biggest thing I noticed at the time, and still do now having come back several times again since, is the big improvement in the brain coral. You'll remember that it was getting wiped out by SCTLD, or I think that's the acronym anyway. Now? I haven't seen much, if any, diseased brain coral lately, everything is vibrant and healthy. The giant groupers are back as well. As far as sea life, I really haven't seen much a difference pre-Covid v. post, with one exception, that being a big decline in green moray eels, at least on my dives. I wasn't seeing that many pre-Covid any longer, and I'm not seeing any now. I did see a baby green moray yesterday on La Francesca (that was a first for me), but the numbers that I'm seeing are down. Now whether that's just me, v. COVID, v. water temp, v. something else? Who knows.
 
We came back last July right after the island opened back up, and the improvement in the reef was significant, in fact I think I described in a post as the best I'd ever seen in over 15 years. The biggest thing I noticed at the time, and still do now having come back several times again since, is the big improvement in the brain coral. You'll remember that it was getting wiped out by SCTLD, or I think that's the acronym anyway. Now? I haven't seen much, if any, diseased brain coral lately, everything is vibrant and healthy. The giant groupers are back as well. As far as sea life, I really haven't seen much a difference pre-Covid v. post, with one exception, that being a big decline in green moray eels, at least on my dives. I wasn't seeing that many pre-Covid any longer, and I'm not seeing any now. I did see a baby green moray yesterday on La Francesca (that was a first for me), but the numbers that I'm seeing are down. Now whether that's just me, v. COVID, v. water temp, v. something else? Who knows.
In general, one must be careful about making judgements on trends from a small sample size, and unless you dive the same reef many, many times your sample size is statistically small. Also, temporal correlation does not prove causation.

That said, though, are you saying that the brain coral heads that were to all appearances dead or dying a couple of years ago have recovered or been resurrected? Did you not see any heads contaminated/infected by the "white blight"? I don't know enough about coral polyp reproduction to know whether free-swimming larvae will repopulate a deserted existing structure, but it seems to me that is what has to have happened if they are healthy again.
 
I have not seen a lot of brain coral that has come back to life. The ones that were affected are dead and now look like rocks with algae. There is still healthy brain coral seen on most dives that do not appear to have visible whitening as was predominant last year.
 
I would have thought that there would be serious and useful information available on the current condition of the reefs but a google search does not turn up anything interesting.
 
If there was not a reason or demand to have a marine park I wonder what it would be like. The few times I have had a chance to dive outside of the marine park, where fishing is permitted, I really noticed the lack of marine life.
 
If there was not a reason or demand to have a marine park I wonder what it would be like. The few times I have had a chance to dive outside of the marine park, where fishing is permitted, I really noticed the lack of marine life.

I dive up north frequently and I don’t agree with this statement. I like the marine park concept but the marine life up north seems awfully healthy to me.
 
I dive up north frequently and I don’t agree with this statement. I like the marine park concept but the marine life up north seems awfully healthy to me.
Up north where? I don't have a ton of dives outside the park but last trip we dove a couple dives north of the island, past Barricuda, in 3 hours of diving I didn't see a gouper larger than a ft. we had spears too and no lion fish. Dove once on the east side and kind of the same story. Like I said I have not had a ton of dives there but that's my experience. Have seen sail fish off the wall at San Juan though.
 

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