Declining dive quality?

[ronscuba]

I could be wrong, but I think Cozumel currents are part of the reason the fish life is better than many other Caribbean locations. There are other places with protected marine parks, but none with the steady current.

Have dove many different places in the Caribbean over the last 12 years and Cozumel combination of fish life quantity and size is the best in my opinion.

 

[mstevens]

I'm quite certain that zero spearing and free-for-all are not the only two possible options.

Right, and neither is likely to work particularly well.

However, my post was in response to the suggestion that limiting or prohibiting lionfish spearing within national marine parks was "excessive" and "stupid".

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Right, and neither is likely to work particularly well.

However, my post was in response to the suggestion that limiting or prohibiting lionfish spearing within national marine parks was "excessive" and "stupid".

It's worked well in Cozumel and no doubt many other locations. I would agree that prohibiting spearing lionfish in parks is stupid. Allowing an invasion species free reign of a protected area will ensure the destruction of the very thing the area was designed to protect: native fish populations. Lionfish aren't going away on their own or by means of natural predators. If left unchecked the effect on our marine system could be catastrophic.

 

[tom_n_tacoma]

I just returned from my twelfth trip to Cozumel in nine years. The conditions have varied a bit between seasons and trips. I'm not certain if the overall health of the reefs is steadily declining or I have become jaded. Both numbers and variety of species seem reduced. Green moray eels in particular, I saw on almost every dive in the past. I did not see any in a week of diving this trip. The sponges and corals look beat up too.

Has anyone else observed this or is it my imagination?

I've been diving there consistently for about 9+ years now. I've been on the reefs every month of the year and have seen changes in types and quantities of various fish depending on the season. It could be a seasonal variation that you notice. Overall I would say there seems to have been a decline in larger fish, but that is just my opinion without anyway to quantify it. As far as other fish and eels, I don't see a noticeable drop off. Are you there the same time of year every time or does that vary?

 

[imoto]

I've seen a drop in large lobster in the last three years.

 

[reefrat]

I started scuba diving as a kid in the early 1970's around Perth in Western Australia, over 30 years of periodically diving the same reefs- particularly at Rottnest Island (which has always been a marine park) I have watched the fish life gradually decrease in numbers and variety.
Someone who steps off a reef at "Rotto" these days with a mask on for the first time will probably go "wow" there's a fish, and another! If they could see what I saw in the 70's and the 80's they would totally freak out, the reef fish were big and thick everywhere, we pushed our way through huge schools of salmon (Kahawai) as they cruised up and down the channels between the reefs. In comparison today it is a desert!
In the 1980's I worked at a place called Barrow island about 1500 Kms North of Perth and 50 K's off the coast, it was a nature sanctuary and we were the only ones allowed there. In my spare time I used to fish off the rocks and it was really just a matter of casting out a pilchard or lure and "wham" huge Spanish Mackerel, Long-tail tuna or Jacks were guaranteed every time- it was ridiculously easy. About 2004 I went back there to work for a year and of course went back out to my favorite spot to catch a few fish- nothing! I tried again and again, nothing every time I went there and other's reported that the big pelagic species that used to roam past the island just weren't there any more.
The oceans are a different place from when I was young and it is appalling that this could happen in half of one lifetime, it does not auger well for the future at all and I wish young divers today could see what it used to be like, and should be like if it wasn't for the rampant commercial over fishing of (particularly) pelagic fish.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I just returned from my twelfth trip to Cozumel in nine years. The conditions have varied a bit between seasons and trips. I'm not certain if the overall health of the reefs is steadily declining or I have become jaded. Both numbers and variety of species seem reduced. Green moray eels in particular, I saw on almost every dive in the past. I did not see any in a week of diving this trip. The sponges and corals look beat up too.

Has anyone else observed this or is it my imagination?

I dove there in December and saw lots of critters and the visibility was over 100' on every dive. I saw the biggest green moray that I've even seen plus I saw more sea turtles than I'd seen in the past which was one year earlier. I did notice that the sea turtles can be very destructive when they are foraging on the reefs so perhaps the turtle population is increasing and they are to blame! I'd always assumed that when I saw broken coral or sponges it was the fault of divers. Also, I was surprised to see coral polyps out in the daytime on my first visit there as I thought they were nocturnal feeders. On my most recent visit I didn't notice any so either they were sleeping or they are dead. I saw one lionfish on four days of diving (8 tanks). The museum there has information about the effects of development on the entire ecosystem and from what I understood if you build more hotels you end up with less sea life and I suspect that there are more hotels than there were nine years ago. About the only benefit to the environment that I can see from divers is that we see what's changing and can make this known but I can't imagine that our constant presence doesn't have some kind of negative impact, even if we don't touch anything. I am also ignorant about lionfish and what damage they do but I was under the impression that they were introduced to the area by humans, probably divers. I guess I'd better go read up on them.

 

[ggunn]

I am also ignorant about lionfish and what damage they do but I was under the impression that they were introduced to the area by humans, probably divers. I guess I'd better go read up on them.

Divers didn't bring in the lionfish. One scenario is that they escaped from salt water aquariums in Florida when hurricanes wrecked the buildings they were in. Another is that aquarium owners decided not to keep them and thought they were doing the right thing by releasing the fish back into the ocean from whence they came. In any case, humans most likely are responsible.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Divers didn't bring in the lionfish. One scenario is that they escaped from salt water aquariums in Florida when hurricanes wrecked the buildings they were in. Another is that aquarium owners decided not to keep them and thought they were doing the right thing by releasing the fish back into the ocean from whence they came. In any case, humans most likely are responsible.

I read about them like I said I would Yes, it sounds fairly conclusive that they were released "back" into the ocean. One thing I found confusing was that supposedly two types of lionfish are indigenous to Hawai'i and yet they hunt them there too.

 

[Alan P]

You should have dove it 3 weeks after Wilma like I did if you wanted to see the reef destroyed and covered in sand with very little fish life. The reefs and the creatures came back and quicker then I ever would imagine.