Welcome to the
Roatan Marine Park’s July newsletter
Another
month gone by and another newsletter to compose, how
time flies here on Roatan. It only seems like yesterday
that I was writing June’s letter. With a relatively
quiet month in the dive shops, the office has been constantly
busy with the search for new staff, meeting with the
municipality and patronato, maintaining the dive sites,
continuing with ongoing projects, and much much more.
Water
Quality Monitoring:
Andrea has continued with the water monitoring project,
taking samples at the 7 sites along West Bay, West End,
Mud Hole, Corozal and Palmetto Beach. With the help
of volunteers, the laborious task of analyzing the samples
has been not too much of a chore for them. As Andrea
is leaving us next month, this project will have to
be adopted by either myself or one of the new members
of staff. Volunteers are certainly welcome to join in
and get on the boat to collect and analyze the samples.
Lobster
Project:
The lobster project has started swimmingly, with 14
juvenile lobsters obtained in the first inspection.
Nearly every single catch station had a juvenile present,
along with a host of other critters including sea slugs,
crabs, shrimp, juvenile sergeant majors and blue tangs
to name a few. The little blighters are currently on
display in a tank in the Marine Park shop, so drop by
and have a look. Feeding time is usually in the mornings,
so if you’ve never seen a free for all food fight
between baby lobsters, come by. Next inspection will
be on the 20th, when we intend to find even more of
the juveniles present.
Patrols:
The issue with the engines has finally been resolved
and we now have both patrol boats operating as normal.
The third boat is also running smoothly, meaning that
I now have a run around boat for maintaining the moorings
or doing any odd jobs needed on the water.
There
were no arrests throughout July, implying that the patrols
are deterring people from poaching within the Park.
However, it is always necessary for us to vary our hours
and alter the patrols at random. In the coming weeks
the boats will be running early mornings, throughout
lunches, and into the evenings in addition to the normal
patrolling hours. This hopefully will catch out those
that have adapted to our hours.
Marine
Infrastructure:
In recent weeks I have been out on the water maintaining
the dive moorings. I installed riser floats on all the
new cement and chain groundings to minimize chain contact
with the coral. This will allow previously damaged coral
to regenerate. In addition, two new groundings have
been set on the South Side near Flowers Bay in preparation
for the impending rainy season. Three or four more will
be installed in the near future so boats will not have
to idle when divers are in the water.
During
the last major storm about 2 months ago, one of the
channel markers went missing. Fortunately for us it
was found and has now been returned. This therefore
completes the sets at the channels opposite Ocean Connections
and Luna Beach. The chains have just been reinforced
and fail safes have been attached. Hopefully the markers
will be able to withstand the coming stormy months.
School
visits:
One of the new projects we are developing within community
of Corozal is the production of booklets made out of
recycled paper. Lidia and a volunteer traveled to the
school in Corozal and taught the kids how to make the
booklets. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 participated
and the final products are relatively impressive. We
hope to have the children continue with the project
and plan to sell the booklets, which make perfect souvenirs
or gifts, in our shop.
Fishermen’s Alliance:
The Fishermen’s Alliance has been moving in leaps
and bounds since their formation in April and is becoming
stronger by the week. The board has been elected and
they were sworn in at the municipality. The Fisherman’s
Alliance is now working with the local fishing community
to develop laws for fishermen operating within the Marine
Park. One of the main issues the Alliance has chosen
to focus on as a means of controlling the impact of
fishing is the introduction of licenses. In addition
there are plans to install fishing moorings within and
outside the reef and to create 4 fish aggregation devices
(FADs), which will be located in deep waters. Catch
and release has been a subject of much conversation,
especially in regards to bill fish and next years fishing
tournament. If the Alliance lives up to expectations,
which we hope they will, they will be the pioneers of
the fishing community of Roatan and set the standard
for others to follow. The Marine Park will be working
closely alongside the Alliance and wishes them all the
best in the future.
Municipal
meetings:
Lidia has had a busy past few weeks with meetings at
the Municipality and with the Patronato. It has been
decided that there will be regular meetings with both
groups to discuss new developments and other relevant
issues regarding West End and the surrounding areas.
What’s
new in the shop:
Other than the usual merchandise on display in the shop,
t-shirts, bracelets, tags, patches and bags, we now
have official Marine Park baseball
caps with “Save the Reef” on the back.
A new natural insect repellent called Nature’s
Veil which is made on the island is now available and
comes in the form of a cream. Soon to arrive in the
office are women’s tank tops with built-in-bras
and beach towels.
Well that’s that for July’s newsletter.
I’m off tomorrow for 3 weeks so will be leaving
the Park in the competent hands of Lidia and Andrea.
Greg will be returning to the island for a month or
so and will be helping with some ongoing projects. The
new staff to replace both the girls is about to be decided
and they will be starting in the next few weeks.
Have
a great month and lets all pray that the talk about
an earlier, longer rainy season is all just rumor.
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