Welcome to the
Roatan Marine Park’s June newsletter
While May’s newsletter seemed
somewhat of biblical proportion, spanning 4 pages on
word, this month I’ll try and trim a few layers
off and make it shorter. As expected, June was a relatively
busy month in both dive shops and the office, which
I’ll now try and summarise in a dramatic but less
time imposing fashion.
Reef Check
June saw the arrival of Reef Check to
the island, an organization whose goals are to educate
the public about the value of reef and their inhabitants,
create a global network of trained volunteers, to facilitate
sustainable solutions, and to stimulate local community
action to protect reefs worldwide. The workshop was
hosted by Ruben Torres, director of Reef Check for the
Mesoamerican region and was attended by DMs and DMTs
from local dive shops. They were taught about reef species
identification, coral reef threats, climate change,
ecological significance and human interactions with
marine ecosystems. After a day of classroom sessions
everyone was eager to get wet and apply their newly
found knowledge. After an initial practice run at El
Aquario, a real survey was conducted at Light House
and the information gathered has been forwarded to REEF
check. To learn more check out www.reefcheck.org
Coral Reef Alliance Workshop
Rich Wilson returned to Roatan to host
the final Coral Reef Alliance Workshop in mid June which
spanned 2 evenings. The turnout was relatively good
with representatives from dive shops, the Fishermen’s
Alliance and hotel owners attending one or both nights.
CORAL has been working on Voluntary Standards for Marine
Recreation within the Mesoamerican region for the past
few years and has finally published their findings.
Businesses within the marine recreation sector from
Belize, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala have worked in
conjunction with CORAL to create general standards for
scuba diving, snorkeling and recreational boat operations.
Booklets on standards are available in Spanish and English
at the Marine Park office.
Water Quality Monitoring
The water monitoring project is finally
underway and 7 sites along West Bay, West End, Mud Hole,
Corozal and Palmetto Beach have been selected for routine
inspection. The Park is monitoring for indicators such
as nitrates, nitrites, phosphorus, water temperature,
Ph and fecal coliforms, to gauge water quality. The
aim of this project is to create a water quality database
within the Marine Park and make this information available
publicly through our website.
Lobster Project
Dr. Mark Butler visited Roatan at the
end of June and initiated a new project studying planktonic
spiny lobster postlarvae (organisms just beginning to
settle out of the water column). The goal of the lobster
recruitment program is to provide consistent and compatible
data from sites throughout Mesoamerican Barrier Reef
System and to develop partnerships with local marine
science and management personnel. Eight catchment devices
have been positioned within the lagoons around West
End and will be monitored for the next 12 months following
the lunar cycle (every 1st quarter).
Patrols
Currently we are having issues with our
big boat and the Silent Avenger has become the Going
No Where Avenger. We are currently waiting on a new
part for the electric engine from the States. The petrol
engine which completes this hybrid boat is also out
of action, but these problems should all be rectified
soon and the patrols functioning as normal.
In June the patrols made 2 separate
arrests around the Mud Hole area, imprisoning the offenders
and confiscating the spears and gaffs. While on a weekend
patrol near Palmetto Bay, the small boat was met by
an armada of armed dories. These fishermen were intent
on collecting conch, lobster and fish and by no means
would a single policeman or patrol boat scare them off.
There were over 10 dories present and 20 persons in
the water. Some were co-operative while others simply
flipped their dories, sending their quarry into the
water. The policeman on board was able to confiscate
4 homemade spearguns but making any arrests was impossible.
While Palmetto is beyond our official boundary, it has
become apparent that poachers are moving further down
along the coast towards the Park where the waters are
more abundant with marine life. Even though the whole
of the Bay Islands are protected under Honduran Law,
our patrol boats with the help of the national police
are the only persons enforcing the laws.
Schools education
Lidia has been doing a great job with
the education program, visiting schools around Roatan
and teaching the kids about the reefs and their inhabitants.
Thanks once again to Kevin and Mario for enabling the
Park to transport the kids from the schools out to the
reef.
Employment opportunity
With the sad departure of both Lidia
and Andrea in the beginning of September, we are currently
searching for replacements. Having placed a job description
on Coral List, we have been inundated with resumes,
but are still searching for further applicants. If interested
please send your resume and a covering letter. On a
lighter note, Greg is going to be returning to the island
in August and will be helping out at the Park while
I go back home to visit the family. It will be great
to have him back and we look forward to his homecoming.
As promised I’ve kept the newsletter
short and sweet but have gone over the major occurrences
from the last month. Hope you have enjoyed reading the
letter and once again we would like to thank all our
supporters for their help.
If anyone has any questions drop by
any time, email us at roatanmarinepark@yahoo.com
or give us a call at 3349-4138, 445-4206,
445-4208
Respect the Reef.
Nick, Lidia, and Andrea
For additional information about WWF
and all of the amazing things that they are doing worldwide
for all of us, visit http://www.wwf.org
Check out the Coral Reef Alliance and
discover how they are helping Protected Areas worldwide
at http://www.coralreefalliance.org
Discover how Project AWARE is "Conserving
underwater environments through education, advocacy
and action" at http://www.projectaware.org
If you want to know more about fish
you see in the park, visit www.fishbase.org, which has
an index of almost 30,000 species of fish.
If you want to know more about the reefs,
go to www.reefbase.org which contains global information
regarding coral reefs.
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