Reef monitoring is international effort
Their interests are the reef systems — how they function and react to disasters, both natural and manmade. Led by Monitoring Specialist, Doctor Patricia Almada, twenty-seven trainee biologists of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef Project’s Monitoring Programme visited the Belize barrier reef today for an inspection tour. With participants from Belize, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, Doctor Almada says the effort has to be a regional one.
Dr. Patricia Almada, Monitoring Specialist
“You cannot separate what happens to the reef, the sea grasses and so on. Neither can you separate the flora or the fauna. The discharges that are coming down the rivers, the effluence from coastal development, tourism, agriculture, industrial development of any other kind, they all sometimes come to the sea without being treated and they accumulate in some of the organisms living in there. So to actually get a measure of the health of the reef, you cannot look at it from the national point of view in an open system like this, because there are no political boundaries out there in the sea. So what happens in one country may well affect another one because of the currents.”
Almada says while the regional effort is challenging, it is possible through careful coordination.
Dr. Patricia Almada
“We have one national committee in each country. We also have a regional committee, which gets together as necessary to look at it within the region, across the region, and we try to look at it from all angles. We also have a project coordinating unit, which has headquarters in Belize, we have a project director and four technical teams.”
“We need answers for management in the short term, the medium term and the long term. So if a certain activity on land is affecting the reef, you cannot wait for ten years to influence management.”
The project has four major components: marine protected areas, the establishment of a regional environmental information system, sustainable use, and public education. The current course ends on Friday.
