As
someone who is interested in botany, I spend a lot of time being told (and
telling other people) to look up. Look up! Notice the shapes of the individual
trees, and then the canopies. Look up at the leaves, pay attention to the
venation, the orientation. Look at the epiphytes, perched precariously on the
branches of the trees above you. Look up at the sky in between the leaves, at
the birds that disperse the seeds, and at the sun that powers the whole
machine! Very, very rarely do I feel inclined to look down, but this week, at Bocas
del Toro in Panama, I gained that new perspective.
We
burst out of the tangle of mangroves on our zippy speedboat, to open water. Beyond
the rushing water, we caught glimpses of shapes that disappeared too quickly
for us to make out what they were, making us more and more curious about what
we would find under the surface. When the twelve of us finally spilled out of
the boat and into Pete’s reef, it was as if the world had flipped – suddenly we
were at the highest point, staring down, at a vast and beautiful new ecosystem.
Scorpionfish clung to rocks, damselfish defended their territory, parrotfish
chomped on algae, annelid worms spread their filters like peacock feathers.
Corals and sponges of every colour caught ripples of sun, and I imagined the
zooxanthellae churning away, photosynthesizing to make food for the coral
polyps that it lived in. It felt almost ethereal to be staring down at it like
this.
In
between snorkeling sessions, visiting professors Beatriz and Davinia taught us
about the processes occurring on the reef. About the symbiosis between
zooxanthellae and corals, the production of calcium carbonate, about the
importance of mangrove systems as fish nurseries and safe spaces. Every time I
learned something new, I felt like I could dive back and see it in action. At
home I live by the ocean, and I scramble around in the rock pools every chance
I get, but in Panama I really felt like I saw
the marine world through new eyes. Learning and snorkeling and learning more
and snorkeling more gave me the opportunity to tie all my loose threads of
knowledge together, and generate a more holistic understanding of the reef
ecosystem.
One
sad consequence of an enhanced understanding of coral reefs, though, is an
enhanced understanding of the risks they face. We traveled to Bocas del Toro
town, a buzzing tourist hub that has experienced uncontrolled development, and
overexploits the nearby reefs for hotels, transport, and water activities.
Sewage systems are poor, rubbish washes into the sea, and we witnessed the
algal blooms and the trash nestled in between corals on the sea floor as
confirmation of this fact. What’s more, all around the world, carbon emissions
are increasing the temperature and the acidity of the oceans, jeopardizing the
coral symbioses that build and sustain the reefs. Now, looking down at the
reef, I appreciate it more for its functioning and diversity, but I also appreciate
the urgency of the conservation efforts. We must look down at the problems
reefs face, and quickly enact solutions.
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