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We dropped anchor
for the morning after crossing overnight
to a turquoise shoal in the midst of a
deep blue sea, the horizon flat and
smooth and unperturbed for nearly all of
its 360 degree circumference. The only
blemish was a distant uninhabited cay,
low on the horizon, quite unobtrusive.
Grabbing my
mask, fins, transect tape and dive
slate, I jumped over the low rail
of the Indies Trader and swam for
shallower reefs, eyeing the
solitary great barracuda which had
risen out of the depths to follow
me and mark my progress towards
the reef. Eerie. Kicking lazily
about, I finally settled on a
healthy stretch of reef in 3m of
water, ran out my tape, and
started my survey. Surfacing
every minute or so, I couldn’t
help but float at the surface,
with only my eyes and snorkel
peeking out, and while slowly
spinning myself, all the way
around, totally awed by the
immensity of this ocean. |
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Blue water
everywhere, my horizon interrupted by
only the tattooed hull of the Indies
Trader to the west, the feelings of
intense smallness and isolation were
calmed by the bright and beautiful ship.
In the opposite direction, the
feathering lip of a beautiful breaking
wave loomed not more than 100m
distant.
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Returning my
attention to the reef below, I
continued my survey, constantly
appreciative of the wonderful
logic employed by nature to make
such a complicated ecosystem
function so smoothly. Healthy
coral heads provided the habitat
for numerous invertebrates–sponges,
gorgonians, and worms–which
filtered the water clear, allowing
the sunlight to reach down to the
coral. Fish, madly colored fish,
swarmed the surface of the living
reef, taking advantage of its
contours and ins and outs,
feeding, sleeping and breeding in
its nooks and crannies. And
floating above it all, is a
skinny, positively buoyant human
being tallying everything.
Fish, madly colored fish, swarmed
the surface of the living reef,
taking advantage of its contours
and ins and outs, feeding,
sleeping and breeding in its nooks
and crannies. And floating above
it all, is a skinny, positively
buoyant human being tallying
everything.
Swimming back to the ship, I
swapped my 100m tape measure for a
2.8m single fin, and paddling back
towards the shoal, joined the
small party of crew and surfers at
the peak which was wrapping so
flawlessly around the curve of the
submerged reef. The group, all
grown men, Texans, were whooping
and hollering like groms, and we
surfed until we couldn’t move
our arms, and were salvaged by the
crew in the tin boat, and returned
to the warm deck of the Trader. |
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The utter isolation of this reef
highlighted for me the importance of
reef conservation and management: an
entire ecosystem’s existence depending
on the health of the coral, far beyond
the obvious reach of human contact. Yet
not completely cut off. I still found a
small amount of rubbish on the bottom:
algae covered bottles, and a knotted
mess of rope- reminders that if we are
not careful to respect this planet and
its coral reefs, they will disappear for
good, taking with them the algae, the
fish, and the perfect, hollow right that
we surfed there, with only each other as
witnesses, in the middle of the
Caribbean.
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