Jamaica?
- Thread starter TreyK
- Start date
jimmy frag
New member
montego bay
montego bay
nope. its all dead. some vary cool cliffs for diving, lots of nurse sharks. coral is all dead though
montego bay
nope. its all dead. some vary cool cliffs for diving, lots of nurse sharks. coral is all dead though
. Thanks for the offer psilver but I think I will just take advantage of all the free drinking instead!Most of the coral around Mobay is dead, but there are still some nice things to see if your expectations are not too high. It's been a few years since my last trip to Jamaica, but I lived there for a while and I remember the Airport Reef, shallow and close to shore, as having plenty of interesting fish to see: angelfish, butterflyfish, tangs, damsels, and many invertebrates. If you are going to be there anyway, it's worth a look. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Dead coral does not mean a barren lifeless seafloor. Any rocky structure close to shore will have things to see and enjoy if the water is calm and clear.
What killed the reefs? Human activity is the simple answer. Greed and stupidity. Dredging, construction, sewage drain off from a large city, siltation, overfishing, and a hundred other causes. Negril, where I once lived for a year, had beautiful shallow and deep water reefs until the construction boom in the 80s and 90s. Hotels and restaurants were squeezed into evey square inch of the Seven Mile and Bloody Bay beaches, superclubs proliferated, mass tourism brought thousands of people, and, as the final straw, a new highway was built from Mobay to Negril, a process that created so much siltation that the inshore reefs were killed within a year.
The offshore reefs declined so severly that the natural wave barriers they provided vanished, bringing wave activity to what had been a glassy smooth lagoon like area. This caused heavy erosion, which the hotels fought by bringing in truckloads of sand, smothering whatever was left. I was there, and saw it happen. A literal paradise, very quickly destroyed. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Mobay's decline started much earlier, but its ecosystem was not as fragile as Negril's. Parts of it have made very slight recoveries as tourism activity has been refocused on other areas in Jamaica. Still, the Mobay waterfront is part of a crowded dirty city. Snorkeling in a few less heavily impacted areas can still be fun, and the offshore diving in some areas is still ok. Unless you remember how it used to be. I can't bear to visit the places I once knew. It's too painful, and causes an unhealthy misanthropic anger along with a deep sense of loss. Jamaica was once, with the possible exception of Cuba, the fairest isle in the Caribbean. That's all gone now. What's left will not be around for much longer, so enjoy it before it vanishes.
The offshore reefs declined so severly that the natural wave barriers they provided vanished, bringing wave activity to what had been a glassy smooth lagoon like area. This caused heavy erosion, which the hotels fought by bringing in truckloads of sand, smothering whatever was left. I was there, and saw it happen. A literal paradise, very quickly destroyed. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Mobay's decline started much earlier, but its ecosystem was not as fragile as Negril's. Parts of it have made very slight recoveries as tourism activity has been refocused on other areas in Jamaica. Still, the Mobay waterfront is part of a crowded dirty city. Snorkeling in a few less heavily impacted areas can still be fun, and the offshore diving in some areas is still ok. Unless you remember how it used to be. I can't bear to visit the places I once knew. It's too painful, and causes an unhealthy misanthropic anger along with a deep sense of loss. Jamaica was once, with the possible exception of Cuba, the fairest isle in the Caribbean. That's all gone now. What's left will not be around for much longer, so enjoy it before it vanishes.
jay13
New member
Snorkeled there in June 2006 and was not impressed. Like everyone said the almighty dollar destroyed the reefs. While driving in their "taxi's" I was amazed that everything was built out of coral rock, and most was not old stuff dug up from the land! High nutrients in the water, inverts and corals lacked, there were some fish and a couple sharks though.....
jimmy frag
New member
there was also a bacterial disease if i remember correctly
ousnakebyte
New member
Well.... not really. We all like to think that, and there are some models out there where this can be an option. Perhaps, if we get there some day where every coral is extinct in the wild, and they only exist in captivity this will be the only option, but releasing something in the wild that has been in captivity no way guarantees success.
Plus, you have to balance that with introducing an invasive species. For example, you would not want to seed Jamaica with Caribbean corals that have had contact with Indo-Pacific corals - you might introduce a non-native zoox to the Caribbean or an unknown pathogen.
That's not to say that zoos and aquariums can't be good backups for their wild counterparts - they absolutely are. But, they hold the worst-case scenario in their hands - that the animal or plant has gone extinct in the wild. We need to alleviate the stressors before we get to that point.
Coral diseases are more prevalent in the Caribbean than anywhere else in the world, and these come in the form of black band, white band, white plague, yellow spot, dark spot, shut-down reaction, etc., etc. - named for how they look. Typically, the disease season starts right around or just after bleaching season - August-September or early October.
The corals bleach in warmer weather, get stressed and immunosuppressed and the disease takes over. There was one study where a bacteria from the human gut was suggested to be the pathogen responsible, but none of the others have had a definitive explanation.
In addition to the development stressors Jamaica has seen, it has been chronically overfished for the better part of 100 years. With no big predators and a reduction in herbivory, it set the stage - along with most of the rest of the Caribbean - for a dramatic loss in coral coverage and a phase shift to algal garden and flattening of the reefs.
Very sad.
Mike
Overfishing is the favorite whipping boy of the funded establishment, which tends to soft pedal the damage caused by commercial development. Overfishing is certainly a factor, but at least in Negril its impact was moderate. I lived there for a year in the early 80s while on sabbatical, and spent a few summers there over the years. I lived with and among fisherman when I was there in the 70s, when the reefs were vibrant and extremely healthy. The impact of the small fishing community on herbivorous fishes was small. There were dense populations of Parrot Fishes.
The decline of Negril's reefs was rapid, and coincided with the construction of superclubs and the massive highway project. This is not a simplistic post hoc analysis. Read the paper by T. J. Goreau 'Coral Reef Health in the Negril Area' (1991). Goreau was president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. Negril's reefs were once regarded as among the finest in the Caribbean. Their rapid destruction was attributed by the study in order of importance to: Sediments, Nutrients from human sources, Boat Damage from dive anchoring, and Bleaching. This is consistent with my observations.
Sediments from massive construction projects were the primary cause of the destruction of Negril's reefs, along with the waste (nutrients) produced by heavy concentrations of people with lavish consumption patterns at the water's edge. I'm sure this is to some extent true in many other places. The Florida Keys, for instance.
The decline of Negril's reefs was rapid, and coincided with the construction of superclubs and the massive highway project. This is not a simplistic post hoc analysis. Read the paper by T. J. Goreau 'Coral Reef Health in the Negril Area' (1991). Goreau was president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. Negril's reefs were once regarded as among the finest in the Caribbean. Their rapid destruction was attributed by the study in order of importance to: Sediments, Nutrients from human sources, Boat Damage from dive anchoring, and Bleaching. This is consistent with my observations.
Sediments from massive construction projects were the primary cause of the destruction of Negril's reefs, along with the waste (nutrients) produced by heavy concentrations of people with lavish consumption patterns at the water's edge. I'm sure this is to some extent true in many other places. The Florida Keys, for instance.
ousnakebyte
New member
I was not meaning to undermine or play down the effects that commercial development has had on Jamaica's or any other country's reefs. The effects and correlations of sedimentation and nutrient runoff with declining reef health are well documented. This, probably more heavily so than other reasons, contributed to the declines - ESPECIALLY when you look at the steep population increases that island has seen in the last 30 years. All I was trying to add - and I think I above I said, "in addition to the development..." - was that fishing pressures are also a cause for concern.
Chronic overfishing is one of the major contributors to declining reef health, what I usually lump into, "the big three":
- Climate change fueling mass bleaching events which fuels disease
- Sedimentation and runoff and nutrient loading, often exacerbated by deforestation or mangrove removal
- Overfishing and destructive fishing
It really is a synergistic effect that has no easy solution.
Vibrant in terms of overall coral coverage, with A. cervicornis dominating the reefscape, but not in terms of large fish coverage - which will play into reef health.
Images from the 70s I have seen from Dr. Nancy Knowlton show virtually no big fish left in and around Discovery Bay - a favorite study site for then-aspiring marine biologists. They did not know back then b/c coral reef science was in its infancy, but on an "untouched reef," large groupers, snappers and sharks should be the majority of fish biomass on a healthy reef in an inverted biomass pyramid. It looked healthy, but they were establishing a new "shifting baseline." It is shifting b/c each new generation that lays eyes on a reef doesn't know how it "should" look. I'm sure it looked healthy to you back then as well - there was coral everywhere, but the fish were already gone.
To be certain, there are other factors at play in various reefs around the world, and it really is a multifaceted attack they are facing. Come back to it time and again, and the three factors listed above will show up.
In Jamaica's case, the mass, unchecked development, combined with the Caribbean's loss of the Diadema urchins, was likely the tipping point for their reefs, but uncontrolled fishing has not helped.
Bonaire has also seen rising ocean temperatures, development (granted, perhaps not on the scale of Jamaica) and the loss of Diadema urchins, but they have also limited fishing activities more than other Caribbean nations/islands. Bonaire has some of the better coral coverage in the Caribbean. But, it is still under threat and declining.
Don't get me wrong. Whenever I hear or read about another huge hotel development happening near a vibrant, healthy reef, I usually cringe b/c of the reasons you listed.
What it all amounts to is this - the closer a coral reef is to human activity, the less healthy it will be. It's a sad fact, but true nonetheless.
Cheers
Mike
Chronic overfishing is one of the major contributors to declining reef health, what I usually lump into, "the big three":
- Climate change fueling mass bleaching events which fuels disease
- Sedimentation and runoff and nutrient loading, often exacerbated by deforestation or mangrove removal
- Overfishing and destructive fishing
It really is a synergistic effect that has no easy solution.
Vibrant in terms of overall coral coverage, with A. cervicornis dominating the reefscape, but not in terms of large fish coverage - which will play into reef health.
Images from the 70s I have seen from Dr. Nancy Knowlton show virtually no big fish left in and around Discovery Bay - a favorite study site for then-aspiring marine biologists. They did not know back then b/c coral reef science was in its infancy, but on an "untouched reef," large groupers, snappers and sharks should be the majority of fish biomass on a healthy reef in an inverted biomass pyramid. It looked healthy, but they were establishing a new "shifting baseline." It is shifting b/c each new generation that lays eyes on a reef doesn't know how it "should" look. I'm sure it looked healthy to you back then as well - there was coral everywhere, but the fish were already gone.
To be certain, there are other factors at play in various reefs around the world, and it really is a multifaceted attack they are facing. Come back to it time and again, and the three factors listed above will show up.
In Jamaica's case, the mass, unchecked development, combined with the Caribbean's loss of the Diadema urchins, was likely the tipping point for their reefs, but uncontrolled fishing has not helped.
Bonaire has also seen rising ocean temperatures, development (granted, perhaps not on the scale of Jamaica) and the loss of Diadema urchins, but they have also limited fishing activities more than other Caribbean nations/islands. Bonaire has some of the better coral coverage in the Caribbean. But, it is still under threat and declining.
Don't get me wrong. Whenever I hear or read about another huge hotel development happening near a vibrant, healthy reef, I usually cringe b/c of the reasons you listed.
What it all amounts to is this - the closer a coral reef is to human activity, the less healthy it will be. It's a sad fact, but true nonetheless.
Cheers
Mike
Last edited:
Mike, I agree with you. Ultimately, people are the problem. There are a few points I'd like to clarify. I'm very familiar with Jamaica. My academic connections with the island are literary and historical, but I've been a diver all my life, and deeply interested in anything connected with the sea.
Negril fisherman were very few in number prior to the 70s because that corner of the island was inaccessible. There was no land access and no roads until the 1960s. A small population lived there, and travel to and from the area was only possible by a lengthy boat trip. Subsistence fishing by a dozen or so fisherman for a population of only a few hundred people was the situation until about 1970. Even by the late 70s there were very few fishermen, and a limited local market. Nothing was exported beyond the borders of Westmoreland Parish. There were plenty of sharks, and a few large groupers. This began to change dramatically in the 80s, as the hotels and restaurants became big consumers of fish and conch, which were almost exterminated. The population of Negril began to expand exponentially as tourists flocked to the new hotels and an army of Jamaicans moved there to find jobs in the tourism industry.
There has been no steep poulation growth in Jamaica. Emigration has kept the population almost constant. in 1990 it was 2.5 million. in 2000 it was about 2.6 million, and in 2010 he population was 2.7 million. The population has not changed significantly in the past half century.
Discovery Bay is virtually a suburb of Montego Bay. Of course it was overfished. That Discovery Bay study has been a bit overused. It's not really representative, though to say so is heresy in an academic community that establishes its own sacred texts. Discovery bay was badly overfished, as were other island areas, but certainly not all parts of the island. Overfishing and the removal of herbivorous fish and larger species is absolutely a problem for many reefs, just as the destruction of Tuna and other large oceanic species by industrialized nations will affect the worlds oceans on a much more massive scale.
There are other threats to Caribbean reefs that are not publicized as much as overfishing. I've seen the massive dust clouds that carry sand and poisonous fertilizers from an increasingly desertified Africa, dropping countless tons of toxic waste on the reefs. The damage is tremendous, and is increasing. Ultimately, it is the presence of too many people that is extinguishing the natural world. We are consuming our planet.
Keep the faith
John
Negril fisherman were very few in number prior to the 70s because that corner of the island was inaccessible. There was no land access and no roads until the 1960s. A small population lived there, and travel to and from the area was only possible by a lengthy boat trip. Subsistence fishing by a dozen or so fisherman for a population of only a few hundred people was the situation until about 1970. Even by the late 70s there were very few fishermen, and a limited local market. Nothing was exported beyond the borders of Westmoreland Parish. There were plenty of sharks, and a few large groupers. This began to change dramatically in the 80s, as the hotels and restaurants became big consumers of fish and conch, which were almost exterminated. The population of Negril began to expand exponentially as tourists flocked to the new hotels and an army of Jamaicans moved there to find jobs in the tourism industry.
There has been no steep poulation growth in Jamaica. Emigration has kept the population almost constant. in 1990 it was 2.5 million. in 2000 it was about 2.6 million, and in 2010 he population was 2.7 million. The population has not changed significantly in the past half century.
Discovery Bay is virtually a suburb of Montego Bay. Of course it was overfished. That Discovery Bay study has been a bit overused. It's not really representative, though to say so is heresy in an academic community that establishes its own sacred texts. Discovery bay was badly overfished, as were other island areas, but certainly not all parts of the island. Overfishing and the removal of herbivorous fish and larger species is absolutely a problem for many reefs, just as the destruction of Tuna and other large oceanic species by industrialized nations will affect the worlds oceans on a much more massive scale.
There are other threats to Caribbean reefs that are not publicized as much as overfishing. I've seen the massive dust clouds that carry sand and poisonous fertilizers from an increasingly desertified Africa, dropping countless tons of toxic waste on the reefs. The damage is tremendous, and is increasing. Ultimately, it is the presence of too many people that is extinguishing the natural world. We are consuming our planet.
Keep the faith
John
ousnakebyte
New member
I also need to clarify above - I wrote that in a hurry before I left work yesterday. By population increase in the last 30 years, I meant primarily the large tourist population increases brought on by all the development. My fault. 
The Caribbean's/west Atlantic's biggest problem is that it is a very small body of water, especially when you compare it with the vast Indo-Pacific, that is essentially ringed by a circle of development that spans Florida to Brazil and up the West Indies. These ecosystems - as resilient as coral reefs can be - just can't keep up with that.
And I also agree with you about the dust storms that travel from Africa - where most people burn their trash. What in the world is settling on reefs that originates almost half a world away? Problem is that it is just very difficult to study something so uncontrollable.
I always tell my students - minimize the local stressors as much as possible so that these ecosystems will (hopefully) have an easier time trying to trying to adapt to the global stressors we are pressing on them.
It's a dire situation, but I do try to keep the faith.
Cheers
Mike
The Caribbean's/west Atlantic's biggest problem is that it is a very small body of water, especially when you compare it with the vast Indo-Pacific, that is essentially ringed by a circle of development that spans Florida to Brazil and up the West Indies. These ecosystems - as resilient as coral reefs can be - just can't keep up with that.
And I also agree with you about the dust storms that travel from Africa - where most people burn their trash. What in the world is settling on reefs that originates almost half a world away? Problem is that it is just very difficult to study something so uncontrollable.
I always tell my students - minimize the local stressors as much as possible so that these ecosystems will (hopefully) have an easier time trying to trying to adapt to the global stressors we are pressing on them.
It's a dire situation, but I do try to keep the faith.
Cheers
Mike
i snorkled a few nice spots just east of mobay that were no where near dead, flatened yes but not even close to dead. the sandals in mobay (not the small original one) has a few nice reefs with some elkhorn coverage, and beautiful low coverage with almost no algae growth. this was about 18 months ago.
A few more miles east and you would have been in 'dead' Discovery Bay. You were probably near Falmouth. There are some nice inshore sites there. Mobay has problems, and in most resort areas you take your life in your hands when snorkeling because of idiots on jet skis who zip over "to see whats up". Jamaicans in motorboats selling trips to the reef, etc. come perilously close to shore (20 feet!) at high speed to attract business. Of course, this is true in most Caribbean tourist destinations. These days I travel to more remote islands, like Dominica, where you can go for days without seeing another tourist, or get seriously lost in the mountainous rainforests that cover most of the island. I still dream in Jamaican, though.
I'm glad you enjoyed Jamaica. I've been in love with the island for most of my life.
I'm glad you enjoyed Jamaica. I've been in love with the island for most of my life.
i usually went to runaway bay my uncle used to own a villa there, and they had a sweet reef within snorkling distance, the outer reef was actualy pretty close about 200 yards and in 30 feet of water so in the boulder sections the top was only about 15 feet below the surface. i went there 4 times in the late 90s early 2000s and it was far better than anything i saw in negril. i might make my 7th trip this summer.
