Monday, May 21, 2007

Reef recreation that doesn't hurt (reefs)

Are we loving our coral reefs to death? Here's something that might help, a set of standards for coral reef recreation that will reduce the footprint of tourism on coral reefs.

Rick MacPherson over at Malaria, bedbugs, sea lice, and sunsets directs us to this groundbreaking new piece of work from CORAL, a first for the marine tourism world. It's a handbook for safe tourism on the Meso-American reef that extends from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to Belize to Honduras. Here's hoping for wide and effective implementation and healthy coral reefs.

I've been there and it's fantastic. I enjoyed swimming out to the reef from the Hotel Ojo de Aqua in Puerto Morelos . Of course, maybe it was so great because it's where my wife and I decided to get married, after a long naked midnight swim in the warm, warm water from a perfect deserted beach.

2 comments:

Up Welng said...

mark...
you'll be happy to know that long naked midnight swims with a significant other in warm mesoamerican waters is completely sustainable...

Hodad said...

yo Rick, i can high 5 that remark,
especially here in El Salvador or caye Caulker in Belize, my fav for midnight swims, ahem
ok, this whale thing one reason they are dying is this!!!!!!!!!
Ambassador seafoods is massively seing,trawling for squat lobster off of El Salvador, and Pacifdic Central America and then selling see thir site recently the guy for certification for MSC in Guate,ala wanted to meet me in ES he told me was going to see about certifying them as 'sustianable'
humm, another reason MSC is INEFFECTIVE it seems to me
what do whales eat, especially blues, duh? squat lobster
go figure
think USA arrogant,greedy FAT+=OBESE folks give a 'squat'?
of course not oif they can get their bellies full of 'cheap squat lobster
not my focus to deal with these folks, someone else, i have enough problems with these gold miner assholes [soon to be fish bait] giving me threats, and what does gold mining do for water quality, and want to know how close these gold mines in ES are the Los Cobanos?
ask me
wish more read your blog, but i doubt it, escpecially USA people, too cushy the life with cell phones and vid games and SUV's etc, and go the grocery stores here everyone[not quite but at least 85%] are f...... FAT!