(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Daily Bucket - changes on the reef at Little Cayman island [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-22 Parrotfish on reef, Little Cayman island Little Cayman Island, British West Indies April 2023 Having just returned from a small island in the Caribbean, I’ll post a bucket (maybe more) about what I saw of the nature there. Today’s report is a brief snapshot of some of changes we saw. We were only in the water to view reef activity for a few hours a day over two weeks, a tiny sampling of course. And there’s more to report than fits in a bucket. But this will give you a sense of my impressions. First, some context. Little Cayman is one of the two “Sister Islands” located about 80 miles east of Grand Cayman, the much larger island where offshore banking, cruise ships and crowds are concentrated. The health of ecosystems on Grand can’t compare to the Sister Islands, which is why we spend our two weeks a year on Little. The Cayman Islands, south of Cuba and west of Jamaica, were uninhabited until the last couple of centuries, though visited by European ships since the 1500s (which nearly hunted the local sea turtles to extinction). Then “a variety of people settled on the islands: pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and slaves. The majority of Caymanians are of African, Welsh, Scottish or English descent, with considerable interracial mixing.” (wiki). Little Cayman, 10 miles long by 1 mile wide, is populated by about 200 mostly expats who are predominantly employed in support of scuba diving tourism there. There are four dive ops. Diving can be a negative influence on reefs but most divers who come to Little are pretty serious about it, and care about the quality of the reefs, from what I’ve seen. Not cruise ship casual entertainment. One worrisome change on the reef we saw since we were last here in 2019 has been an increase in the invasive lionfish. These Pacific Ocean natives were released into the Caribbean in the late 1980s, proliferated explosively, and have been decimating local reef fish populations across the whole basin. Lionfish first reached the Cayman Islands in 2009, and all the dive ops on Little Cayman jumped into action, implementing a culling program: dive staff went out every Wednesday, ultimately removing 5000 lionfish a year, which reduced their numbers dramatically around the island. In the years before Covid we saw one or two over our two-week stays. But this year we saw six, most of them big. The country shut their borders completely in March 2020, and all the dive ops had to lay off their staff since no tourists could come. The culling program was greatly reduced, and it seems clear the lionfish population has rebounded to some extent. Almost always tourism has a negative effect on ecosystems but in this weird case it’s the opposite: tourists—>dive staff—>lionfish culling—>more native reef fish. Like most places, the Cayman Islands juggles development vs environmental integrity. Even though it welcomes cruise ships and building projects, the government has actually put a great deal of effort into protecting local ecosystems, both on land and in the ocean. Marine Protection Areas (MPAs) restrict fishing and make a significant difference. Some private organizations also work to protect ecosystems. For example, the Cayman Islands National Trust buys up land to prevent development encroachment, and the Central Caribbean Marine Institute raises and outplants corals, among its other roles. Global warming of the oceans, acidification and sea level rise are threatening coral reefs everywhere, as we know. But local action can help to slow the damage to some extent, and Cayman reefs are showing resiliency, especially in the government established MPAs. On Little Cayman, a significant portion of the fringing reef is in MPAs. Since the establishment of Marine Protection Areas, the following improvements have been measured on Little Cayman reefs: CCMI’s survey data also shows that while fish biomass (total weight of the fish population) fluctuates from year to year, there is significantly higher biomass inside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) throughout those fluctuations. This suggests that while areas inside and outside the MPAs are impacted by environmental change, this impact is buffered inside the MPAs, allowing more fish and larger fish to thrive. In 2021, fish biomass was 40% higher inside of the MPAs than outside. For many years, CCMI researchers observed a decline in grouper density (quantity of fish), despite no-take zones at Nassau grouper spawning aggregation sites in season from 2003, until the Cayman Islands enacted greater protections in 2016 aimed at recovery of the population. Local protections include a seasonal blanket closure on Nassau grouper fishing, bag limits, gear restrictions, and size limits. The effects of these protections have been reflected in the 2021 CCMI surveys, as the grouper population density (all grouper species) continues to rebound. Parrotfish density has increased by 47% from 1999 to 2021, which is also a positive indicator for reef health as they are key herbivores that feed on algae, which competes for space on the reef with coral. The effects are reflected in the overall health state of the reefs as 90% of surveyed reefs were classified as in a “good” (40%), “good+” (40%), or “very good”(10%) state based upon coral cover. This is an encouraging indicator, as fewer sites were classed as “fair” than in recent years, and no sites were classed as “poor”. Central Caribbean Marine Institute Nassau grouper However the corals themselves are struggling, even though the improvement in parrotfish and other reef fish has helped. While coral cover remains relatively high, aided by recovering fish populations, CCMI’s 2021 survey data also demonstrates the vulnerability of corals to increasing threats of climate change and disease, for as they are slow-growing and unable to move (as many fish may do to seek refuge from stress events), they are not able to rebound or respond to stress events as quickly. There has been a shift in the species of coral that dominate the reefs of Little Cayman from larger, boulder coral species to smaller, faster-growing species. This shift away from boulder coral species is reflective of a trend seen throughout the Caribbean region. The 2021 surveys also recorded a 60% decrease in the size of corals surveyed, reflective of the shift in coral species. The shift from larger species to smaller species has an impact on the overall function of the coral reefs as the larger boulder species build up the massive reef structure that is so necessary and which provides the critical wave break that protects coastlines in Little Cayman from storms, which are becoming increasingly powerful as an effect of climate change. 🐠 We’ve been visiting Little Cayman since 2016 and have seen some changes even in that time, especially after the long gap since 2019 (when Covid shut down the country). Notably, there’s been an inspiring uptick in sharks. While Nurse sharks have never been uncommon, I never saw a single Grey Reef shark until this year. We had six sightings in two weeks! and one, a baby! These sharks cruise along the edge of the reef wall and across sandy flats searching for fish, lobster and squid. Groupers — slow-growing, now protected — are getting huge, which would be attractive prey for sharks. There are plenty of triggerfish and other reef fish. We saw more lobsters than on any previous visit. The following are some GoPro videos and stills I took on this trip. A couple of Grey Reef shark encounters: . Good-sized Grouper: . Lobsters were abundant, sometimes even wandering out and about. Usually they hide in crevices. Caribbean Spiny lobster . Turtle populations are doing pretty well. We saw Hawksbills on pretty much every dive, and we also came across a gigantic Loggerhead turtle once. Turtles cruise around the coral reef grazing, and seem to have no fear of humans. This one below literally squeezed between our group of divers and the wall. . There are lots of reef fish of many kinds. They all have different niches, being various types of grazers, plankton feeders, carnivores. Biodiversity is key to habitat resilience. . The coral reefs around Little Cayman are doing about as well as can be expected given the problems of global ocean decline. We’ve dived in many parts of the Caribbean, and this spot is among the best. The low human population, limited development, and active protection by government and NGOs gives these reefs a chance. 🦀 THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS. WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS 🦠 Overcast but warming into the upper 40s in the PNW islands today. Temps are starting to hint at getting closer to normal. 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