Caribbean Islands – Take Licking and Keep on Ticking? We Hope!
It’s been a hell of a year for the Caribbean – earthquakes, tropical storms, oil spills and now coral bleaching.
According to the NOAA Coral Reef Watch monitoring system, coral bleaching is likely in the Caribbean in 2010. With temperatures above-average all year, NOAA’s models show a strong potential for bleaching in the southern and southeastern Caribbean through October that could be as severe as in 2005 when over 80 percent of corals bleached and over 40 percent died at many sites across the Caribbean. Scientists are already reporting coral bleaching at several Caribbean sites and severe bleaching has been reported from other parts of the world.
Tropical storm and potential hurricane Mathew (#15 so far this year) is spinning through the Caribbean Islands. Like many, I am hoping that Haiti avoids a direct hit this year as they continue rebuilding efforts from the series of earthquakes.
Having been a commercial lobster fisherman in the Caribbean earlier in life, I am a big fan of the Caribbean and its natural wonders. I am hoping that this ecosystem along with the rest of planet earth has many more thousands of millennia ahead of it – healthy ones to be sure.
The waters, islands and beaches of the Caribbean are some of the best jewels of the Americas.
