FEATURE CORAL SOS
ABOVE: In Tela, there is a high
diversity of coral species competing
for space on the reef
IMAGE: Nicole HelgasonTo gather this collection, I dived in
the Cayman Islands, the Dominican
Republic, and Honduras. It was
interesting to compare the diversity
of coral between regions and within
different habitats. My hands-down
favourite location this year was
Honduras, and this was the spot
I found the biggest, brightest, and
healthiest corals.
When most people think of diving
in Honduras, the sites that come to
mind are the Bay Islands of Roatán and
Útila. The islands are surrounded by
deep walls no more than a kilometre
and a half offshore, and the nutrient-
rich current feed the reef, providing
exceptional visibility for scuba diving.
While I enjoyed the diving in Roatán,
it wasn’t until I headed over to the
mainland that I found a one-of-a-kind
Caribbean reef in Tela.
TELA, HONDURAS
Tela breaks all the rules when it
comes to Caribbean corals, but in the
best way possible. While the average
coral coverage in the Caribbean is
around 17 percent, Tela clocks in
at over 70 percent, and that doesn’t
account for the multiple layers of coral
on the reef.
To the untrained eye, Tela falls
short when it comes to what most
divers are looking for – the water
can be murky with just 10 metres of
visibility on a good day. There aren’t big
schools of fish, manta rays or whale
sharks, and the boat ride is a minimum
of 25 minutes out to the reef. But for
coral lovers such as myself, Tela is a
true paradise unlike anything else in
the Caribbean.
The coral reef in Tela is located
inside a large bay 38 kilometres
wide. The reef starts shallow around
12 metres with coral-covered ridges
and sandy valleys around 16 metres
deep. If you head northeast, the ridges
drop off with rocky ledges to 20 metres,
and then nothing but a sandy bottom.
But for some reason, the corals
here are unreal, some colonies are
estimated to be more than 500 years
old, and Tela is easily one of the
healthiest reefs in the Caribbean.
If you’re looking for Tela in a
guidebook, chances are you won’t
find it. The coral reef in Tela was only
discovered eight years ago, and there
is very little tourism or diving within
the bay. In fact, there is only one small
dive shop, part of the Tela Marine
Research Center, which offers scuba
diving in the Bay.
What’s exciting about Tela is the
unusually high number of black
long-spined sea urchins, Diademaantillarum. These spiny echinoderms
are the perfect reef cleanup crew, with
a voracious appetite for algae.
Before 1980, the urchins covered
the entire Caribbean. But in 1983, the
urchins underwent a mass mortality
and populations plummeted by as
much as 97 percent. Thus, a leading
theory on the reef’s exceptional
health is attributed to the abundance
of Diadema inhabiting the reef.
Researchers in Tela are studying
ways to rear sea urchins and
reintroduce them to degraded
Caribbean reefs as a novel approach
to ecological restoration.
After a month of diving in Tela,
I collected thousands of images, and
it took several months to organise,
identify, and explain each species.
Now that I have covered Caribbean
corals, I am ready to switch oceans.
In 2018, I will start my journey
documenting Pacific corals, and with
hundreds more than the Caribbean,
hopefully the corals are around long
enough for me to complete this goal!
I want to make referencing corals
online and searching for them
underwater an enjoyable experience.
My work focuses on highlighting coral
diversity through my photography,
including how to spot rare, unusual,
and unique coral specimens amongst
the crowd. Corals are arguably the
most important animal in the ocean,
and they deserve our attention.
http://www.reefdivers.io