Bay Islands reefs OK?

[John Ware]

Dear Coral List,

Tom Bright recently stated that the rumors of the death of Belize reefs
may have been exaggerated and opined that the same might be true of the
Bay Islands of Honduras.  I have been monitoring a section of reef on
the island of Roatan for the past 10+ years.  This section was selected
based on the assumption of high human impact because of increasing
sediment loading due to on-shore construction near the site.

My last visit to this reef was in April of this year and, while I do not
have a complete analysis of the data, there has been no apparent
degradation of the reef in general nor any significant coral mortality
over the past 10 years, and certainly nothing in the last 2 years.

I am monitoring in a single location, but my superficial observations
over the past 15 years indicate the reefs around Roatan are holding up
well.

If anyone has other observations on Roatan or the other Bay Islands, I
would like to hear from them.

John

-- 
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     *                       John R. Ware, PhD                   *
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