Today we were introduced to the Pacific by a group of guides from a local ecotourism company. We launched from Playa Uvita in the morning and headed to isla del Cano biológico reserve to go snorkeling. Along the way we saw lots of sea creatures. A bryde whale was spotted in the distance by its water spout. We moved closer and got one good look at the whale before it moved on. Close by we saw a flock of birds and a pod of dolphins hunting together. Our captain moved us closer to investigate and some of the dolphins lead the boat for a while. Soon after we found a pair on sea turtles.
After an hour and a half trip on the water we madee it to the isle del cano and jumped in the water with our mask snorkel and fins.
The underwater ecosystem was still very alive and the water was clear. However it was clear that there was once much more living coral then there is now. One of the unseen and largely unknown effects of the greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere is coral bleaching. We release a tremendous amount of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. much of that Carbon is absorbed by the oceans and is in constant equilibrium with the air above it. More CO2 in the air pushes the equilibrium to the right. The net effect is ocean acidification. Acidic condition makes corals unable to lay down their calcium carbonate backbone effectively killing them. We are starting to see negative effects of climate change on land but the has already felt them for some time :( |
We returned to Uvita beach and had an amazing lunch prepared for us, spent some time playing on the beach then headed back out on the water to snorkel around two groups of coral heads that were right off shore.
We finished out our day back at the hotel with dinner and a talk by Amy from Geoporter on how her group uses GIS technologies the empower the local community. She used there clean streets clean water projects as an example of how mapping trash densities in the community can be used to effect policy
Pura Vida!
David
Pura Vida!
David