SCUBAZOO Q&A

1.  Can you briefly explain the crucial role that reefs play in our oceans?  Is protecting them as urgent to the planet’s survival as protecting the rainforests?

Like rainforests, coral reefs are incredible reserves of biodiversity and, as we have only recently begun to appreciate, biodiversity is vital to the functioning of entire ecosystems.  We simply don’t know what effect the wholesale destruction of tropical reefs will have on the marine ecosystem.  But perhaps more importantly to humanity, coral reefs provide food for huge numbers of people in the tropics – without careful management of reef fisheries, millions of people will have to turn to more destructive methods of fishing to get their daily protein.

2.  Is there a particular reef that is more vital to the ocean's ecosystem than others – like the South American rainforest is to the atmosphere?

Tropical coral reefs are very widespread, and it is nearly impossible to say one is more important than another.  However, as scientists explore further, new areas have been found to represent some of the most biodiverse locations of any marine habitat.  In West Papua, Indonesia, the numbers of fish and coral species have broken records.  On a single dive, 283 species of fish were recorded on a reef at Cape Kris, making a total of 970 for the entire region, with more being found all the time.  565 different species of coral have been identified in West Papua so far.   In comparison, the entire Caribbean has a meager 55 species.  Areas such as West Papua represent the last bastions of marine biodiversity and are in urgent need of extensive protection.

3.  Can you explain how the use of cyanide to capture fish threatens the biodiversity of coral reefs? 

Following the economic boom of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the demand for live fish in the restaurants of Southeast Asia reached incredible levels, and is still increasing to this day.  Sodium cyanide has always been a cheap and easy method of choice for catching fish alive.  The fish are stunned by the chemical, collected by fishermen, and then placed in holding tanks to recover before being shipped off to the fish markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, and China.  However, the chemical kills the young fish, stresses the larger fish so that many die in transit, and most lamentably, kills the coral itself.  Without the coral, all of the other tiny animals that shelter in the reef die – destroying the base of an entire ecosystem, and thereby preventing the very fish that are targeted by the cyanide fishermen from ever repopulating an area.  The demand for live fish has not abated and as reefs continue to be overfished and destroyed, the use of cyanide has spread throughout Southeast Asia; combined with the booming populations of the region, this insidious problem is one of the biggest threats faced by tropical reefs today.

4.  How did you choose which reefs to highlight in the book?

Most of the reefs highlighted in the book are areas well known for their biodiversity.  They are places that we already knew very well or were able to visit during the months spent putting the book together.  We aimed to get a good balance, featuring some of the world’s best examples of tropical reefs and the other different habitats covered in the book.  However there were certainly a couple of places that we were very excited to cover.  The Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua have recently be shown to have the highest marine biodiversity of any reef, and the Poor Knights in the New Zealand probably offers the best sub-tropical diving in the world.  Both these areas were high up on our list of places to include!

5.  What, in your opinion, is the best reef for scuba enthusiasts to visit?  Do you have any recommendations for someone just beginning to dive?

To be honest, there isn’t one particular reef that I would recommend over any other.  The best thing for any diver or marine enthusiast is to get involved in his or her local area.  The more people that visit, and hopefully protect, their own coastlines, the more likely that these places will survive for future generations.  For someone just starting to dive, the best advice is to find an instructor you are comfortable with and who is enthusiastic about the marine environment and conservation – there is nothing worse than an instructor who is more concerned about getting a big group through the course in as quick a time as possible.

6.  You have dedicated your life to filming and preserving reefs worldwide.  Was there anything or event in particular that sparked this passion in you?

I have always had an interest in the marine world but it wasn’t until I was 18, when I joined an Earthwatch expedition to Belize, that I realized that marine conservation was what I wanted to do with my life.  For 2 months I dived and snorkeled on Belize’s incredible barrier reef, witnessing for the first time the incredible diversity, the stunning array of life, that could be found on a tropical reef.  However, what really inspired me was realizing how many people depend on reefs for their livelihood, and how easy it was to overfish a particular area.  The only conch shells I saw where in piles on the beach, discarded after being caught for their meat.  The local fishermen would go out from the islands, work all day, and return with small catches of young fish.  It was, and still is, very obvious that without some sort of management, reefs cannot survive the commercial pressure that increasing human populations place on them.