Empower Jamaican Fishermen to Restore Marine-Life

Compliance with our no-take fishing zone continues to be an ongoing challenge but our enforcement efforts are constant, thanks to our fisher-cum-warden patrol team who police the sanctuary ten hours a day.

This summer, we trained three new young divers in PADI Open Water, thanks to our partnership with Shaw Op Co. and Couples Resorts. The successful trainees have since been brought on board our coral gardening team. We are excited to provide new opportunities and hopeful that our new team members will see our projects into the future. 

This autumn, Caribbean reefs are undergoing a fast-tracked extinction event. This September, an El Niño related heat wave, in combination with record high temperatures due to human activity, caused Jamaica’s reefs to totally bleach within days. With no signs of temperatures dropping below 30 degrees Celsius, most colonies of our target species began to die off in early October. 

This is why we have taken it upon ourselves to locate as many unbleached corals as possible, even if it means we have to swim for miles at a time beyond the boundaries of our Marine Park. This essential work will enable us to pursue our mission to regrow corals and breed stronger coral populations, prioritizing the genetic traits of the newly mapped colonies.

In September, the White River coral gardener team put down a novel shading system to reduce the impact of solar radiation which, in combination with the record breaking heat, can cause the corals to bleach. Our fishers-cum-coral gardeners have done a terrific job of getting all our nursery corals to safety. The experiment has given mixed results so far, with some of the tougher genets hanging in there. Check out our latest video on Instagram to follow this story.

On September 1^st, we hosted our annual back-to-school event. Fifty children from neighbouring communities joined us to learn about marine life in the sanctuary and the importance of conservation and they even got to set up their own scuba gear. Through these interactions, we hope to inspire as many youths as possible to pursue hobbies or careers relating to their natural underwater heritage.