Empower Jamaican Fishermen to Restore Marine-Life

Greetings from the Sanctuary!

Since the new year, our team of conservationists, local spearfishers and volunteers has now finished mapping the parishes of St. Ann and Trelawney in their entirety in search of surviving corals to serve as parent stock to see the reproduction of this species through the next decade or century. Last weekend we found 20 unique strains over a 12 km stretch and got samples of each to safety. We are now extending our mapping east to see who else we can find. See the results here! We started restocking nurseries in March with material sourced from the Ocho Rios Marine Park and set 201 fragments to culture out of circa 6 lineages but around April 20 things started to pale island wide. This is a bit alarming because these are corals which didn't even stress during 18 weeks above bleaching threshold and it's only May so we're keeping an eye on them and shading them while hoping for another window to resume propagating before severe bleaching sets in which is anticipated for late August.

We have continued our outreach program with the schools in the community, to educate them on the importance of the environment and encourage them to become future ocean leaders in their homes and communities. As the school year is coming to a close, so is the program. They are doing their final presentations and also taking part in a diorama activity, where they will showcase what they learned and have an opportunity to win a book scholarship for the next school year. The students will also be taken on a trip to another marine protected area so they are able to see how diverse the environment is and what other work is being done.

We have engaged the fishermen and community members right beside us at White River, as we have noticed several plastic bottles along the side of the road and in the area. At the sanctuary we have a recycling bin and as a little bit of encouragement we have offered a total of $15 JMD per plastic bottle that each person takes in. Hopeful that we will get funding, we are looking to start our Hills To Ocean project in which we aim to show community members from the upper watershed how to dispose of their garbage properly and let them know what happens when garbage is dumped in the river and how it can affect them, even though they are so far from the ocean.

Thank you friends and ocean enthusiasts for your support and don't forget to look out for our newsletter and updates on social media. 

The team at WRFS