It is a beautiful March, and both the sky and the ocean are blue. With an incredible jungle and ocean ecosystem on our doorstep and a love for nature that we all share, we know that you are enjoying it as much as us, at least on land. Which has us thinking out loud, “Where are the scuba divers in our local community?” We are actively trying to recruit divers, not just to “fun dive” around the area but to assist us in our mission to restore the reef and make a difference. So, where are you? We are working on building our coral restoration army and we are still looking for volunteers. I know many of you dive, or have been diving in the past but there are also a lot of people here who have yet to try out this amazing sport. So, to tackle this, and maybe inspire some of you, I thought I would look at some of the most common myths surrounding scuba diving to see if we can persuade some of you to take that leap and get into the water.
It’s been a beautiful beginning of the year and we are enjoying the sunshine and exploring the oceans. One of our focuses as scuba divers here in Quepos, is to be ambassadors to the ocean, bringing awareness to our local community about the state of our oceans and what we can do to help. Our flagship project here in Manuel Antonio is our coral restoration project. This is a SINAC permitted and approved project that we have been working on. And since 2019 we have been growing and restoring our local coral reefs in an effort to improve the quality of our local ocean environment.
Did you know coral reefs account for less than 1% of the ocean’s floor, yet supports 25% of the ocean? So coral reefs are extremely important. However, they are also under threat. This comes from a number of things including, rising temperatures, ocean acidification, toxic runoff, invasive species, and unsustainable fishing. These are just some of their major threats. Did you know, that in the past 30 years alone, Costa Rica has lost 70% of its coral reefs!! That’s a crazy amount if you really think about it.
So, what does our coral restoration project do to help this?
Can you see it? The ocean is turning bluer as we creep further and further into the dry season. As scuba divers, we are monitoring the color of the ocean every day, because to us, it gives a good insight into what our conditions are going to be like and what we might find. We will scuba dive 11 months out of the year, yes, even when it is raining, as you are going to get wet anyway. Even when the visibility is low, there is still plenty of things to see here on our local coral reef in Manuel Antonio. Some of our favorite residents are octopus and nudibranchs which are amazingly beautiful, colored sea slugs. No matter what the conditions are doing, we will find them, sometimes you just need to get down and dirty. Every creature on our reef no matter how big or small is important, and everything has its role to play. They all ensure that the reef continues to thrive.
As part of our work at Marine Conservation Costa Rica we conduct surveys on many of the local reef inhabitants and want to monitor any changes in numbers or activity. This can be very tricky and time consuming so we work with volunteers and intern scuba divers to try and get as much information as we can. Any change that we see, could indicate something happening to the ocean locally that is affecting the reef. This holiday season, we will be running out first ever Marine conservation camps. These will be for both scuba divers and non-scuba divers, where we will be training our next generation of underwater ambassadors in survey techniques and reef life. They will then be able to come out and dive with us in the future, gathering all of this essential information and data. Plus, by being seeing everything first hand underwater, they can really understand the impacts we have on the ocean.
Oceans Unlimited Dive center has been a staple in the Manuel Antonio community for almost 17 years. As the new season begins, we are excited to share the news of a change of ownership at the center. Captain Robert McDaniel is stepping down and retiring after many years of great leadership and passing the reins to his right hand, and Director of Training Georgia King.
This is exciting news for us as we move forward into a new era of scuba diving and marine conservation in the Manuel Antonio /Quepos area. With Georgia’s close ties with the non-profit Marine Conservation Costa Rica, the partnership and work that both do, in the local area will only grow stronger.
The 6 Myths of Scuba Diving
