March 2006
Streetwise Magazine |
Reef Wise or Not |
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We have very few natural reefs in this area and most certainly no artificial ones. There are plans in the pipeline and surveys have been done, but there doesn't seem to be a schedule for the building of them. (Why am I not surprised?). We have four reefs and a theme park that are relatively easy to access for divers and skin divers from the beach.
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One of these reefs is in the National Park, which has made a huge difference, but despite the signs on the beaches they still allow fishing and spear fishing, and while these practices continue we will always only have small fish and crustaceans to see. To dive the National Park area between Maro and Cerro Gordo you now require a licence, which is an excellent way to control access and limit indiscriminate plundering and damage. The licence also carries conditions, you can only moor a boat to the permanent buoys provided by the Junta de Andalucia and you are also restricted as to the number of divers per dive, or per day. Certain areas are off limits altogether. Breaking these restrictions will result in your licence being revoked.
The largest reef in this area is to the right hand side of Marina Bay. It's not part of the National Park and is quite open to misuse and damage by the local boat owners who continually throw their anchors into the reef rather than the sand. As you pass by underwater you can only watch in despair as their anchor chains rub up and down tearing great lumps of coral, anemones, and seaweeds from the rocks. Considerable damage is also inflicted by the fishermen and spear fishermen whose lines and nets that foul the rocks.
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In La Herradura Bay we have both a reef and an underwater theme park. The theme park has been started quite recently and was quite quickly colonised. Unfortunately the spear fishermen have wiped out the entire Octopus population and all that is left are the piles of shells where they had found a protective hole.
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But all is not gloom and despondency; we have new fish in the area, and particularly in the National Park. Just prior to Christmas, we had the first sighting of a John Dory, since then we have discovered more at other locations. Squid and cuttlefish are now quite a common sight, with moray and conger eels far more plentiful. While on a recent night dive a stingray was spotted. |
Certainly the National Park area seems to be thriving and we see a lot more fish than there were two years ago, with luck it will increase as it becomes more protected. |
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ScubaDoo is a partner of “PADI Project AWARE” (AWARE = Aquatic World Awareness Responsibility Education) and as such we endeavour to protect and nurture the underwater world in any way that we can. If you want to know more about Project AWARE, please contact us, Tel: 951239891, or drop by the shop. There is a lot you can do to help protect the underwater world.
Dave Graves
ScubaDoo |
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