The Ocean Doctor and the Gardens of the Queen.

As I sit here looking out the window onto the wintry landscape, and the icicles that are literally hanging off the trees, all I can do is be thankful that it still looks like this somewhere in the world.

A beach in Cayo Coco, Cuba.

A mangrove swamp in the Gardens of the Queen marine reserve. Photo by Ian Shive at The Nature Conservancy.

A reef in the Gardens of the Queen. Photo by Rod Griffin at EDF.

With the snow-induced nostalgia, I found myself flicking through photos from my trip to Cuba in May, and re-watching the documentaries about conservation efforts going on in the Gardens of the Queen, Cuba. (I linked to them in this previous post.)

I've actually been reading up on the Gardens of the Queen quite a bit in the past few weeks. I found a couple of really great resources on environmental protection and marine conservation in Cuba, especially with regard to the Gardens of the Queen marine reserve. The first is the Environmental Defense Fund, which I mentioned in a previous post. Daniel Whittle, director of EDF's Cuba program, has fascinating work going on in Cuba through EDF. He works in partnership with Cuban scientists, lawyers, resource managers, etc., to implement sustainable fisheries management, coastal development, and coral reef conservation in Cuba. He is a strong voice in promoting cooperation between both Cuban and American scientists.

Another similarly prominent voice in this area is Dr. David Guggenheim, the president of Ocean Doctor. Ocean Doctor is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring oceans through research, education, and building international partnerships, with a special emphasis on Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico. As the director of the Cuba Conservancy program, Guggenheim appears in almost every documentary and short video clip on the Gardens of the Queen I've seen, including the two videos I posted previously.

I came across an article where Guggenheim discusses the purpose of Ocean Doctor, and addresses the question that my friend asked about how the reefs in the Gardens of the Queen have remained in such pristine condition for all this time. Guggenheim writes, "Why is this place so healthy? That's the basis of one of Ocean Doctor's collaborative projects with Cuban scientists. The Gardens of the Queen represent an opportunity to understand how a pristine coral reef ecosystem works, gain insight as to why it's so healthy, and guide conservation efforts for coral reefs around the Caribbean and the world. We also work with Cuba's environmental economists to understand the importance of ecotourism to the Cuban economy, and why grouper are worth more beneath the waves than beneath a sweet mango sauce." That last line made me laugh, but it's true.

Ocean Doctor actually offers a Cuba travel program for Americans, which is surprising and exciting on many levels. For educational purposes, the program allows for Americans to legally travel to and scuba dive in the Gardens of the Queen. That's a big deal. I don't know if I can stress how big of a deal that is. I think I mentioned before, the Gardens of the Queen has been a no-take marine park for many years, and recreational activities are strictly regulated to 1000 scuba divers per year. I'm not really sure how they've managed to organize all of this, but how exciting is that?

I tell no lies, you can check it out yourself: http://oceandoctor.org/gardens/

Marine conservation in Cuba.

After my last post, a good friend of mine, also an avid scuba diver, asked me how the Cuban government had been able to maintain such pristine reefs throughout all these years. He pointed out that they would have had to start their conservation efforts a long time ago to achieve the results they have today.

It's an interesting question, and my friend is right. They did begin their marine conservation efforts years ago. I've been doing some research (rather limited, I'll admit) on how the reefs in Cuba have come to be the way they are, and what is keeping the levels of biodiversity so high in those regions. It's undeniable that, from a scientific standpoint, they are doing something right. And from what I've been reading, the U.S. has a lot to gain from ensuring that those reefs stay healthy.

I just found an interesting blog about marine conservation in Cuba on the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) website. EDF is a US based organization whose aim is to preserve earth's natural systems. They focus on a wide range of topics like climate change, clean air, oceans, etc. They even have an entire team dedicated to working with Mexican and Cuban scientists, so as to collaborate on the work of protecting the bodies of water which affect all three nations - the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Straits, and so on. They're all critically connected, ecologically speaking.

Anyway, the director of EDF's Cuba program, Daniel Whittle, posted a blog entry on small fishing communities along the southern coast of Cuba. He talks about marine protected areas (MPAs), regional fisheries management, and community-based, sustainable fisheries. It's worth a read, especially for marine ecologists and biologists.

On a side note: I totally did not realize that the Gardens of the Queens national park in Cuba was the largest marine park in the Caribbean. Right now, there is even an initiative to expand it. That's a pretty big deal.

Jardines de la Reina.

A few days ago, I came across this video on youtube of some pretty amazing scuba diving in Jardines de la Reina, or the Gardens of the Queen, in Cuba. Anderson Cooper went on assignment for 60 Minutes, and got to scuba dive the reefs down there, which are basically untouched by tourists (1000 divers per year, maximum). Don't get me started on how jealous I am that Anderson Cooper got to go there, but let's be real - it's Anderson Cooper. Everybody loves Anderson Cooper. I can't even be mad.

Anyway, back to real life. The Cuban reefs in the video are similar in some ways to the barrier reef just off of Belize. When I was a junior in high school, my dad, my brother, and I took an amazing trip to Ambergris Caye, Belize. We saw a lot of similar species to the ones in the video. Huge groupers, parrotfish, reef sharks, etc. Seeing the Cuban reefs in the video brought back all those sweet memories.

After watching the 60 Minutes clip, I stumbled upon another video about environmental conservation efforts in Cuba, with a large portion dedicated to the pristine condition of the reefs. It's called "Cuba: the Accidental Eden", and it's a PBS video totally worth 50 minutes of your life. If you like reefs, scuba diving, and/or Cuba (among many other things), you should really watch it.

These are just a couple photos of the Cuban reefs I found online (taken from the Environmental Defense Fund website). I especially like the second photo, with the sharks lurking in the background.

A Black Grouper.

A Queen Triggerfish.

Also, here's a hot tip from 11 year-old Lindsay: Don't paint your nails with shiny, blue nail polish and then go snorkeling, and feed bread to triggerfish in the Red Sea. THEY WILL BITE YOU.
You can thank me later.

Life's a beach.

Day two of our Cayo Coco trip consisted of beach-going, scuba diving, and reliving my marine biology days.

In the morning, a group of us ventured out to a dive shop at another hotel in Cayo Coco, hopped in a little speed boat with a couple of their SCUBA instructors to lead the way, and dropped down for a wreck dive just off the shore. I won't bore you with another picture of the stunning shoreline of Cuba (haha, just kidding, yes I will!).

The lobby of the other hotel, where the dive shop was.

A wall map of Cayo Coco and some of its dive sites.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our boat trip out to the dive site (didn't want to risk dropping the camera in the water!), or any underwater pictures from our dive, but this was our boat. The tide was in, and the waves were high. And really fun.

Big waves!

We boated out to the dive site about ten minutes away, and dropped down for a quick, but fun, wreck dive. The wreck was an intentionally-sunk fishing boat, which was intended to create an artificial reef where there isn't one.  So far, it's not a very developed reef, but there are a few regular fish inhabitants, and the beginnings of a few species of coral. These kinds of artifical reefs take years to grow, but I must say, it is very forward thinking for the Cuban marine conservation groups to initiate projects like this.

I managed to find a picture of our wreck dive site from the Cayo Coco dive center website!

The fishing boat at the bottom of the sea.

You can see the early formations of coral on the outside of the boat, and the different species of fish it attracts. That, my friends, is how you build a reef. Being the geek that I am, I find it refreshing to see that governments are taking an active role in protecting their oceans and marine ecosystems, which are more important than most people think. (Once a biologist, always a biologist.) Maybe one day I'll get to go back to that dive site and see how much it's grown.

Anyway, after our little SCUBA diving excursion, a group of us drove out a little ways to another beach, Playa Pilar, which, as I mentioned in one of my first posts, is probably the nicest beach I've ever seen.

The drive out to Playa Pilar from the back of a pickup.

Playa Pilar.

This is just a boring picture of a mangrove swamp...

...UNTIL YOU ZOOM IN.

There were some nice views along the way. Mangrove swamps GALORE. When I was in fourth grade, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I did a research project on mangrove swamps. There was so little information in our library about them (this was before the internet came to town...) that I had a hard time writing about that particular ecosystem. To see miles of untouched mangrove swamps in Cayo Coco, Cuba was pretty incredible. The only other time I can remember seeing mangroves that extensive was when I was off of a remote island in Indonesia. And there were no flamingos in Indonesia, I might add.

The biologist in me was geeking out all day.

Ahh, Cuba.