Times of the Islands Summer 2015

green pages newsletter of the department of environment & maritime affairs
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & maritime affairs
From top: Volunteer Sandi Elder cleans the growth from the snorkel
trail markers. The cleaned and readable markers were reinstalled by
dive volunteers.
With a healthy environment essential to the main
industry of the Islands, namely tourism, it is a shame that
the TCI Government does not do more to look after this
critical asset. But fortunately, volunteers have stepped up
to the plate to supplement DEMA’s efforts in protecting
TCI’s most precious commodity.
Five years ago in May, the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund
(TCRF) was founded and remains the only active environmental
non-governmental organization in the Turks
& Caicos Islands. For five years, the not-for-profit organization
has raised money through private donations,
memberships, retail sales, and fundraisers to help preserve
and protect TCI’s environment. It is a volunteer run
and operated organization, and because of this fact, TCRF
has pledged to put at least 85% of every dollar raised into
conservation and environmental protection projects.
TCRF has accomplished a great deal in its first five
years. In late 2010, the TCRF completed its first project,
which was the restoration of the snorkel trail at the Bight
Reef in front of Coral Gardens Resort. The snorkel trail,
consisting of ceramic trail markers attached to reef balls,
were installed a decade earlier by a group of volunteers.
The purpose of the snorkel trail markers is to educate visitors
about coral reefs and the organisms that live on the
reefs. Years of neglect had left most of the trail markers
unreadable due to silt and growth of marine organisms
(corals, sponges, barnacles, etc.). Some of the markers
and their reef ball mounts were damaged and in need of
repair.
The project involved removing all the snorkel trail
markers and bringing them to shore where a team of
volunteers worked diligently to remove the material that
made them illegible. Another team of volunteer divers
repaired reef ball mounts. When the markers were clean
and readable, the dive volunteers reinstalled them. Since
that time, volunteers from TCRF have regularly gone into
the water to clean the trail markers so that they are readable
by snorkelers. In addition, new signage was installed
on the beach describing the snorkel trail and providing
visitors with rules to follow while snorkeling on the site.
The biggest project that TCRF has undertaken so far
has been the moorings project. Although it is illegal to
anchor in the marine protected areas throughout TCI, a
lack of good moorings for dive, snorkel, and pleasure
vessels forced watersport operators and others to anchor
in order to conduct their business. Regardless of how
careful the boat operators are, damage to the coral reefs
happens when boats are anchoring every day and in some
cases, multiple times a day.
Recognizing that DEMA did not have the resources
or manpower to fulfill its role of installing and maintaining
moorings for dive and snorkel boats operating
in the National Marine Parks and for visiting yachts,
TCRF approached DEMA and offered to help. In the
Fall of 2012, DEMA and TCRF signed a Memorandum
of Understanding which designated TCRF as the lead
non-governmental organization for the installation and
maintenance of moorings in the Marine National Parks.
Since that time, TCRF has worked with DEMA to replace
all the inappropriate and environmentally unfriendly sea
floor anchors (such as tractor tires filled with concrete
and chains wrapped around coral heads) with proper sea
floor anchors.
As of April 2015, all of the 50+ dive sites listed on
the nautical charts now have proper sea floor anchors
and mooring lines, plus there are nearly 20 new dive sites
and 13 snorkel boat moorings that have been installed
by TCRF volunteers. As with anything manmade in the
ocean, regular maintenance is needed on all these moorings,
which TCRF has been happily doing with assistance
from various scuba diving companies. Over the past three
years, TCRF has invested over $150,000 in the moorings
project.
Two other projects to highlight are establishing a
coral nursery and controlling invasive lionfish. Working
with MerAngel Ecologic Services, the coral nursery project
is an effort to save coral specimens that have been broken
off the reefs during storms or from vessels striking
or anchoring on the reefs. These coral fragments can be
used to help restore damaged areas on the TCI reefs or
to create new near shore artificial reefs using reef balls.
Reef balls are specially designed concrete structures
that mimic the normal substrate upon which corals grow.
In an effort to generate financial support for the coral
nursery effort, TCRF has initiated an “Adopt-a-Coral” program.
This provides an opportunity, for a fee of $50, to
adopt a coral fragment that has been grown in the nursery
and have that coral transplanted onto the Bight Reef.
Each adopted coral is tagged with a number so that the
From top: TCRF volunteers installed new signage on the Bight Reef
Beach. Proper sea floor anchors replaced environmentally “unfriendly”
anchors at over 50 mooring sites. TCRF is working with local fishermen
and restaurants to help control the invasive lionfish.
30 www.timespub.tc Times of the Islands Summer 2015 31