**SPECIAL EDITION** The Cozumel Drift

Welcome to the Cozumel Drift

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from

Roberta's Scuba Shack

Dive ECO-cozumel

Village Tan Kah

Blue Bubble Divers

Open 365 Days a Year!!!

Hola Amigo !

Welcome to this SPECIAL EDITION of the Cozumel Drift - our newsletter that keeps you up to date on what is happening here at the dive shop, the hotel, as well as your favorite island - Cozumel.

1st things 1st - BIENVENIDOS - welcome to anyone new to The Drift . We are thrilled that you have vacationed with us. We hope that you enjoyed your time here. And a big GRACIAS to everyone for coming. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

The State of our Oceans

As scuba divers we are all aware that our oceans and reef systems are in trouble. Poor water quality due to pollution and plastics are not only harming or destroying the fish and mammals in our oceans but it is destroying the coral reefs. For those of you that have been diving with me over the years, you've seen the changes first hand to the reefs here in Cozumel and other parts of the world.

We here a Scuba Shack Cozumel have put together this Special Edition of the Cozumel Drift to provide you with information on some of the problems affecting our reefs, as well as some recent decisions by the Marine Park Authority. I know this is a lot more reading than we normally put into our newsletters, but these are important issues that we wanted to make sure we are informing all of you about. So we hope you can take a little time to read through these articles.

Marine Parks Proposal To Help The Reefs

The state of the water in all of the Caribbean and Gulf has been extensively studied for the last few decades. And some very interesting things are happening, which all cause a deterioration of the quality of the sea water. Things like......

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Sargassum Blooms
Microplastics
Sunscreen
Land chemical run off
sewage seepage from shoreline hotels and beach clubs

All of these take a toll on the waters of our ocean. And so much more. Recently, the Marine Park received some very disturbing results from scientific studies that were conducted. What they found - the poor water quality and stress on the coral reefs is harming or killing the coral. And this is not happening only here in Cozumel, it is happening in varying degrees all over the Caribbean.

One of the most disturbing results of the poor quality of water is a disease that can be found all over the Caribbean - Stoney Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) . This disease is causing the death of many corals.

So, the Marine Park has made the decision to declare a state of emergency for part of the reefs in Cozumel. This state of Emergency is 2 fold -

1 - it will close the reef for 3 months in the hopes that these reefs can recuperate.
2 - it triggers actions and funds from the municipal, state and federal governmental entities

The reefs that are closed are Palancar, Colombia, and all reefs south of there, including El Cielo. Which reefs are open? Everything else.... Dalilah, Francesa, Santa Rose, Cedral Wall, and everything north of there. Right now the closure of the reefs is set to go in effect on October 7th and last for 3 months.

Why would the Marine Park take such a drastic step? Well, unfortunately, they do not have the jurisdiction to sanction to correct any problems that they find. That is left up to different government agencies, two actually. Profepa (the Judicial Branch of the Government) and the Harbor Master. Neither of which have been patrolling these areas. With this state of emergency, these entities are now required to take action, and others as well. What can they do? Well....

Check the hotels and beach clubs to insure that their sewage is being properly treated. There are no sewer systems down south, only septic systems. So they will check the tanks to insure there is no leaking, etc. And they have already started this week!
Force proper patrolling of the Marine Park to insure that only authorized boats with Marine Park Permits are working in the park, so as to not oversterss the reefs. Studies have been done to know how many divers the reefs can handle and unfortunately, due to the lack of patrolling, that limit is exceeded on a regular basis.
Take action on the cruise ships to check their sewage as well. Those ships can generate more 20,000 gallons of sewage per day. Where do you think that all goes? Some cruise lines are better than others at implementing and maintaining state of the art, onboard treatment systems so that the water they discharge is not harmful, but some of the older cruise liners are not. They simply go a few miles from shore and they pump it out. If the wind and current is just right, it all ends up coming right back to our shores. If not our shores, then those of the mainland adding more “fuel” to the fire caused by algae blooms and Sargassum sea weed.

So, there you have it in a nutshell..... Fingers crossed that this enforcement does happen.

These issues with pollution, plastics, SCTLD, algae blooms, etc. etc. are not localized to Cozumel, these problems are affecting our oceans and reefs worldwide. Growing rates of phosphorus from sewage and fertilizer are being tracked everywhere. Microplastics are now being found in fish, and even the beverages we drink. Think of that - beer! The beer you drink now has microplastics in it. So, although these steps by the Marine Park Authority may seem drastic, but they are necessary to obtain the support and resources we need to protect the Cozumel Reefs. We also hope that these steps will set the tone for the rest of world. We need to protect and preserve our coral reefs.

There is still plenty of great diving here in Cozumel, so don’t be swayed by some of the misinformation out there. Scuba Shack Cozumel and Village Tan Kah are still open for business and still running daily dive trips. No matter how many times you’ve been here, you may now have the opportunity to dive a site you’ve never dove before.

How Can I Help?

How can you help? There are many, many ways that you can help and contribute to the solution and not the problem, but they all boil down to these two points:

GET INVOLVED
BE A VIGILANT DIVER

There are numerous charities and organizations out there working everyday to clean up our oceans and protect our reefs, more than we could possible list here. But, as an ongoing segment in our newsletter we are going to try and highlight at least one charity or organization working to resolve these problems either here in Cozumel or making an impact elsewhere. This month we'd like to start with two.

Get Involved

The first is a charity called Free the Ocean. This site is part of popular movement on the internet called "click to give" charities. Here's how it works. Visit their site, learn about their activities, enroll on their site. Then everyday you visit the site and answer a daily trivia question. The charity then uses this to drive ad revenue from their site, they then take 100% of that revenue and use that towards removing plastic from the ocean. Very simple, you are giving without actually opening your checkbook. Click below to check them out.

FREE THE OCEAN

Project AWARE® is another organization you can get involved with, and you don't have to be a scuba diver to be a part of Project AWARE® and take part in their programs.

Project AWARE® is a global movement for ocean protection powered by a community of adventurers. They connect the passion for ocean adventure with the purpose of marine conservation.

Check them out, learn about all their activities and programs, sign up on their site to learn more, get free stuff and become involved. Click below to visit their site and learn more.

PADI Project AWARE®

Be a Vigilant Diver

Lastly, be a vigilant diver by making sure you are doing your part to protect our reefs as well as helping other divers. Some ways to be a vigilant diver:

Improve your buoyancy - stay up off the reef and the sandy bottoms
Watch your finning - visualize what is below or behind you before you take that big scissor kick. Make smaller finning moves, use a frog kick, let the current or buoyancy be your friend to help you move away with little to no effort.
Help your dive buddies - Provide reminders to your dive buddies, a simple reminder at the surface, a gentle guiding of fin tip if they are, or are going to contact the corals, or talk to your dive master for assistance. If handled properly they will thank for your help.
Watch those descents even over sandy areas. Don't come crashing down on the reef or even the sandy bottom. Make it a game, like little kids do. The bottom is "HOT LAVA" if you touch it you lose a point, keep score with your buddy.
Do your part to help reduce our dependency on plastics and other wastes that are finding their way into our oceans.
Use ONLY reef safe sunscreen, if you have to use any at all. Rash guards and a hat are great ways to protect yourself from the sun.

As divers, our passion and love of the ocean should be the initiative to help make it better. It's not only about what we do, but what we can also teach others to do - To learn and respect this wonderful rock in our solar system - earth, be it above or below the water. We just happen to really love the below the water aspect more than most..... We hope that you will continue to support all of the island and your family here in Cozumel by continuing to come and see the magic that we have here underwater.

As always, a special thanks to you, our special friends and customers. We so love seeing you year after year and diving with us..... you are like family to us! We hope to see you again soon to show you the wonders of Cozumel, both above and below ground !