Coral reefs around the world have been reported to be dying due to an increase in sea water temperatures but in some locations the corals are thriving!
We recently took a trip to Palau, which is a beautiful island chain on the far side of the Pacific near the Philippines and Guam. We did over 30 scuba dives to monitor and video the conditions of their corals and what we found was a pleasant surprise. Over 95 percent of the corals were healthy and teeming with fish.
Palau protects 80 percent of its coral reefs in marine sanctuaries whereas Hawaii only protects 3 percent. In Palau divers pay a park entry fee of $125 to dive in the sanctuary and these funds go to the study of their coral reefs to keep them healthy and sustainable.
The marine sanctuaries in Palau are baby farms and they produce so many fish that the local fisherman easily catch their limit of fish outside the sanctuaries to feed their community. The scuba diving within the sanctuary is excellent with thousands of fish from huge schools of jacks and tuna all the way down to colorful angelfish and clown fish.
It was so nice to see so many healthy corals. We even discovered a massive lettuce coral on the outer reefs in Ulong Channel that just may be the largest of its species ever recorded.
In Kauai we have some huge mound corals at Tunnels reef that are 20 feet wide but the lettuce coral we discovered at 30 feet deep in Palau was over 120 foot wide and 20 foot tall. This massive coral could be over 1,000 years old and we counted over 500 large fish living in the coral.
A lettuce coral looks like a head of romaine lettuce with the leaves partially open and the fish hide in between the leaves to keep from being eaten by the many local sharks.
This single coral is like an entire city on land. It had over 10 species living within the coral structure from soldierfish, squirrelfish, butterflyfish, angelfish and even some large peacock grouper. While scuba diving over the huge coral, we literally were swimming through clouds of colorful fish that had no fear of people.
Hawaii needs more marine sanctuaries like Palau has. If the marine sanctuaries are put into effect in places where the fish reproduce, then they will populate the areas that are not protected and this will give the local fishermen a sustainable food source.
In Palau the fisherman told me that they used to boat for three hours to catch fish before the marine sanctuaries were put in, but now they catch a boatload of fish within 30 minutes of their homes. This saves a lot of fuel.
Each tourist diver pays an entry fee to dive in the sanctuary and this money goes to the study of the fishery making sure it is sustainable, and everyone from divers to fishermen are happy!
You can see Palau in all its beauty from the air to 100 feet deep in my movie at: https://tgilinks.com/3V3yGTQ
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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist living in Hanalei Kaua‘i and co-founder of Reef Guardians Hawai‘i, a nonprofit on a mission to provide education and resources to protect the coral reef. To donate to Reef Guardians Hawai‘i go to reefguardians.org
