Project 2 Interview Summary

When thinking of who I could contact and interview about how reefs have changed in South Florida in the last ten years I tried to decide who would be the most knowledgeable on the topic. Perhaps I could contact my scuba dive instructor who helped me get certified a few ago. I thought that I could call some of the local dive shops and see if they have some dive masters who could discuss the changes they have over the years. I tried contacting a few of these people but I was not successful. After further evaluation, I was told the summer months are very hard to get in contact with some of these people as there are many tourists coming into town wanting to learn to scuba dive or go out and scuba dive. So, this brought me right back to square one where I started. Then I thought who I know that is close to me who could help me with this topic. So, it occurred to me I could use my dive partners. That would-be Jeff Eassa and John Hand who have been diving for over thirty years. They have both been scuba diving longer than I have been alive. They saw the reefs when they were flourishing with life and scuba diving was not as popular as it is now. I interviewed them separately and asked them both the same questions. The results were interesting. I began the interview with questions about how the reefs looked when they first began diving. I got different answers but with the basically the same context. Thirty years ago, the reefs were thriving and covered with plants and fish. Then I asked them some questions about what got them interested in scuba diving. These questions differed a bit. Jeff was more interested in the love for the ocean. It’s in his back yard and he wanted to go out and explore it. As for John he is more of an adrenaline junkie and wanted to try something new and unusual. Although these two dive for different reasons they still both appreciate what is available to them in the form of coral reefs. I continued with a few more questions but the one that was key to this research project was when I asked if they thought that the reefs had changed over the last thirty years that they had been diving. This is where the interview changed and got very interesting. They both told of how the oceans had looked very colorful and there were many different varieties of coral flourishing all over the ocean floor. They both discussed how slowly different species of fish started dwindling in size and some of the coral wasn’t as bright as it used to be. Jeff talked about how over the last few years he started seeing litter and fishing lines all tangled up in the reefs. This is what I found most intriguing about the interview and believe that as I research I will see that this is the start of the death of the reefs.