Project 2 Rough Draft 1
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.
After gathering information from the two people I interviewed I tried to process what I had heard and what additional information I would want to gather. During the interview I learned from both participants the reasons why they scuba dive and their firsthand experiences of what they had seen diving over the years. Although I interviewed them separately they both gave me similar answers regarding the change in the coral reefs. They both discussed how the colors of the coral reefs used to be more colorful and bright. They also discussed how the fish population had declined. John is an avid hunter for lobster and talked about how the reefs used to be full and now he was lucky to even get a few on any dive. So, now I had the path of where I will go with my research. What has happened to the coral reefs in South Florida over the last ten years and why was it happening?
My first bit of research confirmed that the colors of the reefs were changing due to coral bleaching. As described by the authors in a PLOS academic journal, “Coral bleaching is defined as the loss of pigment from algal symbionts. It has recently become a major issue with the increase of global warming and naturally warmer waters.” (Welle 2). In common terms this means that the algae that is banded with the coral can only grow and stay healthy at a certain temperature. Once the water temperature rises past a comfort level, the algae leaver the coral making it loss it pigment and ultimately leads to its death.
