Every year the water around the islands in the Caribbean warms up. As a consequence the algae that live together with the coral and that give the coral their colors move away leaving the white coral behind. A dangerous development because of the symbiosis between the coral and the algae that is disturbed in this way. If this bleaching holds on for a long time the coral will die. Luckily most of the time the water cools down in winter and apparently the algae move back (or new algae move in) to the previously white corals and everythings looks normal again.

This year the coral bleaching seems worse than I have seen for a long time. Everywhere you dive you see large areas of bleached coral. And although it is already January and the water temperature has dropped to 27 degrees Celsius a lot of the corals is still white.

Another upcoming pest is the presence of the Lionfish. It started about a year ago with here and there a Lionfish. Nowadays on every dive I see several groups of Lionfish under ledges or under coral. Most of the time in groups of 2 or 3. Apparently the second generation has already arrived because we see lots of small Lionfish. The older generation has grown and we see large Lionfish. Not so many but enough to be worried that we are loosing the battle against this fish overpopulating our reefs and eating our local fish.

Officially two organizations are in charge of taking measures against this fish but up till now I don't see much effective action. Apart from placing billboards at every dive site warning the public for this fish and asking to notify the LVV in case of sightings of these fish no other measure seems to be in place. Spearing is still not allowed. Using a handheld trident seems to be allowed but it is not easy to spear these fish without damaging the coral. The same applies to nets to catch the fish. So in practice the fish continues to breed and multiply.