There’s a certain romanticized notion of what it must be like to be a coral reef scientist: living in a tropical environment with beautiful white sand beaches, snorkeling and diving every day, surrounded by colorful wildlife and pristine turquoise waters. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? And for Dr. Antonella Rivera, Principal Investigator for the Coral Reef… Continue Reading →
As Executive Director of the Roatán Marine Park, Francis Lean can relate to her tourist clientele—she used to be one of them. Originally from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, Lean used to join the 1.6 million people who visited Roatán on vacation each year. Roatán is one of the three main islands that make up… Continue Reading →
It’s 6:45 a.m. when Paola Urrutia arrives at Tela Bay. She makes her way down to the water, finds the spot where the fishermen will disembark after their morning catch, and sits down to wait. On the northern Caribbean coast of Honduras, Tela Bay sits at the bottom of a gently sloping tropical forest, marked… Continue Reading →
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented economic crisis across the globe—particularly in countries and regions that are highly dependent upon tourism revenue. In Honduras, for example, eight percent of the GDP comes from tourism. Spring break is one of their most popular travel periods when tourists from around the world flock to the Bay… Continue Reading →
Coral reefs provide an important source of food and income for coastal and island communities around the world, but more than 55 percent of reefs are threatened by overfishing globally. Coral reefs depend on fish like parrotfish and surgeonfish to consume seaweeds (also called macroalgae) and prevent them from overgrowing and smothering coral reefs. Entrepreneurial… Continue Reading →
The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), our partners in the Bay Islands of Honduras, and the people of Roatán celebrated a major win as a decade of work recently came to fruition when the island passed clean water standards for the first time since monitoring began in 2013. The island of Roatán, part of the Bay… Continue Reading →
Coral reefs provide an important source of food and income for coastal and island communities around the world. But more than 55 percent of reefs are threatened by overfishing globally. Overfishing not only disrupts the delicate ecology of coral reefs, it also negatively impacts the local communities that depend on them. If fishers are unable… Continue Reading →
In January 2018, we shared the results of Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI)’s report on the status and trends of reef health in the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR). One of the key findings of the HRI Report Card is that the long-term dedication and collaboration of groups like CORAL in the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) has paid off,… Continue Reading →
The Coral Reef Alliance is recognizing the accomplished women at CORAL and in marine science and conservation across the globe. This is especially important in Honduras, where “most of the people working in marine conservation are women,” according to CORAL’s Associate Program Director in the Mesoamerican region, Jennifer Myton. CORAL’s staff in Honduras includes Jenny… Continue Reading →