Use this link to access all info on mortality of eels. It is the website that I write articles and post. The Naturalist is along the left-hand side of the opening page. Enjoy Jerry C Ligon
http://www.bonairediveandadventure.com/

Jerry.. Thanks so much for posting. I'm glad to see that it appears there was some purported benefit to the apparent pervasive destruction caused by Omar.
Perhaps mother nature really does know what she's doing.

Jerry - thanks so much.

Jerry,

TKS for the update. The next beneficial result here would be that 'the government' get a strong message and enforce the 'trucking' before this strikes the reefs again, or hits higher up the 'tree of life'. And the best would be to speed up the sewage system.

Good old Mother Nature – knowing when to clean up our act where She can, for the good of the rest of nature.


(Message edited by glenr on January 16, 2009)

(Message edited by glenr on January 16, 2009)

Thanks Jerry. Equally good news is the removal of that nasty red algae.

Red Algae is making a comeback. It has been since the middle of October when Omar came in with enough force to remove a lot of sand and redistribute the landscape in the shallows. It also removed the dark red layer of algae that had been building up for a few years. I am now seeing the return of this red algae on the sand and on the rubble and non-living remains of coral heads. It appears that living coral can keep this algae from attacking it, but it is building up around the living coral heads. Not only along the north coast is this algae coming back, but the sites that are down-wind from Plaza and Belnam on Klein Bonaire also are showing the return of the red algae.
It gives me much concern that we may still be dumping sewage from the resorts. We do not know how many trucks are being used to take away the sewage before overflowing onto the reef. Does anyone keep records of the number of trucks being used and which resorts have actually increased their call for the trucks?

Jerry, why not inquire from STINAPA, DROB, the governor, etc. about who is trucking and who isn't trucking plus where is the sewage being trucked? Surely someone should know something.

Of course, the "official story" may not be what is really happening. We are trying to confirm recent rumors that some of the sewage is being trucked and dumped directly into the sea on the East side. If so, that is both criminal and immoral. (You might want to ask Sean Paton about what he knows about the trucking situation.)

It is really time for all environmentalists residing on the island as well as environmentally-minded tourists and residents to up the pressure on the resorts, hotels, shoreline properties, Governor Thode, and the new Dutch czar Henk?, to make trucking of the sewage mandatory now and speed up the tertiary sewage processing plant, or Bonaire's reefs will be for all intents and purposes dead in the next two years, as the red algae and the dead eels are bearing witness.

Pauline Kayes
SOS Campaign To Save Bonaire's Reefs
SOSBonaireReef@gmail.com