Like me, you probably grew up hearing and saying the mantra that Belize has the second largest uninterrupted barrier reef on earth.
And where's the first largest? Well that would be the great barrier reef in Australia - the longest in the world.
But, did you know that experts agree the Great Barrier reef is dying? That's right, it's the victim of climate change and pollution.
And, as we all know, when that happens on one side of the world - the other can't be too far behind.
So how is Belize's reef system doing? That's what we found out when its report card was presented today:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
The Mesoamerican Reef system covers the reefs of Mexico, Belize and Honduras.
And every two years, marine biologists go into the water with pen and paper - the waterproof version to document its health.
Dr. Melanie Mcfield, Director, Healthy Reefs Initiative
"The reef gets a biennial or every year the coral reef gets its physical - this is the assessment, this is what the doctors are giving back as the health of the reef."
And to determine its health, these researchers look for four specific indicators.
Dr. Melanie Mcfield, Director, Healthy Reefs Initiative
"There are the 4 kind of fundamental components; 2 of them is what we called the Benthos - that's the hard bottom of the reef. The other two components of index of reef health that we are measuring are fish, and one group is the omnivores fish - those are the parrot fish and the tangs and surgeonfish. Finally the other fish component that's really important is the top predators - the carnivores - those are commercial fish, these are groupers and snappers. Those two families - we look at the biomass of that and so this is measured by people in the water, divers doing transects."
And after all that work, the report card says…
Jules Vasquez
"How is the reef doing?"
Dr. Melanie Mcfield
"Poorly; overall it's poor if you want it in one word."
Jules Vasquez
"Worsening or improving?"
Dr. Melanie Mcfield
"A slight improvement, it's a little less poor than the last time. I would say that it's close to crisis but it's not fully in crisis. We have of components that are fairly easy to come back with the right management. We are on the verge of crisis but we are not in crisis. Our reef is a step above, its sick but it's not terminal."
As this circle shows, the sliver of dark green is for the few reefs in very good condition - there are only 3 of those in Belize. There are some good reefs in lighter green, fair reefs in yellow, poor in orange, and red is critical.
So, in Belize, there are some fair reefs and a few good reefs.
So what can be done to make them better?
Dr. Melanie Mcfield
"What you can do - I think one of the main things that Belizeans can do is support the fisheries laws. Too many people are buying out of season undersized lobster and conch and these things matter and I think talking to your friends that fish and letting them know that we really want to have fish in the future; we can't take the last fish. We do need to have regulations on fin fish. We can't just keep fishing fish without any regulations. We just need to have a decent percent of our waters; 15-20% or you leave the fish alone. Let them breed, let them repopulate. They will be good Belizean fish - they will breed well if we just leave them alone."
You can find the entire reports online - and a link to that will be at 7newsbelize.com
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