US $20-million project to rebuild Cancun beaches

[ryberg]

See for yourself in this Miami Herald article Delmy just pointed out to me. My apologies if that's some sort of frequently rotating link, but that's where the article is at the time I'm posting this, at least.

Steve

[MWC]

Didn't see an exact price quoted, nor did it mention governmental involvement. A shame, as I was going to make a cute comment about my tax dollars going to something I approve of, for once!

I am a little suspicious of "private interests" dumping white stuff willy-nilly. Are we sure it's not the Columbians dumping their inferior blow?

[Silver Streak]

I talked with some people last week that own homes in Playacar I. They told us that the hotels have been putting into a fund that was to be matched by the government to build an artificial reef to replace the reef that was destroyed by a hurricane some time in the past. I would ASSUME they were talking about Gilbert. I was told there was 25 million available. Is this just a rumor or is there any truth?

[ryberg]

Let's just say that -- ah, forget it. It's almost certainly not even near the truth.

That is to say, unless you're talking about Cancun and the same thing the article is talking about.

I cannot imagine such figures being involved here OR having come up so quickly, but I can easily imagine that people are getting and passing on misinformation of this sort, as that happens all the time here.

Steve

[james]

I'm curious to know what reefs were destroyed by which hurricanes. How does that happen?

[PDFly & Flash]

Originally Posted by james

I'm curious to know what reefs were destroyed by which hurricanes. How does that happen?

I may be wrong (ahhh... let's face it, I probably am wrong)... but haven't I heard that damage to coral can quite often spread, consuming the reef as it goes? Isn't that why they say not to touch it?

If so, then a story I read yesterday here might have relevance. To quote:

The damage underwater was severe as well, said Jaime González, the official in charge of the coast's coral reefs. Dozens of park workers are painstakingly removing curtains, windows and other debris from the reefs and patching up broken coral with cement and plastic.

But while this might kill a reef, wouldn't you still have a dead reef in place? I too would wonder about it being destroyed.

[Daddy B]

As I understand it, storms can cause damage to coral, the living component of coral reefs. They do so by depositing sediment (besides curtains and such) over the coral polyps, the individual animals that form coral structures. Damage can be done in two ways:

- Each polyp has algae that live in symbiose with it. When the sediment covers it, the polyp will discard the algae which give it its colour, thus becoming discoloured (this can also happen through rising sea water temperatures, as with global warming).

- If the polyp remains covered for more that a week, give or take, then the polyp itself will die.

This in itself doesn't destroy reefs, in fact it adds to the reef: dead polyps will first become that cool, wonderful coraline white sand we all love so, and then part of that sand will aggregate and form limestone, the basis of all reefs (and, in fact, of most of the once submerged Yucatan peninsula).

What storms can do is alter the appearance of a reef. They can break the most vulnerable structures (that local divers are now helping to cement back into place) and they can make it look duller. In the most drastic situations, food-chain implications will cause the demise of other organisms and, subsequently, fish.
Soft corals will grow back quite quickly, hard corals can take aything up to 100 years in attaining the size seen in your average healthy reef.
With time and given the chance the reef will recover; however, looking at aerial maps of Playa you will notice the almost complete absence of reef formations within snorkelling depths and further out off Playa's inhabited stretch (more so off the AI zone...) making it plain that humans have more influence on reef health/destruction than Nature does.

[Keersten]

Hello, I went to a meeting this morning re: recovery of the beach in the riviera maya, led by attorney Patricio Martin. We would like to form a website so that all interested parties, individuals, hotels, govt. bodies could have one central location for information re: beach recovery. Any volunteers to set this up? I'm technology challenged. Thanks. Keersten

[james]

sure. how about www.playa.info ? I'll make a sub-forum or give you a blog. is this Keersten of Armando fame?

or MexicanBeach.info