We went snorkelling today for the second time on our travels, to the beautiful coral fringed Bamboo Island.
The last time at Koh Chang in Thailand, we pulled silly faces at the waves and blew raspberries at the swell from the second deck of the big boat that ferried us from island to island.
Today the good natured ocean tweeked our noses but no more as we rocked and bobbed in our tiny, leaky vessel.
Sadly, the happy comparisons begin to stumble. Our tropical paradise at Mushroom Point hostel on Otres Beach in Sihanoukville is on a bay of twelve islands. It suffers from the tension between sustainable tourism and commercial development. At Koh Chang the reefs that we snorkelled over were pristine and teeming with colourful life. Here some areas are dead or damaged and the normally abundant life is absent.
The causes include dubious fishing techniques. High voltage power cables are lowered into the waters, killing everything in the close vicinity. Dynamite is detonated with equally indiscriminate effects. Tourist boats crash into the reef. Anchors are secured on it, tearing living coral away from the surface after which it and much of the surrounding communities die back.
From a tourist's perspective, the effect is two fold. Large areas of unsightly white calcium residue scar the sea bed that used to be the home of the tiny coral animals who construct the reefs. After this the eco-system that supports the diversity of fish and plant life is disrupted and the life gradually disappears. The surviving corals in turn suffer as the fish that they depend on reduce in number.
From an ecological perspective, the effects are dramatic. A coral reef is often many thousands of years old and can take more than 50 years to begin regeneration after damage, even if healthy. Parasitic infection, rising sea temperatures and increasing acidity levels all add the the physical damage caused by careless fishing techniques and unsustainable tourism.
Between 1986 and 1991, 50% of the reefs in the Phillipines were destroyed.
Can Cambodia wake up to the potential that is on the verge of being lost?
The last time at Koh Chang in Thailand, we pulled silly faces at the waves and blew raspberries at the swell from the second deck of the big boat that ferried us from island to island.
Today the good natured ocean tweeked our noses but no more as we rocked and bobbed in our tiny, leaky vessel.
Sadly, the happy comparisons begin to stumble. Our tropical paradise at Mushroom Point hostel on Otres Beach in Sihanoukville is on a bay of twelve islands. It suffers from the tension between sustainable tourism and commercial development. At Koh Chang the reefs that we snorkelled over were pristine and teeming with colourful life. Here some areas are dead or damaged and the normally abundant life is absent.
The causes include dubious fishing techniques. High voltage power cables are lowered into the waters, killing everything in the close vicinity. Dynamite is detonated with equally indiscriminate effects. Tourist boats crash into the reef. Anchors are secured on it, tearing living coral away from the surface after which it and much of the surrounding communities die back.
From a tourist's perspective, the effect is two fold. Large areas of unsightly white calcium residue scar the sea bed that used to be the home of the tiny coral animals who construct the reefs. After this the eco-system that supports the diversity of fish and plant life is disrupted and the life gradually disappears. The surviving corals in turn suffer as the fish that they depend on reduce in number.
From an ecological perspective, the effects are dramatic. A coral reef is often many thousands of years old and can take more than 50 years to begin regeneration after damage, even if healthy. Parasitic infection, rising sea temperatures and increasing acidity levels all add the the physical damage caused by careless fishing techniques and unsustainable tourism.
Between 1986 and 1991, 50% of the reefs in the Phillipines were destroyed.
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