Local NGOs repair Puerto Rico's coral reefs in Maria's aftermath
On a beach in Vega Baja on Puerto Rico’s northern coast, Ernesto Vélez Gandía stands next to a fallen loved one.
“We got a lot of love for him,” he says. “We saw him alive, very alive … so we just admire him and remember him. It’s very sentimental. I don’t know, but it’s deep in the heart.”
The deceased in this instance is a dead piece of coral, sitting in shallow, warm water at the entrance to a reef — a likely casualty from a warming ocean. This particular piece of coral was one of the oldest in the reef, he says.
“The water is getting warmer,” he says. “Every year, it’s getting warmer.”
Vélez Gandía and his fellow workers at the environmental nongovernmental organization Grupo V.I.D.A.S. know just about every piece of coral in these parts well, for it is their mission to restore as many of the colonies as they can. A report from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that approximately 10 percent of Puerto Rico’s coral was broken or damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017, mostly by extremely rough seas and ocean swells.
Read more: http://news.wbfo.org/post/local-ngos-repair-puerto-rico-s-coral-reefs-maria-s-aftermath