Reef eco system

We took the opportunity to travel away from the eco lodge with some teachers who were scouting out locations for ‘schools without walls’. I know we have a similar program in Whitehorse, but I was surprised that such exist here in Colombia. We travelled by motor boat to see some of the most beautiful reefs that I’ve ever seen. It was like snorkeling in a very well cared for aquarium. We saw all the fish that appeared in Finding Nemo and more. I wish I could tell you their names and the names of the types of coral we saw, suffice to say it was amazing. Unfortunately, we were on the quick highlights version of the tour so we were only on the reef about a half an hour. From there we went into a mangrove lined inlet. There we saw the fish in their earliest, youngest stages. The lesson is if you don’t preserve the mangroves, you can’t have the reef fish. Students are being taught to respect the entire eco system and to see the linkages between the large and the small. It was very surprising to snorkel in the mangroves and see how the roots trapped soil and provided anchorage fro not just oysters, but also barnacles, sea anemones and untold schools of minuscule fish like confetti.