Aruba, a Marine Biodiversity in Limbo…

When you mention Aruba, anyone who knows about Aruba thinks about sun, sand and sea. The blue inviting waters, the catamarans, jet skiing, sunset cruises, snorkeling and scuba diving. 

Scuba diving got introduced on Aruba in the late 1950’s when the LAGO Oil & Transport Company Ltd. was operating an oil refinery in Aruba. Americans whom were working for the US oil refinery introduced SCUBA, (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), to the island. 

With the introduction of scuba came also spear guns and “modern” spearfishing was born in Aruba. Spear fishing is outlawed in Aruba and even though there is a movement to re-introduce this officially, as of this writing it’s still illegal. Now this is where the pig’s tail curls as they say. 

Aruba has been a tourism destination since the mid 1960’s and tourism is very much promoted as the main economic pillar for the island. Unfortunately tourism has had its good and bad impact on the marine biodiversity. Like many other Caribbean islands or tropical destinations, Aruba has coral reefs extending from its shoreline. These corals and everything living on the coral reefs are part of a very delicate living system, which is called the marine biodiversity. 

Tourism is an industry, which developed because of nature and what nature has to offer. When someone goes to Yellowstone Park, climbs mount Everest or scuba dive in Aruba, this is all made possible by the presence of nature and the natural environment, which has created these attractions. 

When scuba diving was introduced on Aruba in the 1950’s, the local population was barely 6,000 people. Tourism was in its infancy and there were two to three hotels on the island, marine life was abundant and plentiful back in those days. But even so, the lack of marine environmental protection was visible and evident when spear fishing was done indiscriminately until it was outlawed. As tourism and the local population increased, so did the impact on the marine environment. 

The underwater profile of Aruba varies depending on, which side of the island you’re diving but from the harbor going south all the way to the southeast point, the bottom contour has areas of gradual slopes, double reef systems and in some areas a more sharper eighty degree drops. On the opposite side going northwest of the island the bottom composition changes very much in contrast with the south side. This area is primarily a sandy bottom with no drop offs or slopes. The bottom composition is a combination of sand, sea grass, and sparse coral formations, which are bottom reefs. 

It’s also this northwest side of the island where most of the water sports activities take place and the few dive and snorkeling sites in this area have been under immense pressure in the past decades. 

The human impact on the coral reef systems is inevitable. Fishing practices, water sports, boating, natural factors such as bad weather including scuba diving are all factors that are impacting the coral reefs. Coastal development in Aruba has had its negative influences also in the last fifty years, which together has caused the marine biodiversity in this area to be stressed to a very critical point. 

If you believe in global warming or not, the coral bleaching and rising water temperatures worldwide are also playing a negative role on these reefs. So, what can you do? 

Well, in 2010 the Aruba Marine Park Foundation was founded and introduced a marine park legislation to the government of Aruba but the process of actually converting this into law has become a lengthily one. This law would have made it easy to charge a marine park fee based on the law, which means that the foundation and all projects would become financially self-sustainable and wouldn’t need to be budgeted by the government every year. 

Several projects were planned such as the introduction of 150 public moorings to prevent anchoring on any reefs. Research projects and coral re-forestation projects have been on hold due to lack of funding. In the mean time, did you know that every night you stay in Aruba you’re billed a USD 3.00 per night “environmental fee”? 

Unfortunately this government tax doesn’t go to the Aruba Marine Park Foundation or any other environmental NGO or environmental  projects. Aruba has several non-governmental, non-for-profit organizations or foundations. 

These foundations or NGO’s are the backbone of environmental protection in Aruba. They do the actual work, studies and protection of the environment and nature in Aruba. The Aruba Marine Mammal Foundation is the dolphins and whales advocate. Aruba Reef Care does an annual reef and beaches cleanup and awareness in schools a few times a year. Turtugaruba protects and provides awareness on the sea turtles and annual nesting seasons. Aruba Marine Park Foundation assists PhD candidates in marine research on for instance conch, including the national Pacific Red Lion Fish invasion program. Aruba Bird Life Conservation fights for 16 parliament approved protection areas and is the official authority on bird protection. 

The newest kid on the block is Ser Social Foundation, which is a foundation that not only has nature and environmental protection interests but also raises money to help other environmental/social causes and programs such as recycling in schools and businesses. 

During your week stay in Aruba, you produce about 100 lbs of waste, you pay the government $21.00 in fees but it’s these NGO’s are the ones that do the work for free. So where does this leave the marine biodiversity? 

Unfortunately we are going nowhere. Recently hurricane Matthew caused some damage to the shoreline and hundreds of sea stars were wiped out in a matter of hours. 

These acts of nature are a constant reminder that we need to start to do something for real instead of just relying on the goodwill of the NGO’s. Conference after conference ideas are being presented but again to no avail. 

We keep destroying nature and the natural resources that are the backbone of our tourism industry.   

  

The economic impact of nature or in this case the marine biodiversity in society is measurable. If we destroy it the economic balance will shift in such a way that we will never be able to recover. 

Think for one moment. If you have no sand and sea to sell, what will happen to the thousands of jobs in the water sport industry, bookings, concierge, and tour operators?

Doc.