So Much Change, So Little Time | Sea of Hope: America’s Underwater Treasures

we are just beginning to understand that
loss of grouper and parrotfish has a
domino effect and kills the reef it’s
happening so fast it doesn’t take an
old-timer to remember the good old days
in just my short lifetime of 19 years
been able to see immense change in the
at least the one habitat that I’ve been
able to dive on it says for with my dad
the way I remember it is this absolutely
magical place these immaculate reefs
such vibrant color no matter where you
went a treasure trove of fish and
incredible ecosystem but now going back
the last three years it looks like a
pile of rubble after a building was
demolished in New York City
it’s all gray and white and crumbled and
the fish are gone and and that’s only
and that’s it in 12 years yeah
the waters around Buck Island are an
oasis in a fast expanding wasteland
fueled by climate change and overfishing
I would love to have seen what you saw
here as a boy the fish population was
very diverse very large very colorful
but you know even my benchmark was
nothing in comparison to my father’s
benchmark he went that you should have
seen it when I was a boy you know these
are small fish compared to when he was
growing up the corals need the fish the
fish need the corals you take the fish
away
yeah the corals are stressed expanding
the refuge to embrace the devastated
reefs outside of the monument will give
the natural systems a chance to recover
people say I came from a different
planet I did the planet was so different
when I arrived
90% of the big fish already gone but the
great news is we can turn the corner we
can restore
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