Pemba

Conserving marine resources is important to me so instead of another day of frivolously blowing bubbles and oggling corals I opted to invest some time and energy into working with a local turtle conservation program.

Eco2Diving sponsors a portion of a local seaweed farming operation. The core belief is that by offering a sustainable, eco friendly, reliable alternative source of income to the local community in exchange for a promise to stop harvesting turtles and eggs, there should be a win-win for all parties.

I spent the day waist deep in crystalline waters helping (to the best of my limited ability) re-stake the lines on which two macro algaes are grown. The algaes are some type of branching phaeophyta, I think. There are a couple of color morphs and maybe more than two phenotypes. That level of detail was beyond our communication skills.

It is a simple process: twice/month at low tide the farmers wade out into the sandy shallows to fix wave damage, harvest sufficiently large algae, and re-seed the lines with smaller specimens (made by dividing medium sized specimens). Re-tying the lines with seed algae was a great time for the (almost entirely female) group tomsit together and gossip.

The harvested algae is then dried and sold to a local buyer to be used in a host of foods, cosmetics, and industrial products.

The farms themselves have little negative impact- from what I can tell it would only be the foot traffic on the seagrass beds (significant) and the killing of urchins and sea stars that graze on the algae. I'd bet that the net-effect on urchin/star populations might be positive despite killing them because the farms provide disturbed habitat that urchins love, as well as an increase in food and hiding places. It would make for an interesting study.

I'd also love to see a study of the stars' impact on the algae as I am under the impression that they're far more likely to eat the urchins than the algae and educating the farmers on that topic could improve the experience for everyone (except the urchins).

There's no doubt in my mind that the farms do provide significant habitat for juvenile marine species: we saw many fish, eels, and crabs while working.

The chief benefit is the reduction in turtle harvest, assuming that the community honors the pledge to focus on seaweed income vs. killing turtles. I've no way of knowing if that works but I can't see how it could make the problem any more severe and it's easy to imagine that most people are sincere/honest about not cheating the deal.

In all, it was a fun day on/in the water doing something I've never done before and experiencing the local culture and people. I was impressed by how happily people were working and how much it seemed like a community effort.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was when a woman sloshed by singing. It struck me as a beautiful moment in many ways and I'm glad I was there for it.Read more