The first time I saw a crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) outbreak in person, I thought something had gone wrong with my eyes. The reef slope ahead of me was covered in them — fifteen, twenty, thirty of the animals visible…
I’ve planted coral. I want to say upfront that I’m aware of the complexity around that statement — the debates about whether reef restoration is a meaningful response to a climate-driven problem, the questions about genetic diversity and transplant survival,…
The Cod Hole has a reputation that precedes it by decades, and in my experience, it earns every bit of that reputation on every single dive. The site is a section of Ribbon Reef No. 10, the northernmost of the…
I spent an entire dive once watching a hawksbill turtle eat a sponge. This sounds like it might be a dull dive. It wasn’t. The turtle worked methodically along a section of reef wall, using its narrow, pointed beak to…
A diver I respect enormously once told me that the most important thing she does for the reef is show up and bring money. She meant it seriously, and I think she’s right, up to a point. Reef tourism —…