Winter Term in Paradise: Corals, Climate, and Communication in Bonaire

The Caribbean island of Bonaire is widely considered throughout the world to be a spectacular tourist destination. What makes it so special? The beautiful, well-kept reefs surrounding it make it the perfect spot for snorkelers and scuba divers to see immaculate marine life. 

This dream destination for marine life enthusiasts relies almost entirely on the health of these world-renowned reefs, but with recent rapid coral reef decline through disease and bleaching, these reefs may not last much longer.

A group of about 20 Eckerd College students set out for the first time on a 10-day trip to learn more about these reefs and what we can do to help them. We worked with Reef Renewal Bonaire, a non-profit dedicated to restoring these coral reefs, to learn more about what it takes to care for such a unique and underdeveloped ecosystem.

We also carried out field interviews, speaking with tourist divers at Buddy Dive Resort, where we were staying, to seek out knowledge on the role of scuba divers and instructors in these areas. Along with all this, we ourselves got the opportunity to dive along these reefs to see the beauty that so many never get to see in their lifetimes, and in turn, learn how to protect them so future generations can have the same opportunity.

To finish up the class, we have been working on infographics to communicate the important knowledge we have gained and fill in the educational gaps we have observed in our time speaking with resort-stayers. These vessels of communication will be sent back to the resort to hopefully be used and make a difference in diver awareness and public coral reef education.

This study abroad’s unique mix of scientific education and outstanding hands-on experience with the very organisms we were studying has changed how I look at reefs. The moment that struck me the most from this experience is when the group of peers I was working with sat down towards the end of the trip and got the chance to actually realize the shift in our brains that had occurred in how we see reefs. We realized that the underwater environments we had once seen as a pretty landscape to dive in for fun had become something much more important to our lives. For the first time, this trip gave us a sense of our responsibility as divers and as scientists, and along with that, our responsibility to spread this knowledge.

 Star boulder coral alongside limestone coral backbone covered in algae and sponge (photo credit Avery Guck)