The Puffer Forum

During my trip to the Philippines, I had the honor of spending the week with one of the #1 underwater cinematographers in the world, Stan Waterman. While he was there, he was reviewing some videos sent in for a very elite photo contest. Check them out here: http://www.underwaterimages.org. He was reviewing this very sad video about puffers dying in great numbers, for a conservation section of the contest. It took some time to track down the author but I finally have. Here is his commentary & the video:

"A SMALL WARNING

I started diving by taking a resort course in Isla Mujeres in Mexico. Over time I took many more resort courses and then finally I received my C-Card. Shortly thereafter my wife (Sandrah, who narrates the video) received her card and we try to dive as often as possible – it is our passion. We are both Advanced Open Water Divers and Nitrox certified. In addition, I am a Dive Medical Technician. Our video “Akumal…In Decline” took first place in the Conservation category in Underwater Images 2008 and was featured by coral.org to promote environmental concerns.

We go to Mexico often and discovered the so-called “Riviera Maya", earlier this decade. As tourism exploded, so have environmental issues. There are ten times as many hotel rooms as there were 10 years ago. The number of tourists is expected to grow from 3,000,000 to 7,000,000 people a year in the next decade. Developers are spending money in the area building major resorts and condominiums. An airport is being built to handle the greater influx of visitors to the area. When we first went to the area there was more marine life and the reefs were in fairly good shape. But things began to change. The conditions of the reefs worsened and there is less and less marine life. The exception is in Marine Protected Zones where environmental laws and regulations are enforced.

In late March, 2008, after “Akumal…In Decline” was released, turtles started washing up on the shores of the Rivera Maya. There were reports that the turtles were mistaking plastic for food. Some autopsies on the turtles indicated the plastic was an issue, yet other autopsies revealed no evidence of ingesting plastic and that in fact the turtles were diseased. But this was not the end of the problems and “A Small Warning” describes what we saw during December, 2008.

In December, 2008 there was a substantial increase in the number of Sharpnose Puffers, with the common theme that the areas having population explosions in areas that are not protected areas and had poor water quality. Akumal, and the immediately surrounding areas, were some of the areas hit the hardest with the explosion. They also seem to be the only areas where the Sharpnose Puffers were showing severe signs of disease and infection - growths, warts and even behavior changes. They were swimming up to us and dying as we watched. It was heartbreaking as they appeared to be looking for help and would even swim into our hands to rest.

Prior scientific research indicates of what we witnessed is a form of disease bought on by environmental stressors, including pollution, though as of now there is no definitive answer as to what we saw. Preliminary autopsies on the Puffers showed strange abnormalities, including a film like substance on their livers. The water conditions in the area are extremely poor – the reefs are covered with algae due to excessive nutrients from sewage and improperly treated water. We were also told that the beaches, if they were in the U.S., would be shut down due to pollution.

2008 was the International Year of the Reef. We started the year watching massive algae blooms in the Riviera Maya due to pollution. It continued as turtles began washing up dead and dying on beaches. In December, 2008 the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network reported that 19% of the world’s Coral Reefs are now destroyed and that the remaining reefs could be gone within the next 20-40 years. Then we closed the year watching diseased Puffers die before our eyes. Every year that passes gives us warning of the dangers facing the oceans and actions need to be taken before it is too late and the situation can no longer be reversed."

http://divefile.com/asw.php

That's horrible and heart-breaking .... unfortunately I don't see any good coming in the future. People are too much into the "me" thing, they don't care about puffers and turtles, they care about having fun and partying. I think it's a sad comment on humanity that we are basically poisoning our oceans, rivers and lakes, killing beautiful fish and other animals that can never be replaced. How selfish is that? We're getting very close to the point of no return, if something isn't done soon, we will lose lots of sea life and there will be no way to bring them back.

Makes me feel very sad.

I've seen that vid over & over & I cry every time...

I started getting sniffly just reading about it!

That's so sad.

A... *small* warning?

Pretty sure because it's a "small" species.

A sad but realistic picture of what's currently taking place around the world.
Pollution from mining operations, deforestation activity, untreated wastewater, agricultural runoff, and just plain garbage, such as plastic items getting tossed into the waterways. It happens in Africa, the Rain Forests, and areas such as Borneo, where numerous species of fish have yet to even be discovered.

Thanks for posting that vid Jeni.

This explosion of the population happened in a wide part of the Carribean. The cause is so far only speculation, I remember a similar porcupine puffer mass occurence several years ago. For some reason far more larvae than usual survived and developed into puffers. Maybe severe changes in the composition of the plankton and the number of its predators have occured.

With regards to the deaths of many of these puffers... There are too many for the ecosystem right now. The population declines again to a "natural" level. It's clear that the more fish you have the easier it is for pathogens to spread. I have not seen any proper report of a dissection of some of these so far... so I don't have accurate information.

Well, it's possible that environmental issues, even climate change are the culprit. We also need to be careful when blaming the poorer countries only, because in the end most of the environmental destruction around the world is based on our Western countries, culture and our demand on resources from the "less developed" countries as well as the lifestyle role model we give. This definitely includes our travelling the world for holidays and to dive... imagine if all 7 billion humans would do that... how many hotels, fuel, plastic, waste water... what a destruction this would result in.

Every plastic bottle that I bring with me on a dive trip comes back with me in my luggage.

I drive my roomies crazy because I insist on recycling. But there's a lot more that I should be doing. KY needs to quit using coal for all their fuel, and I should be in Kentuckians for the Commonwealth working on that. I need to remember to turn more things off when I'm not using them. I need to take shorter showers. Gotta quit using aerosol. Gotta never buy a wild-caught fish again unless for purposes of enhancing broodstock (if I ever actually breed anything). And I need to quit throwing away the things I could have recycled but didn't because I was too lazy to wash them...

I think if we are all honest, there's A LOT more we could all do to make this world a better place. All it takes is a little effort on everyone's part.

As Corvus says above, these sorts of things happen. It's also important to recognise these sorts of population explosions -- and subsequent crashes -- are not only normal, but "built into" how animal population dynamics work.

All animals produce more offspring than are needed to replace that year's mortality, usually by orders of magnitude. The surplus animals mostly die for one reason or another, but some may be carried away by currents or whatever to new habitats, and so set up new populations outside of the original one. Producing surplus offspring also means that if there is an unusually good year for breeding afterwards, those surplus ones can breed as well, beefing up population numbers further. If there's a bad year, for example lots of animals starve, then having big populations means that at least some will survive.

We normally don't see this cycling because we are most aware of large animals, and the fluctuations in large animal populations are relatively slow paced. Small animals cycle much more quickly, and occasionally, we get to see this: plagues of ladybirds, locust swarms, big flocks of starlings, and so on.

Jeni, diving is a particularly difficult thing to justify ecologically. Taking plastic trash home with you is a small step in the right direction, but there's a huge number of remaining problems. Where do sleep? What do you eat? Where does the waste and sewage you produce end up? What about the electricity used for lighting and cleaning? What about the gas and petrol used for warmth and transportation? Was the harbour you used built on an old coral reef or mangrove? How did you get to the diving site? Airplanes are unquestionably massive polluters, and not just in terms of fuel, but also because airports are incredibly toxic sites in so many ways. I'm not singling you out here: I'm flying off to the US next month, and absolutely, much of what I'll be doing in this way is harmful to the environment.

On the other hand, LilGreenPuffer, buying wild-caught fish provides an economic justification to preserve a given habitat, whether a coral reef or a rainforest stream. Historically, humans haven't been very good at handling this, and we've tended to exploit a habitat fully until it's destroyed, and then simply moved on. But if we are going to create a sustainable global economy, it's going to have to take into account not everyone is going to be working selling insurance or writing blogs, and for people in the developing world, sustainably harvesting ornamental fish is one very good way to do this. As I've said above, most animals produce far too many offspring per year, and while some will be eaten by predators, others simply starve or fail to find nesting sites, so are effectively worthless. Harvesting these surplus fish is entirely sustainable. Biologists can calculate this number fairly accurately, and it's called the maximum sustainable yield or MSY.

The thing is that most of these problems would be immaterial if there weren't so many people on this planet. So long as there 6 billion people on the planet, and they all want to drive cars, and they all want to have two kids, things WILL get worse. Much worse.

Cheers, Neale

buying wild-caught fish provides an economic justification to preserve a given habitat, whether a coral reef or a rainforest stream. Historically, humans haven't been very good at handling this, and we've tended to exploit a habitat fully until it's destroyed, and then simply moved on. But if we are going to create a sustainable global economy, it's going to have to take into account not everyone is going to be working selling insurance or writing blogs, and for people in the developing world, sustainably harvesting ornamental fish is one very good way to do this. As I've said above, most animals produce far too many offspring per year, and while some will be eaten by predators, others simply starve or fail to find nesting sites, so are effectively worthless. Harvesting these surplus fish is entirely sustainable. Biologists can calculate this number fairly accurately, and it's called the maximum sustainable yield or MSY.

The thing is that most of these problems would be immaterial if there weren't so many people on this planet. So long as there 6 billion people on the planet, and they all want to drive cars, and they all want to have two kids, things WILL get worse. Much worse.

Perfectly explained, Neale. I absolutely agree.

In December, 2008 there was a substantial increase in the number of Sharpnose Puffers, with the common theme that the areas having population explosions in areas that are not protected areas and had poor water quality. Akumal, and the immediately surrounding areas, were some of the areas hit the hardest with the explosion. They also seem to be the only areas where the Sharpnose Puffers were showing severe signs of disease and infection - growths, warts and even behavior changes. They were swimming up to us and dying as we watched. It was heartbreaking as they appeared to be looking for help and would even swim into our hands to rest.

This part was the worst ofr me but i understand why it's happening as corvus explained.