The Centro Ecológico Akumal recently began its first coral reef surveying program in order to monitor the health of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef off Akumal Bay. While researchers and students from Cornell University have observed coral community structure in the Akumal area since 1994, a long-term reef-monitoring program has never been initiated CEA staff and volunteers. It is important to examine the health of the coral and the reef in general, over extended spatial and temporal scales, in order to have a better idea of how the increasing development in the area is affecting the reef. We may also be working with several organizations that monitor reef health in order to identify fish populations living in the bay and monitor their diversity and abundance over the years. This is important as it is thought that Akumal´s reef fish are under intense overfishing pressure. Ideally, our goal is to create a database from which we can detect a potential difference in the abundance and diversity of coral and fish on the reef. This information could then be used to influence future policy decisions regarding the extent to which the Quintana Roo coast will be developed for tourism, thus potentially extending the lifetime of the beautiful and fragile Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

Visit the following websites to learn more about reefs.
Click here to visit the REEF.org site.

Click here to visit Reef Check.

Click here to visit the Coral Reef Adventure site.