“The beautiful coral reefs that surround Curaçao are very important to the island economy, especially in the form of dive tourism. The Curaçao Underwater Park was established in 1983 to help preserve coral reefs present offshore from the Breezes Hotel (now known as Sunscape Curacao Resort, Spa and Casino) to Eastpoint. The purpose of work carried out by Benjamin J. Greenstein (Department of Geology, Cornell College, Iowa U.S.A.) is to learn whether the park has been effective in protecting the reefs inside its boundaries since they were established more than a quarter century ago. One of the problems with determining the “health” of a coral reef is that many reefs were harmed by human activities before scientists had the opportunity to study them. A solution to this problem is to use the fossil reefs exposed in the cliffs of Curaçao as “ecological baselines” for comparison. The fossil coral reefs exposed in the cliffs (at the water’s edge lived 125,000 years ago, long before humans could have disturbed them. They are conducting extensive surveys of several fossil reefs to determine what corals were present and how abundant they were and compare those results surveys of modern reefs inside and outside the Underwater Park. Their results indicate that the modern reefs inside the park are more similar to the fossil reefs than those outside the park. This indicates to us that the reefs inside the park closely match what was “natural” along the shores of Curaçao before extensive human occupation occurred. Thus establishment of the Curaçao Underwater Park seems to have thus far been effective in fostering the development of relatively pristine coral reef communities.”

Learn more – download “An overview of the ecological values of the Eastpoint area on Curaçao” via the Carmabi Marine Research Station in Curacao, authored by Prof. Dr. Ben Greenstein (Cornell College, U.S.A.) and Dr. Brigitte Sommers (University of Queensland, Australia)

Related articles about coral conservation and sustainable tourism in Curaçao

Sustainable Dive Tourism in Curacao

Changes in Curacao’s Fish Population Over the 20th Century

Curacao – A Coral Island in the Heart of the Dutch Caribbean

Curacao’s Coral Reefs