Dec 17, 2023
Who wouldn’t like to visit a tropical paradise? Virgin Islands
National Park in the Caribbean is one such paradise. It resides on
the island of St. John, and features beaches sparkling white and
lined with palm trees and other tropical vegetation. Those beaches
are washed by warm, turquoise waters that provide habitat for sea
turtles the size of trunks, colorful fishes like blue tang and
parrot fish, and even menacing barracuda.
While the national park might seem idyllic from above water,
beneath the surface of the Caribbean Sea, the once vibrant coral
reefs have been impacted by a bleaching event caused by abnormally
high ocean temperatures compounded with disease, that together
could have devastating consequences. Snorkel or scuba dive in the
national park’s waters, or those that surround Virgin Islands Coral
Reef National Monument, Buck Island Reef National Monument, or Salt
River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, and in
many directions you’ll see a seemingly lifeless seascape.
To better understand what’s going on, we’re joined today by Jeff
Miller, a National Park Service fisheries biologist who, before he
retired back in 2021, worked with the South Florida Caribbean
Inventory and Monitoring Network on developing a coral and
fisheries monitoring program.