8. 2023, insights so far & what’s next?

Dear Reader,

Happy new year! I hope everyone of you have had a nice new years-evening and gained some new positive energy for the coming year! Here, in Curaçao, we celebrated it as well under the palmtrees! And for now, this thesis project is already going on and the first interviews are already planned. Just before Christmas I finished the first mid-term report, which helped me to summarize all thoughts, data and the first insights. After I interview the last people coming weeks, I will re-read this report and hopefully it will remind me of my thoughts I have had so far.

Insights so far
To summarize the first mid-term report in short, there is a big difference between the frames of fishermen and divers. However, to understand this, it is important to ask yourself the questions: What is a fisher? – or – What is a diver? So far, there is so much variation between fishers and divers that it is almost impossible to generalize my findings. However, without being biased of one of the groups it is also important to understand that both groups of people belong to a certain group. So on the one hand, generalizing is not possible, but understanding them as the same group is also not possible.

Now I’ve said that, there are some differences I’ve seen so far. Fishers show less dedication to the protection of each individual coral, and they understand the existence of the coral reef more of something that is there and is not really something that should need to be protected. In my own thoughts, sometimes I’ve compared their understanding of coral reefs, how we understand grass, weeds, or trees at land. It is there, but it does not necessarily need protection, because their existence is just part of the system without thinking explicitly about it. Some fishers who dived saw some decrease in coral reefs the last few decades, but they are mentioning that the corals will grow back, and that nature will repair itself, or by the help of God. Knowledge that fishers have shown me so far about their understanding of coral reefs with the larger ecosystem is that corals provide shelter for fish and other animals. Many fishers have told me that they don’t know anything about corals, coral reefs, or the underwater ecosystem. 

This completely differs from professional SCUBA divers, who understand corals to be better maintained and protected both individually and on a larger scale. In my understanding, there is less variation in how professional SCUBA divers frame the health of coral reefs. All divers who I talked with tried to give the best description of coral reefs, its change over the years and their understanding of the biggest impacts on the reefs. Some divers showed more emotional connection to the reef than others, but overall, they understand the reef as animals or at least, important living creatures that should be protected. Some divers think that coral reefs should be repaired by human interaction. 

Besides these differences in frames on coral reefs, there are also important insights I have had on conflicts between the two groups, which could help me figuring out their ideas on management strategies. These conflicts are mostly based on the different ideas of using the marine environment. As fishers would like to take the fish out of the water, divers would like to enjoy the fish and the underwater world. One example of this conflict is that fishers who fish close by the coast are using anchors to one fix their boat on one specific spot. Fishers think that anchoring does not or have minimum influence on the coral reef, while divers think this influences the reef in a large extent. There are also conflicts of trust and communication between the users and the authorities. Fishermen express feelings about the governmental authorities of distrust and lack of communication. 

What’s next?
The coming 3-4 weeks I would like to deepening these insights by getting in contact with some people I haven’t spoke with yet. On the planning, there are some interviews with a diver who is diving on Curaçao for more than 60 years, an employee of SECORE, a marine biologist, some local fishermen and a Marine Park Manager. Besides these planned interviews I hopefully will meet some others for some more informal conversation. At the same time I will still continue the parttime internship at ReefRenewal, which provides me more insights in how they try to restore a coral reef.

Overall, there is still enough to do and then the fun part begins: the Analysis! I’m really looking forward to create some order in all this chaos of thoughts, insides and ideas. For now, I hope I’ve informed you enough to have a glimpse of my research and I wish you all the best in this new, beautiful year of 2023.

Michiel