Of Heron Island’s Beauty, Beaches and Butterfly fishes

Credit: Sam Ecker

Heron Island, what a beautiful place. Your beauty shines forth every single day. In all weather conditions you never ceased to shine. Come rain, come sunshine, Heron Island you remained the best. The first few days we visited you, you had overcast skies, and rainfall. We were all mortified because all we wanted in Heron was sunshine, and beaches, just to complete our stay. But, oh how we were wrong. Even in the midst of mists and rainfall, with your ocean winds travelling at several knots per hour, we braved the beaches in order to view your magnificent array of fishes, corals, sharks, sting rays, invertebrates, plankton, sea stars, and sea cucumbers as we entered the stone cold water in your ocean. Decked in our black wet suits, colorful flappers, and snorkel masks, we were off from the start into the waters. Bracing ourselves for the first dip into the cold water, we sooner rather than later forgot all about the cold, as your beauty caused us to marvel. This was The Great Barrier Reef.

Credit: Katy Storch

Credit Katy Storch

Credit: Sammy Nguyen

It was just amazing what we were able to see in the oceans. Just the diversity and vigor of life underneath the waters was a pure wonder. Learning all about the amazing coral reefs and realizing that such diversity is threatened in our lifetime was astounding. Due to climate change, the Great Barrier Reef is vulnerable to disappearing by the year 2099. The increasing carbon dioxide levels in the oceans from anthropogenic activities and the increasing temperatures due to global warming will increase the likelihood of coral bleaching. Bleaching occurs when corals overheat and lose their symbiotic zooxanthallae, resulting in loss of energy for survival. If these corals are destroyed, our seas will become deserts of nothingness, and the colorful spectrum of life in corals will disappear. The Great Barrier Reef may disappear! This is sad news L. 

Credit: Ana Guerra

We want to live in a generation where even our children’s children will be able to experience the beauty of nature at its best. Nature as paraded by the beautiful stripped surgeonfishes, the laborious cleaner wrasses, the cruising sting rays, the bargaining cute baby turtles, the pointy-mouth butterfly fishes, the sly wrasse fish mimic, the slender lemon sharks, the elusive clown fish, the charismatic hump back whales, the lost- years loggerhead turtles, the gigantic manta rays, and the dancing anemone fishes. All these brilliant fauna found in the oceans is threatened by climate change, but if each and every one of us does our part, from reducing plastic waste, to saving light energy, we can all be a step closer to sustaining our natural environments. But, as it stands, Heron Island is still one of the most scenic places to visit, and we hope that it remains through time.

Sunset over the oceans