Precious Buccoo Reef
Anjani Ganase, Trinbagonian marine biologist, begins a weekly column on the value of coral reefs to our islands and people, and especially Tobago. This, the first of her series, was published in the Tobago Newsday on Thursday, July 14, 2016 Anjani Ganase is completing her PhD in Coral Reef surveys The Buccoo reef is considered a national and natural icon by Trinbagonians. Yet few of us have had the luxury of exploring beyond the upper edges of the reef, barely a couple metres below the sea surface. To fully understand the true beauty and importance of the Buccoo reef, you need to dive deeper in order to discover and understand how the reef functions. The Buccoo reef, like many other reefs around the world, is a metropolis for marine life, where corals – stationary animals that grow by building a limestone skeleton – create homes for animals, such as fish, lobster and other invertebrates, sponges, anemones, and plants that live and grow on and among the cora...