Utila – Week 5, Day 6: Underwater Gardening
UTILA
Week 5
Day 6: Underwater Gradening
December 16, 2022
A long, long day was ahead of me. First up would be the coral restoration dives, then a workshop, and finally yet another course I had signed up for.
I woke up super excited at the idea of putting into practice everything we had learned the previous day about coral. In Utila, there are three coral nurseries, Rachel explained. We’d be going to the one next to Bando Beach – one I’d already visited on a couple of occasions. Our job on the first dive would be to locate the nursery – a set of eight PVC trees with tiny pieces of coral hanging from their branches on a sandy patch. Then, using a big brush for the large pipes and a toothbrush for the coral and the lines they’re attached to, we’d brush off any algae (which suffocates the coral), or any other growths or animals like fire coral or fireworms — which can kill the coral.
According to both Catherine and Rachel, this work is incredibly meditative – kinda like gardening but with the added bonus of floating in midwater. It’s simple. All we’d have to do is clean and get lost in the process.
They only mentioned three rules. First off – don’t lose the brush. I’d already lost a weight belt, I’d be damned if I lost a brush too! Then came good buoyancy – grabbing onto the trees could either result in touching something you really don’t wanna touch or, even worse, breaking the tree itself. The third: a proper horizontal trim was also necessary – standing upright would get you all tangled up in the coral. For once, I felt quite confident about the whole thing.
Underwater Gardening at Bando Beach
As soon as we got to Bando Beach, we geared up and jumped in the water. We headed to the familiar site – the dirty PVC trees waiting for us in all their glory.
I picked coral tree number seven and immediately got on with the job. It reminded me a lot of dusting — one of my favourite chores. I started off slowly, using the big brush for the larger sections and the toothbrush for the delicate parts. I was in my zone. It was, as Rachel had mentioned, incredibly meditative and restorative. I felt an inner peace unlike any other and, to top it all off, we were helping the ocean. I could see myself becoming an expert in this field, given how much I enjoyed the entire process.
Branch by branch, the grimy green tree was slowly becoming white again, the dull staghorn coral regaining its orange glow. I made my way down with all the calmness and composure you’d expect from the Queen herself, the tree glistening in its new cleanliness. Unfortunately, I had a few branches left when someone else was running low on air and we had to turn back. Meanwhile, my tank was nearly full – I guess it’s the whole zen thing, huh?
On our way to the boat, Rachel and Catherine showed us areas where new coral had been transplanted using epoxy – something they’d done themselves a few weeks earlier, with a total of 800 coral transplants over a couple of days. Such a pity we wouldn’t be able to do that. In order to transplant coral, Catherine told us, the branches need to be a minimum of 12 centimeters, which, sadly, the ones in the nursery weren’t.
In addition, we were told that despite this being an excellent initiative, transplanting monoclonal coral isn’t ideal – with coral’s resilience to increased water temperature and acidity being partly due to genetic variation. New technologies – like genetically modified corals – are perhaps paving the way for the future. That said, coral restoration itself barely makes a dent on the grand scheme of things – there is no substitute for climate action.
Calamity Strikes Again
The second dive was meant to be a tour around the coral reef during which Catherine and Rachel would show us different types of coral and teach us how to distinguish between healthy and sick ones.
During the brief, we decided to spend the first part of the dive cleaning the remaining trees in the nursery. I, for one, hate unfinished business — plus, I really wanted to do more of it since I had enjoyed it so much. While gearing up, I noticed my brush was gone. I was 100% sure I had put it back in the supply net – yet somehow, it had vanished. Conveniently enough, Corys now had the same blue brush I had used, claiming she’d had it during the first dive too. To this day, I’m nearly certain she lost hers and tried to pin it on the “weight belt-dropping” guy. Well friggin’ played, Corys the Snake.
Back underwater and brandishing Catherine’s extra brush, it took me just a few minutes to clean up what was left of tree number seven, which, by the end, was a glorious sight to behold — at least for me. When I finished, all I had left was the rope tying the tree to a cement block on the seafloor. I grabbed it with one hand and, while brushing the algae with the other, I slid down, cleaning it as I went along.
At the end, I felt a burning sensation on the palm of my hand. I looked down and saw a ghastly green substance oozing out of it. For a second, I thought it was leftover ectoplasm from the ghostly remnants of the algae I’d just decimated. It took me a moment to realize I’d cut my hand on sharp shells stuck to the rope as I slid down – effectively butchering my palm. The blood, of course, looked green because of the depth.
I ascended a bit and rested against the PVC tree as I took a second to regroup and recover. That’s when I accidentally brushed my pinkie on some fire coral. One disclaimer y’all — don’t try this at home (if you’re a weirdo who happens to grow fire coral at home, that is). It hurts like a mother. I let out the loudest squeal, catching everyone’s attention. It burned, itched, and hurt like crazy. I literally couldn’t focus on anything else.
I didn’t even mind the remora nibbling at my leg while I cradled my hand and moaned in pain. Needless to say, I didn’t retain much of what transpired during the second part of the dive.
Sidetracked by Sidemount
Back at the dive shop, all bandaged up and covered in hydrocortisone, I had the confined portion of the DSD workshop with Darcy. Again, knowing I’d be working with her sent my nerves through the roof. I didn’t wanna mess up in front of her!
Luckily, she seemed pretty distracted for some reason or another – and the workshop was something even a blind monkey could do. We basically had to read off a flipchart to brief our clients before a dive and then head underwater to show them a few basic skills. That’s it. It’s funny how when I had started the divemaster course, everything felt so out of reach. Now, some of those things were easy. I genuinely never would have thought I’d ever get to this level – even though I was still prone to making massive mistake – like dropping weight belts, slicing my hand with razor clams, and touching fire coral.
After this, it was finally time for something I’d been looking forward to ever since I had extended my stay in Utila — one of the coolest specialty courses, and one I never thought I’d get to do at Underwater Vision: the PADI Sidemount Diver course!
I’d seen a few divers rocking two tanks instead of one, swinging them from their sides to the front in this smooth, Transformers-like motion. So, so cool! And in a couple of days, I’d be just as cool. Together with Clive, I’d be learning from Noah. First, we did a short presentation, then headed to the classroom to set up our harnesses.
Turns out, for sidemount, we’d be setting aside our usual BCDs and using a harness that holds two tanks and an inflatable bladder. Even the gear was new to me. Getting the sizing right was a mission – the straps and buckles were a nightmare to adjust. It took me nearly an hour to size my harness and set up the tanks – probably cause when I was a kid, I played with Playmobil – not tools.
Once we were both done, we left our equipment in the shed so we’d find everything ready for the confined session the following day and the open water dive after that. Man was I excited!
Stay wild,
Marius
Post-Scriptum
With the day being as hectic as it was, I totally forgot I’d hit my 60th dive! Yet another thing to check off the divemaster scoreboard. By this point in time, my section was nearly complete – meaning my training programme was nearing its end. Bittersweet.