| Date: Sat 09-Oct-1993 Paper Page: 7 Publication: Daily Nation Author: Tony Vanterpool QUITE UNINTERNTIONALLY Government is providing a snorkeller's paradise at Accra Beach. I emphasise "quite unintentionally" because when Government set about its million-dollar Coastal Conservation Beach Improvement and Breakwater project at Rockley, Christ Church, perhaps the last thing it had in mind was the provision of a beautiful fish habitat where snorkellers could indulge to the fullest. But that it how things are turning out off Accra. And one of Barbados' leading naturalists has been the first to make the discovery. When I spoke to Bill Miller he was very excited; he was also very anxious to tell me what he had found. Bill says: "Last Sunday morning -- at the first light of day -- I drove down to Accra Beach to investigate first-hand, with mask, fins and snorkel, what had been accomplished underwater by the recently concluded Coastal Conservation Project. Basically the project was intended to improve the quality of that popular beach by constructing an off-shore artificial barrier reef to help deflect the eroding action of incoming waves, so as to stabilise the build-up of attractive white sand on the beach. But what I found was an unexpected dimension to this project: a snorkeller's delight in the form of a brand new habitat for thousands of fish within easy snorkeling access from shore!" Favourite pastime Here is how the energetic Bill described his experience! "It was a a beautiful calm morning and I hastened to put on my snorkeling gear and wasted no time finning-out over the murky shallows of the long-dead old coral reef opposite the Rockeley Beach Bar. Then clear water tempted me to stop briefly for a favourite snorkeling pastime -- shallow diving to smash-up some of the long-spined black sea urchins in their nooks and crannies of the dead reef, to attract the voracious small bottom fish that love the "sea egg" roe once it is exposed by my aluminum probe. That done I headed out over the deeper, white sand bottom to approach the closest of the two, towering concrete-and-steel markers that define the limits of the coral rock barrier. For the new reef is composed almost entirely of massive coral stone rocks from an island quarry. Actually bed rock coral studded with marine fossils and ancient corals from Barbados' reefs of long ago." Bill explained that after passing over the last area of clear sand at about 14 feet depth he arrived at the marker and upon looking up was confronted with a fascinating sight of a towering barrier of stones of varying shades of brown, green and white. These indicated the time lapse between the dropping of the bottom layer and the latest addition of snow-white coral stones at the top of the pyramid shaped (in cross section) reef, in the wave splash zone of low tide. He adds: "Actually a classic study in the progressive colonisation of the new reef by the most fundamental and minute sea plants -- the algae -- that will soon change the white to brown and provided pastures for juvenile fish and other marine creatures to feast upon." But at that point he snorkeled around the marker to the outer face of the reef where he soon realised he had stumbled upon what he had always missed in Barbados snorkeling; an easy access underwater reef populated with masses of beautiful reef fish. "They were literally swarming over and around the upper level rocks close to the surface, where the early morning sun, glinting off their shiny scales, created an awesome spectacle of the beauty of nature rarely seen in our on-shore waters." Bill encountered a reef offering a multitude of rock caves for the more secretive reef dwellers -- like snappers, chubs, hinds et al, while schools of the more colourful grunts and wrasse seemed to prefer the upper levels as they gracefully rode the waves passing over the reef. Certainly a reef packed with fish obviously attracted by a brand new home in this Accra sea-barrier project! Howling success He says: "Thus, as a naturalist and environmentalist long concerned with the development of underwater reef habitats to attract and hold fish on our nearby seafloor, I pronounce the Accra Beach Project a howling success, even if it does not add one grain of sand to the present beach! "For if there is one thing this island needs is to advance watersports tourism, it is a safe and accessible place to snorkel and see fish around our shores. So keep up the good work, Coastal Conservation; we need many more reefs like this around the island." But this old time Virgin Islands spearfisherman and watersports tourism operator, had a word of advice for spearfishermen. It was: "Do not allow spearfishing on this all-too-vulnerable reef if a fearless fish population suitable for tourism viewing is to be maintained. Fish soon learn to avoid spearfishermen and hide in the inner recesses of this reef to cheat those who would view and photograph them of the rare opportunity to see so many fish, as yet unmolested by man.
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