Joanna Hughes

Cosmic

cosmicrays2

Cosmic man….No, this has nothing to do with man. Though learning they exist does. Cosmic Rays, the most energetic of rays come from outside of our galaxy. The rays are tiny fragments of atoms and no-one knows where they came from until recently. They still don’t know what the mechanism to accelerate the particles and propel them through into our galaxy is. This picture is an illustration of how they disseminate. It was an inspiration for my Blue Universe painting seen in another post here.

We are being showered by cosmic rays from somewhere outside our galaxy, and we can’t see them or feel them! The mind is blown. I’m just going to sit and ponder what that might feel like…

Maybe it will inspire me for future paintings.

Research reported:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1266

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/21/16335164/pierre-auger-observatory-cosmic-ray-galaxies-air-shower-particles

Blue Universe

JO @ MOTHER- RETOUCHED VERSION copy

Blue Universe 2015 Canvas, acrylic, wax and charcoal pencil. 2.5m x 1.5m

I Love You Free 💙

“……in a single day and night of misfortune, the Island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.” -Plato 360 B.C. (From Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Walt Disney)

Palancar Caves, Cozumel. Mesoamerican Reef

The reef, the magnificent reef. These coral structures both are delicate and bold. They are the forests of the seas, the secret gardens held in writer imaginations. They are explosive, vast, visual caverns with peaks and troughs. But also soft and intimate brain puzzles. Simple in colour sometimes, and then sometimes not, with a cacophony of intense, vibrant coloured hues. Coral is Atlantis in the imagination, both elusive and fascinating. Every life has a purpose here, accurately working on maintaining a delicate balance and keeping the equilibrium.

I started diving for the first time on Cozumel, an Island in the Mexican Caribbean just a few weeks ago when I came to live here. I found myself staring at the coral as much as the fish. Then I noticed I was looking more at the coral than the fish. Though, when I spotted a little Pipehorse I did get super excited. Ok well, same goes for Spotted Eagle Ray, Blacktip Reef Shark, Hawksbill Turtle, The Splendid Toadfish (actual name), Spotted Moray Eel et al.. Now I’m name dropping! Sometimes I just can’t describe accurately enough how they can blow one’s mind. Maybe that is in part the drug of diving. You can’t, so you dive again to be in that unique space, that water space universe. But today for first time armed with a torch I looked again as I had many times before at a light, opaque soft coral. They are shaped and the size of a small planter. I could see this time that it was bright white and it’s edges tipped with fluorescent pink. An underwater rave! It’s not the only one, many other corals have fluorescent colours. See the Great Star below. Not that you’d know it here…

Montastraea Cavernosa, or Great Star coral, is a hard builder ‘mountain’ coral.

How to describe the whispering surface? It gently shudders and vibrates like cat hair being blown by a human in the water.

I’m an artist and I couldn’t believe the first time I saw these richly coloured marine mountains, caves and forests. I felt an immediate magnetic pull and an easy instant love. I had to know more. Turns out they are imperative to our survival on earth. Bet you didn’t know that.

The Way of the Complex and Sensitive Warrior!

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They cover less than 0.1% of the surface of the world’s ocean, yet support more than 25% of all marine life. Thanks to their diversity, provide millions of people with food, medicine, protection from storms, and revenue from fishing and tourism. An estimated six million fishermen in 99 reef countries, over a quarter of the world’s small-scale fishermen, harvest from coral reefs. Estimates suggest around 2 million different species live in and around them and produce some of the oxygen we breathe.

I spoke with Ernesto Hevia Del Puerto who is an oceanographer and co-founder of Cozumel Ocean Research (COR) who educated me on coral reefs systems and the one in our back-yard, the Mesoamerican Reef. He said ‘….healthy coral reef systems are like good neighbourhoods, in that good ones need a balance of workers to help the place function well. You can measure a healthy reef in four ways. The quantity of living coral, algae, herbivorous fish (Parrot, Angel) and commercial fish (Snapper, Grouper).’

As with every neighbourhood, there are the good guys and the bad guys. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups, they are good guys. They build the community to be able to provide food and shelter for the marine life. On top of the builders grow the soft corals like Sea Fan and Finger, Tunicates (sponges) and Hydro corals. These are often the fine, vibrant, sensitive structures that you see.

The most important coral family is the hard coral. They are made of a rigid calcium carbonate (limestone) and appear like rocks. Each polyp secretes a hard exoskeleton made up of calcium carbonate and a chalky internal skeleton that stays in place even after they die. As each generation of polyps dies and their exoskeleton remains, the coral grows a bit larger and because each polyp is so small, hard corals grow at a very very slow rate. They called the ‘builder’ corals and without them, a coral reef cannot exist. Examples of the builders are Brain, Staghorn and Mountain coral.

Brain. A hard ‘builder’ coral.

Staghorn, also a ‘builder’. A huge head of Staghorn was lost during hurricane Wilma 2005 in Cozumel. There are gratefully small ones now growing back.

The coral need sunlight, clear water, warm water temperatures and clean water to be able to exist.

Sunlight. Corals need to grow in shallow water where sunlight can reach them. Corals depend on the algae that grow inside of them for oxygen and other things, and since these algae need sunlight to survive, corals also need sunlight to survive.

Clear Water. Corals need clear water that lets sunlight through, they don’t thrive well when the water is opaque. Sediment and plankton can cloud water, which decreases the amount of sunlight that reaches the zooxanthellae (algae).

Warm water temperature. Reef-building corals require warm water conditions to survive. Corals generally live in water temperatures of 68–90° F or 20–32° C.

Clean Water. Corals are sensitive to pollution and sediments. Sediment can create cloudy water and be deposited on corals, blocking out the sun and harming the polyps. Polluted water discharged into the ocean near the reef can contain too many nutrients that cause seaweeds to overgrow the reef.

The second element to a healthy reef is the algae. Corals depend on the Zooxanthellae (algae) that grow inside of them for oxygen and other things. Problems arise as algae are always looking to take over the community. They are the bad guys. I liken them to capitalists without a conscience who will spot a weakness in the system, take advantage that never ceases. The fight eventually becomes futile as the algae take over, the community breaks down. Sound familiar?!

The herbivorous fish feast on the algae, they are the gardeners of the reef. They nibble and trim it back, helping keep the algae in its place.

The last element to the ecosystem is the commercial fish. They eat the herbivorous fish, therefore, keeping a balance. Through overfishing the commercial fish become scarce, the fisherman then turn their attention to the herbivorous fish like the Parrot Fish for their catch. As these fish provide a vital gardening service to maintaining the reef it allows the algae to dominate.

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” -W.H. Auden, British poet

The dirty facts

They are numerous threats to the sensitive ecosystems and are quickly affected by water acidification, rising water temperatures, air pollution, overfishing, water pollution and plastic.

Ocean Acidification. Our seas absorb as much as a quarter of all man-made carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, which changes the pH of surface waters and leads to acidification. Ocean acidification reduces the amount of carbonate, a key building block in seawater, it makes it difficult for marine calcifying organisms, such as coral and some plankton to form shells and skeletons, and existing shells may begin to dissolve.

Water temperatures. A sharp increase in water temperatures can cause coral bleaching and eventual death to the coral. Bleaching occurs when coral become stressed by heat, cold, chemicals, or other factors. In 2016, a third of the worlds’ largest reef, The Great Barrier Reef died from coral bleaching.

Water pollution. We know that all streams flow to the rivers and that all rivers lead to the seas. Therefore whatever we have been doing to and on our earth runs into the oceans. They are drowning in chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants. Some 80% of the world’s wastewater is dumped, largely untreated back into the environment, polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Seas of plastic. The majority of rubbish ( I’m British! US, garbage) that enters the ocean each year is plastic. While some are dumped directly into the seas, it is estimated 80% makes its way there gradually from land-based sources, including those far inland. This comes via storm drains, sewers, and other routes. In 2017 we produced more than 400 million metric tons of plastic. That’s just one year. It’s on the rise as you might imagine. But perhaps you hoped due to an increasing awareness that it may be on its way down. Sadly it is not. 80% of plastic is recyclable, but we recycle just a minuscule 9-11%.

In 2016, we produced 365 million tons of plastic. In 2017, 400+ million. It is still hanging around most of it in our oceans. We need to kick the habit before it kills us.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates.

Cozumel Reef Diving.

The Sequel

When there is a sequel, they always leave you hanging, don’t they?

In Part two, I will focus on the second largest reef, the Mesoamerican Reef. This system from starts at the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to Belize, Guatemala and the Bay Islands of Honduras. Sometimes known as the Great Maya Reef, it provides Cozumel with some of the most beautiful and spectacular underwater sights in the world.

I will look at the specific threats to our own reef system here and also explore what is being done to support it. A happy ending? Wait for the sequel!

The Plan

Cozumel is an Island, this makes the issues of plastic that bit more urgent, in that we are surrounded by the ocean. Everything that is done here, every action, everything not protected will go straight into that big beautiful ocean. All the businesses depend on it, all the people here depend on it for their families.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that working together is the only way to change. Find others like yourself and they are your support system, your cheerleader. There will be times, there are always times when we need a cheerleader, back-up, or someone that has our back. But to make a change in our society needs togetherness perhaps even more? Let me explain, but first I need to go back a little in time.

I’m working with Cozumel Ocean Research, I arrived here at the very end of June. I immediately met with its Co-Founders & Directors. Ernesto Hervia is the scientist, the oceanographer. He is hugely experienced and hugely passionate. There is Liang Chen, she plays down her role a little, in my opinion. I wish she wouldn’t, though its part of her humble character that makes her so great. She’s an excellent strategist, thinker, planner. Both are very experienced and educated divers, who both educate through their diving too. It’s been a privilege to meet them both, let alone work with them.

I emailed them back in February and requested to be able to volunteer with them. They have a dive monitoring programme. (Please check out the website if you are interested. The link is at the bottom of the page.) The diving here is so, so amazing. I’ve dived just 7 times since I’ve been here. I’ve seen sharks, turtles, stingrays, eels, Trumpet, Angel, Toad, gorgeous Cow and Squirrelfish, plus lobster. Then there is the tiny stuff. Wow!! Seahorses, Pipehorse (a relative of seahorses), Sponge crab, Frogfish, Brittle star, Lettuce sea slug. It’s so tiny!! I mean minuscule. Liang has taught me to love and look for these gorgeous tiny beings.

Pygmy Pipehorse of Cozumel ( approx 2cm in length)

Anyway, Liang and I had several conversations via email over the months following. Eventually, she asked me to head up the plastic project they had in mind to create. I was thrilled and agreed of course! The project was to set up a plastic recycling plant on the Island. There is some recycling on the Island. The actual recycling plant though is not. The recyclable containers have to be transported to the mainland. So that’s why the idea of our own plant on the Island became a priority. Also on the back of that, we could make products with the prepared products to sell. It would be an excellent teaching facility. We could bring locals, businesses and schools to participate and be educated. The education and awareness are key as you probably realise. Teaching the children is also a massive part of the change that is needed. It could become the norm for them, to be able to consider the plastic being used. What a gift that will be to give them, a consciousness that makes a choice able to exist.

Do you know Precious Plastic? We have learnt how we can set up a plant and how to make products to sell from this site. What an amazing gift it is! Set up by Dutch Designer Dave Hakkens. Link to the website is below. This site gives teaches you everything you need to know about building your own recycling plant, with short and concise instruction videos for every part of the setup. There is also an online community so you can share issues, problems and resources with people who are local to you. He has created this and given it free to the world. What a hero.

The local businesses who cater to the tourists we imagine would large plastic users. We have started surveying the hotels, restaurants, beach clubs and dive shops, asking them about the plastics they use, how much of it they buy, and the costs involved. One response I had, was that when they started to add up the plastics they used they were horrified. That’s a good reaction because it precipitates change. I have put together a plastics document that offers information on all the types of plastic there are, and what category the products fall into. I’m now your go-to gal on plastics! You can find this document at the bottom of this page.

This was to arm them with a little knowledge and awareness. For example, plastic drink bottles are made from PET, Type 1. The lids on these bottles are plastic type 5, PP. This means it is essential that they be separated or the recycled product can be spoiled. All plastics have different properties, for example, they have different densities. Did you know that? Most people do not. Why don’t we know this?

We also wanted to ask them if they had started recycling, what problems they might have encountered trying to make the changes away from plastic. We imagined that there would be a lot of resistance to our questions. Surprise!! Even though it’s early days, there is a small but wonderful miracle happening. All the businesses that we have spoken to so far have started to change already. Some have shocked us with what they have tried to do or instigated. Rodrigo told us of a programme he founded over 10 years ago to teach all the children on the Island about ecology and the environment. He received Governmental funding to do so and published books for the school children and added the subject to the school curriculum. He saw back then how important it was for the future. By now plastic the Island would have completely eradicated plastic. Cozumel might have been a world leader, a beacon of shining hope for us all. The programme was closed in 2011, an effect of the world financial crisis.

Cozumel is an Island, this makes the issues of plastic that bit more urgent, in that we are surrounded by the ocean. Everything that is done here, every action, everything not protected will go straight into that big, beautiful ocean. All the businesses depend on it, all the people here depend on it for their families.

The issues are becoming clear as I speak to the business owners. Many have tried to change and failed, some want to change but don’t know how.

So this is what Cozumel Ocean Research is in the process of rolling out, albeit we are at beginning of the process. This is our plan, educate, create awareness and provide assistance to facilitate change in the short term mid and long term. We are launching SEA GREEN, Love Sea, Live Green campaign. This will unite the green crusaders and alert the tourists to the environmentally friendly businesses. Power to chose. I have already created a little online poll and data suggests that over 95% find it important to spend their money with a business engaged in green practices. I’m not sure if we had started this just 2 years ago the results would be quite so positive.

Ultimately coming together united with Government legislation in place to create a plastics free Island, and the children well-armed to lead the way to a better, green self-supporting future is what we are focused on. We are uniting, as only we can, to make the plan. The plan of having a future.

http://www.cozumeloceanreseach.org/voluntary-donations/

http://www.preciousplastic.com

Plastic Types Doc 26.7.18

A night with the turtle.

We had driven to the other side of the Island for the moon. It was almost full, and we were both feeling it effects and needed some moonshine for a little bit of peace within.

Hardly a cloud in the deep blue above us, the crashing waves in front of us, lured us to the light soft beach. We hesitated a little unsure if we would get stopped entering the beach. At this time of year and this time of day, it was entirely possible.

I had a sense of where I wanted to be and took off purposefully in its direction. I wanted the sand beneath my feet and an isolated place to be. I stopped dead in my tracks, my friend following behind me. My eyes needed to focus, what was that in front of me at the edge of the water? I held my breath. I could hardly believe what I looking at. Sure now my friend confirmed it, it’s a Tortuga he whispered! We looked at each other aghast and terrified that we might halt this slow procession out of the sea. But she wasn’t looking at us. She had a goal and was slowing dragging her land encumbered self up and over the seaweed onto the dry sand. We tucked ourselves down, hidden in plain sight we hoped, and watched. She was big and shiny, still wet from the sea. She had barnacles on her back that told us that she had time spent on this planet.

We see the Hawksbill Turtles swimming when we scuba dive here in Cozumel. It’s a miracle too everytime, maybe they are quietly munching on a sea sponge or pulling themselves past us at a slow steady speed, unperturbed by our presence. But nothing prepared me for this. This moment was perfect and glorious. The clear, bright moon illuminating her path, her intent and her nature laid out in front of us.

We watched and time was taken to reach the spot where she came to a stop at the edge of the beach grasses. Then, kicking the sand and took herself slowly below ground level. How could the girl hide so? She was enormous! We settled in, let the waves land on the beach, and the clear moonshine its perfect energy all around. Little meditations were taken, many gratitudes and thanks were shared. Resting back on the sand we drank in the moment. Both being very still and very quiet. Each had time to settle into ourselves and let go of the day. Letting go of the tensions within that we had in part put down to the cycle of the moon. Little fluffy clouds formed, changed shape and dispersed, giving the impression that the stars were shifting. A sky full of moving stars and planets.

She was moving again. Was she going to be heading back to the water? Mental note, let the group studying them know she was here. No, she was finding another spot. So we stayed and watched, time passed and it didn’t matter. Time for the brain to slow, unfocus a little, let go. Breathing slowed and followed the flow of the perfect moment. What a blessing I thought, I just really wanted to see the moon tonight. No plans as to where I went, just a little away from the town I was thinking, away from the orange glow. But this. How lucky was this? My mind came into focus again, she was on the move. She pulled, hoisted and rested little by little as she manoeuvred to the shore. Was she covering her tracks? She seemed to be. We’ll never know.

On the journey back, windows down, no aircon, we still wanted to be attached to our connection with nature. We had sourced nature, but in the end, she had found us.

The Journey Begins.

Hello! My name is Joanna Hughes, Jo for short.

I’m an artist, I’ve started work on some environmental projects, and I live in different countries. Not unique, I know. Who needs another blogger? But I’m joining the ever-growing number of people wanting to help the planet in some way. It’s our home after all.

I have gone in 6 months from calling the UK my home, having a business and all of that, to having no fixed abode, no business and figuring it out along the way. So I was thinking, someone else might want to go after some personal freedom too but they haven’t quite got there yet. Might they be more inclined after reading this? Maybe.

Plus I’m working on some marine projects and trying to assist in the weaning off dreaded plastics, that we are addicted to like alcohol and telly. It’s been easier than I realised to get involved.

To be honest, I just thought, I’m going to do something instead of complaining from my sofa at home. Instead of getting shocked, horrified, crying on social media, where you often feel powerless. A better way to deal with your anger I thought, is to just go and do something. So here I am, first stop. Mexico.

Cozumel Ocean Research and Project Sea Green Love Sea, Live Green

http://www.cozumeloceanresearch.org

Wisdom begins in wonder- Socrates