magazine

Behind the
Science
Coral Identity
Crisis

The Plastic
Island

Sharks!

Rays for
Days

Their Ocean
Not Our
Swimming Pool

The Bends
Ogling
the Ospray
The Story of
Empanada, Part

Be a Hero
Become a Rescue Diver
2

The Wonderful World

of Regulators
The Bravest Race

Pez Maya Magazine

Third Quarter 2015
Vol 1 Issue 3
A Pez Maya Publication
Facebook:
GVI Mexico Yucatan
GVI Dive Academy
Twitter:
@gvi_mexico
Instagram:
gvitravel
Publisher
Andy Ez
Editors
Andy Ezeta
Jodie Savage
Sam Wilson
Contributors
Andy Ez
Sam Wilson
Kerry Passingham
Jim Clark
Eugene Beery
Jodie Savage
Emilia Murcott
Adam Dugmore
Craig Jessop
Steffanie Ransom
Photography Editor
and Illustrator
Andy Ez
Photographers
Andy Ez
Alejandro Dran
Marine M. Vasseur
Coralpidea

Contents
2 You are the Difference
3 Behind the Science
5 Coral Identity Crisis
7 Rays for Days
9 Sharks, Their Ocean Not Our Swimming Pool
11 Ogling the Ospray
12 Creatures of Pez Maya
14 The Plastic Island
16 Be a Hero, Become a Rescue Diver
17 The Bends
18 The Wonderful World of Regulators
20 The Bravest Race
21 The Story of Empanada, Part 2
22 The Pez Puzzler

Cover photo by Andy Ez:

Staff Training Dive

The Pez Maya Magazine is published every 3 months by the GVI Mexico - Pez Maya team.
This is and always will be a free publication. Copyright GVI.2015
1Pez Maya Magazine 2015

you are the difference

Global Vision International (GVI) is a multi-award winning social enterprise that runs high impact volunteer and international education programs.
For more than 15 years GVI has helped thousands of people make a real difference to the world they live in while also gaining the knowledge and
skills necessary to live and work in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world.
We began more than 15 years ago with a simple mission: To work hand in hand with local communities, NGOs and government organisations to
facilitate real change on the ground while also giving our participants the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.
Its an undertaking weve been proud to pursue in over 25 countries, through 450 programs and by the support of over 25,000 participants and we
are thankful to all past present and future volunteers.

Andy Ez
2Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Behind
the
Science

By Sam Wilson

This time around we will be looking at a site we have not managed to visit since 2006!
La Colonia, a 10 and 20 meter site, right off the coast of a local fishing village called Punta Allen. This site is around 20
kilometres from Pez Maya, and with our boats being relatively small, weather conditions here often make it nearly impossible to visit this particular monitoring site.
Until now!
To be honest most of the reason we had not attempted it recently is because no one working here currently knew anything about the drive there, and we seemed to be lacking on notes from previous visits. There was talk of hiring external
boats out of Punta Allen, however fortunately we are a pretty incredible team and managed to work our magic, and drive
ourselves down there and monitor two sites in just three trips. Anyone who has been with us before will know this is a
fairly impressive feat by itself! But enough about how good we are, what about the science! Well lets have a look at how
the site has been doing since its first records in 2004 through to 2015.
These first graphs show us the number of
corals per metre for each site. Typically
the shallower sites always show a smaller number of total colonies, and this, as
we can see is still reflected in La Colonia
between LC10 & LC20. Now something
shown in these graphs that is very interesting is the activity over the years, correlating with a few major events that we
can attribute to certain changes.
Now we all know that hurricanes cause a
lot of damage, we see their effects on land
in the form of homes wrecked, coastlines
trashed, and thousands of people affected for months if not years.
But what about the reefs?
Coral reefs, along with mangrove systems, actually reduce a large amount of
the hurricanes impact through the absorption of its energy. This is unfortunately in the form of physical impact to
the coral reef and mangroves however,
and depending on the strength of the
storms, can devastate coral communities.
From this it is important for us to learn
about the recovery time of our coral
communities. Its been recorded that reef
recovery times are significantly slower than previous decades due to climate
change and increase in diseases.

3Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Graph 1. Coral cover displayed as individual colonies per meter, using the
Coral Communities methodology for La Colonia 10 meters site (LC10)

Graph 2. Coral cover displayed as individual colonies per meter, using the
Coral Communities methodology for La Colonia 20 meters site (LC20)

But back to the hurricanes. In 2004, a large number of hurricanes were generated over the Caribbean. None of these
made landfall in Mexico, but could have led to several changes that left the coral communities more susceptible to future damage. Some sites, such as LC20, did actually show a reduction in percentage coral cover as shown in Graph 4.
The most significant change happens in 2005. Hurricane Emily, followed a few months later by hurricane Wilma
devastated the Yucatan peninsula. This is reflected by our visits to La Colonia in 2006, after the hurricanes. As all the
graphs 1 & 2 show, there was a major drop in coral numbers following the 2005 hurricane season.
Lets take a more in-depth look at how the balance in the community was affected:

Graph 3. Percentage cover comparison between Coral and

Macroalgae, using the Point Intercept methodology for La Colonia 10 meters site (LC10)

Graph 4. Percentage cover comparison between Coral and

Macroalgae, using the Point Intercept methodology for La Colonia 20 meters site (LC20)

Looks a bit different now doesnt it!

Not quite as simple as a drop in coral numbers. Graph 3 & 4 show what is known as a phase shift on a reef system. It
means that during the hurricanes the number of coral colonies was reduced, and as corals take much longer to recover the algae simply took over the abundance of available space that was opened up.
But why has this not happened before? Surely coral reefs have always been affected by hurricanes, why change now?
Well the answer to that is a little complex, but the simple fact is its likely we are the cause. Through pollution, climate
change, and overfishing we have severely reduced the health of our reef systems: specifically, their ability to recover
from natural phenomena like hurricanes.
With more diseases, higher acidity and temperature rise we have greatly compromised the corals ability to grow. On
top of this, overfishing has led to a significant reduction in our herbivorous fish here in the Sian Kaan (namely parrot
fish), which used to feed heavily on algae, thereby reducing the competition between algae and coral for space.
Thanks to the combination of all these factors we are now looking at an algae dominant reef, and as we are learning
from our previous years of data, the reef didnt always look that way.
We are getting excited about reviewing all of our sites and finally reporting back on ten years of data from the Sian
Kaan, this is just taste of the delicious science we hope to report on.
So stay tuned!

4Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Coral Identity
Crisis
By Sam Wilson

Genetic research has greatly advanced the study of speciation (the measure by which animals become different
enough to be considered a new species), but it can also be the cause of endless frustration to scientists in the field.
This year we have seen a lot of our species change in the scientific literature, and most of our referencing sites
which we use for the maintenance of our species lists reflect this change. On top of this, our environment is not
set in stone (well actually, corals are literally set in stone but, you get the point), and new species can appear
over a number of years before they are officially recognized as being established. In our case, we have actually
discovered several cryptic species on our reef, species that until now were thought to belong to groups already
being recorded, due to being incredibly visually similar. Its vital that a research base such as ours keep up to date
with both of these kinds of changes, to remain a relevant source of coral reef information for our partners and for
anyone else who wishes to partner with us in future.

So let`s give you a quick run-down of what we are looking at and why these particular individuals have changed
their names. Spoiler alert: it`s not because the corals didn`t like their original names.

Altered Species

Agaricia agaricites___________Undaria agaricites

Agaricia tenuifolia___________Undaria tenuifolia
Montastraea annularis ________Orbicella annularis
Montastraea faveolata ________Orbicella faveolata
Montastraea franksi__________Orbicella franksi

Cryptic Species

Meandrina jacksonii (Similar species Meandrina meandrites)

Undaria humilis (Similar species Undaria agaricites)

5Pez Maya Magazine 2015

To start, Agaricia genus have been split due

to a difference in their growth strategies.
True Agaricia (i.e. A. lamarki, A. grahamae,
A. undaria and A. fragilis) typically only
have one face. That is to say, that their polyps only grow on the upperside of the plate,
not on both sides. The now named Undaria
genus however are bi-facial - they grow with
polyps on both sides of the plates, usually
due to the fact that they grow upwards allowing them to receive light on both sides.

Agaricia lamarcki

Agaricia tenuifolia
NOW- Undaria Tenuifolia

Montastrea cavernosa

Montastrea franksi
NOW- Orbicella franksi

Meandrina meandrites

Meandrina jacksonii

The Montastraea genus is slightly simpler.

Three of our species have changed to Orbicella, but this is owed only to the fact that
M. cavernosa is now considered the only
true Montastraea. Anyone who has seen
this group will understand, you can see the
size difference in the polyps shown in the
pictures opposite.
Now for the sneaky cryptic species. These
individuals have been hiding amongst our
regular target list for a few years now, but
scientific literature has finally given us some
visual clues to distinguish them from one
another.
As with everything coral related, it takes
time to distinguish species, whether you are
learning them from scratch or have spent
years studying them. So even we are not entirely confident in differentiating these new
species from the original ones.
However, if you look at the photos of Meandrina spp. on the right, you can see the
kinds of differences that we will be looking
for. For example, M. meandrites has thicker
ridges, with less spacing between them than
the M jacksonii.

So there you have it! Our wonderful new list. Now we as science officers get all the fun of attempting to learn
these new species, then convincing all the other staff and volunteers that they are different!

We won`t be adding them into our species list quite yet, but we will have to be ready and able to include
them in our 2016 data set.
Its this constant shift in what we think we know that makes being open minded so important in science,
even long term bases like us need to constantly re-assess what we think we are looking at.
So if you take anything away from this article let it be this; never assume that everything you read is entirely supported, always check multiple sources, and be prepared to change your point of view when presented with evidence that contradicts what you think you know.
6Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Rays for
Days
By Emilia Murcott

Here at Pez Maya our main focus when it comes to monitoring and data collection is the MBRS SMP (Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System; Synoptic Monitoring
Program). This is the fish and coral data we collect for our partners, Amigos de
Sian Kaan, and the primary reason the Pez Maya hub was started. However, as
scientists, naturalists, and just folk generally interested in the natural world and
conservation we gather data on just about everything we can! Since we spend so
much time in the water, we regularly see animals that arent recorded on our transects, and these are often the ones that excite us most; Rays, moray eels, turtles,
sharks and dolphins are among our favourite sightings. The presence and abundance of these animals also tells us about the health of the reef ecosystem, making
them important to record. In this article I will focus on the rays we see at Pez, and
how to identify them.

Andy Ez
7Pez Maya Magazine 2015

First off, what is a ray? Rays are fish of the superorder Batoidea, that have a cartilaginous skeleton, and
are closely related to sharks. They have flattened bodies and large pectoral fins fused along the length
of their bodies and heads which they use for swimming. They typically have five gill slits located
ventrally along with their mouth on the underside, while their eyes and spiracles (used for drawing
in water for breathing) are on their dorsal side. Rays are predatory, and are typically bottom-feeders
consuming a wide variety of prey including molluscs, crustaceans, and fish, but a few are specialized
planktivores. Here at Pez Maya we observe five different species of rays in four families.
Whip-tail stingrays (family Dasyatidae) are found in tropical to temperate marine environments
throughout the world, as well as in some freshwater environments. Their bodies are typically round
with a long, thin tail that has one or more venomous spines used for defence. These rays are benthic and can often be seen buried in the sand, rummaging for food. They are fairly unconcerned of
divers, but bolt away when approached too closely. Stingrays are our most common ray sighting,
with the southern stingray and the Caribbean whiptail stingray occurring in the area. These two are
fairly similar looking due to their large size (reaching over 1.5m) and both species come in a range
of colours from olive brown to grey to black with a pale underside. The easiest way to distinguish
between them is by their body shape, known as the disc. The Southern stingray is diamond-shaped,
with distinct points at the front of the head and wingtips. The disc of the Caribbean whiptail stingray,
however, is round and relatively flattened at the front of the head.
The yellow stingray (family Urotrygonidae) is a much smaller species of ray compared to those described above, with a maximum width of 36cm. This species exhibits the same behaviour of burying
itself in the sand while rooting for molluscs and fish. The disc is almost completely round, and while
there is great variety in the colour and markings, typically the dorsal side is yellowish brown with
pale and dark spots and blotches, with a pale underside. The yellow stingray has the ability to change
colour and become darker or lighter to blend in with its surroundings. The tail differs from that of
the whip-tail stingrays in that it is relatively short, has a caudal fin at the tip and a single venomous
spine.
Superficially similar to the yellow stingray is the lesser electric ray (family Narcinidae), growing to a
comparable size or slightly wider. This species is also typically seen lying on sandy patches between
reef spurs. The dorsal surface is grey to brown and often has dark blotches. The disc is almost completely round; however, the tail is notably different from that of the yellow stingray. The tail of the
lesser electric ray is distinctly thick at the base and has two dorsal fins as well as a caudal fin. Electric
rays use their thick tails for swimming rather than their pectoral fins as most rays do. The tail also
lacks any venomous spines and instead this species uses electricity for defence, as well as to stun
prey. They have two electric organs running the length of the disc from behind the eyes to the rear.
If touched, they can deliver a mild shock of 14-37 volts. For comparison, the shock you might get
from a car batter could give you around 12 volts; so while it won`t harm you, but you would certainly
notice it!
The spotted eagle ray (family Myliobatidae) is a free-swimming stingray, meaning that it is primarily
seen swimming through the water rather than resting on the sand. It is easily recognised by the way
in which it appears to fly using its pectoral fins, which are lengthened compared to most other rays.
Another distinctive feature is the markings: the dorsal side is dark with bright white spots and/or
circles, and the underside is white. The head protrudes from the disc, though the mouth is located on
the underside as this ray is also a bottom feeder. The long, thin tail has one to five venomous spines
on it, again used for defence only. Spotted eagle rays are large, with a wingspan of up to 2.5m. They
are not a common sighting at Pez but seeing one of these graceful giants on a dive will certainly make
your day! They are closely related to manta rays, which unfortunately we havent seen on our reef, as
the species is mainly oceanic. Manta rays can reach a colossal size of 7m from wing-tip to wing-tip.
Spotted eagle rays also share a characteristic behaviour with the rest of their family, whereby they
are seen jumping from the water, launching themselves several meters into the air. This behaviour
has been attributed to several motivations: 1. A good way to escape predators is to launch through
the air, as there is less resistance and they are momentarily out of sight of their predator; 2. Mating
rituals often involve displays of strength and stamina, here the highest jumping individual, or the
ray that flies for longer may win mating rights above others; 3. A more simple explanation could
simply be that they are attempting to scratch parasites off their back by slapping back into the water
upside down!
Early into their stay here, our volunteers are trained up in how to recognise and distinguish between these species of rays. As a diver, being knowledgeable about your surroundings adds a great
deal to your enjoyment of a dive, and also increases your awareness enabling you to see even more
interesting creatures! Ray sightings are added to our Incidental Sightings database, which we use as
a means of recording what species of megafauna occur in the area, in what abundances they occur,
and whether this is changing. Additionally, we input our shark and ray sightings to the Shark Observation Network, an online database which can be added to by any registered parties and is used by
a number of organisations around the world. This is just one of the many ways we collect and share
data about our ocean, in the hope to understand it and ultimately preserve it.

8Pez Maya Magazine 2015

SHARKS!
THEIR OCEAN
NOT OUR
SWIMMING POOL
By Jodie Savage

A girl growing up in the second biggest city in the UK, the

furthest from the sea in any direction, I did not really have
an understanding of the importance of sharks until later
in life. I remember watching Steven Spielbergs movie Jaws
(way too young and definitely under the age limit!!), and
being on holiday in Cyprus and not wanting to get in
the water due to fear of being attacked. Despite this
I still chose to study Marine Geography and went
off on my merry way to University and learnt
all about the marine and coastal ecosystems of
England and then further afield.
One of the first elements of my education talked about the succession of the food chain the
transfer of energy and nutrients within an
ecosystem, typically starting from a plant,
which is then eaten by a small animal,
which is in turn eaten by a larger animal and so on up the chain until you
reach the Apex predator. The Apex
predator is an animal, where as
an adult, has no natural predators
within its ecosystem and helps
maintain the balance in that
ecosystem, for a perfect example...SHARKS.
Just a quick bit on what sharks are just in case. Sharks
are a group of fish characterized by a cartilaginous
skeleton (no bones), with five to seven gill slits on the
sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused
to the head. The upper side of a shark is generally
dark to blend in with the water from above and their
undersides are white or lighter coloured to blend in
with the lighter surface of the sea from below. This
helps to camouflage them from predators and prey.
They have been around for more than 450 million
years, and today there are more than 465 known species of sharks living in our oceans, ranging from the
smallest: the Dwarf Lantern Shark being maximum
21.2cms, to the largest: the Whale Shark reaching up
to 18ms in length; with varying diets such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs, plankton, krill, marine mammals and
other sharks. Depending on species it can take between
10 30 years for sharks to reach sexual maturity, which
obviously affects population size if they are not given the
chance to get to those ages.

9Pez Maya Magazine 2015

So why are they so important? As one of the main Apex

predators in the marine ecosystem, sharks keep populations of other fish healthy and in proper proportion.
Sharks eat very efficiently, going after the old, sick, or
slower fish in a population, and therefore keeping that
population healthier by preventing spread of disease
or strengthening the gene pool. Sharks are essentially keeping populations of marine life to the right
size so that those prey species dont cause harm
to the ecosystem by becoming too populous and
throwing things out of balance. Scientists actually consider sharks to be a keystone species, meaning that removing them causes the
whole structure of the marine ecosystem to
collapse. A number of scientific studies
demonstrate that depletion of sharks
results in the loss of commercially
important fish and shellfish species
down the food chain, including
key fisheries such as tuna, which
maintain the health of coral reefs.
Well, what is happening to them then? In 2013 it
was estimated that 100 million sharks are killed every year around the world, a number that far exceeds what many populations need to recover or
even continue to exist (this was a conservative estimate and could be as high as 273 million per year).
A main contributor to the decimation of shark populations is the illegal finning industry, where fleets
of ships catch any variety of sharks and remove their
fins before throwing the shark back into the ocean to
drown.
A researcher focusing on the Hong Kong finning
trade estimated that finning claims between 26 million and 73 million sharks annually. All to accommodate a popular Asian dish of shark fin soup that is
deemed as a status symbol with bowls costing from
US$100-$350 per dish. The next in line is the commercial fishing industry using nets and trawlers that catch
their target species of fish, but also bring onboard bycatch, something they didnt mean to catch, animals like
turtles, dolphins, and sharks. An estimated 50 million
sharks are caught as bycatch in commercial fisheries each
year.

Still affecting the shark populations but in much lower

numbers is sport fishing, commercial fishing for sharks
but sold under different names, and one that troubles me
greatly Governmental culling (killing) programs. I have
lived in New South Wales (NSW) Australia for the last
10 years, and have been to multiple talks about the shark
nets that are put in the waters off the beaches in NSW and
Queensland. Initially it didnt occur to me that they were a
culling program, I thought they were put there with the intention to keep the beaches safer. But in reality the nets are
there to kill sharks to discourage sharks in the area! Not
many people know that they are only a few meters under
the surface, not down to the seabed, and are moved from
beach to beach only during the summer months. That in
fact they catch many animals such as turtles, rays, dolphins,
and actually 40% of sharks caught are on the inside of the
nets, caught when leaving the beaches.. when they havent attacked anyone! A new program started up recently in
Western Australia (2013) where the Government started a
baited drumline culling program, apparently only targeting larger sharks (great White and Tiger sharks - the great
White Shark is actually listed as Vulnerable on IUCNs
Red List of Threatened Species since 2000, and Australia
are signed up to protect these species). This program was
established without any consultation with known shark
expects or scientists, and was just a knee jerk reaction to
public and media pressure. Many people dont know that
even though they use big hooks that are only supposed to
lure the larger sharks, often smaller sharks would bite, and
even once removed they would have probably damaged
their jaw so much they would find it difficult to feed and
probably die anyway.
So why all the hate and disrespect for such an amazing,
beautiful, and essential animal? I have to say media has
a lot to answer for, creating fear and misunderstanding
to sell more newspapers, or have higher grossing films at
the Box Office. Even the ever increasingly famous annual Shark Week hosted by the Discovery Channel focuses
on shark attacks, and scary stories of sharks when they
are supposed to be educating people and raising awareness on the plight of sharks. Whenever I watch the type
of programs where they interview a person who has had
a too close shark encounter they often express thoughts of
it was our fault, I was in their habitat, and at the end of
the day show a profound respect for the animal. The most
famous example of this is Rodney Fox, a South Australian
man who was bitten by a great White Shark back in 1963.
He was lucky to survive after a bite around his chest whilst
he was spearfishing, where he received 462 stitches. Fox
went on to build the first underwater observation cage to
dive with Great Whites, and has now dedicated his life to
studying the animal, taking people out to see them in their
habitat, and being one of the main Australian shark conservationists.

sharks, a seal, and being in the surf zone which is where

sharks hunt their prey to ambush them. I also want people
to think about the number of these encounters and how
many actually end in a fatality (which is horrendous and
I sympathise with the family and friends of these unfortunate few)? But think about the biology of sharks, some
have evolved over millions of years to become extremely
effective killing machines, that could quite easily kill us if
they wanted to, but often it is mistaken identity or investigating something large and unusual in their world further
using the only tool available to them their mouth.
I could go on to quote many facts of you are more likely to
be hit by a bus than bitten by a shark, or die from a falling
coconut, or be squashed by a falling vending machine!
The more up to date fact at the moment is more people
have died from selfie-stick related accidents than shark attacks (12:8 this year). But at the end of the day it is the
fear of the unknown, the misunderstood, or people who
just dont know enough or who have not experienced these
creatures first hand to understand how stunningly beautiful they are, how graceful they are, and how essential they
are in marine environment that we should be protecting
them not villainising and killing them.
So what can we do as marine conservations to protect
sharks and keep them on this planet? Get educated, if you
dont know enough yourself then read about them about
the different shark species, behaviours, why they are needed (try and use reliable or unbiased sources not the media!). Maybe go to community or science events in your
area that talk about sharks. Help educate others, spread the
message to family and friends about how important sharks
are or the rules you need to follow when it comes to them.
Never get in the water in a known shark habitat at dawn or
dusk as these are typical feeding times. Know that when
you are entering the sea you are entering their world, because it is their ocean not our swimming pool respect
that and them. And finally, get involved in campaigns such
as Project Awares Finathon, support shark conservation
groups on Facebook and social media. I believe one of the
key ways to protecting sharks, the marine environment,
and in fact the whole natural environment is education
how can people protect, conserve or care for things if they
dont know its there, or understand its importance. Lets
stop hiding behind ignorance.
When it comes to sharks I think there will always be fear,
and I do think to a certain degree a small amount can be
healthy, but as long as the respect is there too. My moto for
sharks is: Respect, Protect, Conserve! I hope this article
has given some of you food for thought and encouraged
you to join me in standing up for such an important, beautiful animal that cannot speak for itself and needs our help.

A lot of people talk about increased shark attacks around

the world, and often the fear response is we need to do
something about it; mainly culling the shark populations.
But it is my wish that people stop for a minute and think
why there might be increased encounters. How about
more people living at the coast? Recent statistics state
about 44 percent of the worlds population lives within 150
kilometres of the sea, in turn leading to more people utilizing the coastal area for pleasure activities in the marine
world, i.e. swimming, kayaking, surfing. The rise of the
popular culture-sport of surfing has definitely put people
in harms way, by looking like a main prey item of larger

10 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Ogling
the Ospreys
Birds of prey always catch peoples eye, so it`s
no wonder most who come through Pez Maya
will remember our most iconic bird, the Osprey. Ospreys are hunting birds, specialized
for fishing. They are often spotted on tall palm
trees or manmade perches, along the beach or
the mangroves, resting or watching closely for
any sightings of their prey in the water.
But why are they so noteworthy? Surely its
just bird nerds like us who want to hear about
this guy. Well there are a few reasons. Their
hunting success is certainly one of them. Ospreys hunt by soaring along the coast looking
for their fish, flapping to hold position before
plunging into the water. Sometimes they can
reach speeds of up to 80mph, which anyone
can understand is pretty damn fast! Then they
find a nice secluded spot to settle down with
their meal and shred it. Occasionally ditching
the carcass outside our huts well sharing is
caring!
What`s impressive about their hunting tactics
is their success rate. Most experienced fishermen consider themselves as having a pretty
successful catch rate. These birds have an average success rate of 75%, compared with 25% of
the average human with a hook and line. A few
physiological features help this. Unlike other
birds of prey, which have three front toes and
one back toe, the Osprey has the same number
of toes with the exception that one front toe
is reversible. This helps them to use their feet
a lot more effectively to clamp the fish. Additionally this allows them to turn their prey to
face forwards as they fly, aiding in aerodynamics and keeping their energy spending down.
As well as the claws, their feet have sharp
barb-like scales, oily feathers (which they can
shake dry) to prevent getting bogged down in
the water and vision that has been recorded as
being eight time more precise than the human
eye. Still feel like we are the most evolved?

11 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

By Sam Wilson

One last interesting fact about these curious looking hunters, is their mating habits. Firstly the female must choose
a male, which is based on his nest. This nest can be made
of many objects, including hula hoops, rag dolls and toy
boats. Not to mention that it can way up to half a tonne!
Once chosen, the Osprey pair will usually mate for life
(Awww), however if the pair mate unsuccessfully then
they will divorce. Apparently couples counselling isn`t
popular with these raptors. During the nesting period, the
male will feed himself and his partner while she incubates.
Occasionally he will take over to allow her to hunt, how
generous of him!
Generally the young leave the nest once they have been flying for a month. If they dont leave, the parents stop feeding
them to motivate them. At three years old, most Ospreys
will return to their original nesting region to begin their
own family.
So there you have it! The reason Ospreys are deserving of a
little more appreciation, so give them a salute next time you
see them, maybe they`ll drop you a fish carcass as a reward!

Marine M. Vasseur
12 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Creatures of
Pez Maya
Buteogallus urubitinga
This is a Great Black Hawk. He
is a large raptor that lives in
the Neotropics. The adults have
a black coloration with a white
tail, but this guy is a juvenile.
We can tell thanks to his brownish pattern and the abundant yellow
stripes. He feeds primarily on rodents, fish, reptiles, crabs and
other birds.
This little fellow got lost and
came into our office one afternoon. Our Science Officer had to
help him go out again.
It`s likely this little guy had
been recently kicked out of the
nest or simply left by the parents
to encourage it to leave.

Andy Ez
13 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

The great
pacific
garbage
patch
By Adam Dugmore

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the name of an area in the central
North Pacific Ocean that is a very large collection of marine debris. It is
a complex soup of micro-plastics (small pieces of plastic between 1 and
5 mm in size) that have travelled great distances through the ocean and
have been trapped by currents in the North Pacific Gyre.
Clouds (2011)
All images are Alejandro Durn 2015. All Rights Reserved
14 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

An ocean gyre is a system of circular

ocean currents formed by the Earths
wind patterns and the forces created
by the rotation of the planet
Approximately 80% of marine debris
enters from a land based source (3 met-

ric tonnes of plastic enters the Ocean

every 15 seconds.). The ocean is down-

stream from everything, every storm

drain, stream, river, waterway all are
transporting rubbish into the worlds
seas and oceans. Did you know that
one third of plastic pollution comes
from the beverage industry bottles,
lids, straws, containers, etc?
A lot of the marine debris sinks into the
depths of the ocean, but the remainder
float on ocean currents and are broken
down into smaller and
smaller pieces creating
micro-plastics. The currents creating the North
Pacific Garbage Patch is
the North Pacific gyre
that draws in trash floating in the water, and then
their swirling motion
traps the trash in one
large area. The size of the
patch is determined by
sampling and estimates
have come in at 700,000
square kilometres, about
the size of Texas, to more
than 15,000,000 square
kilometres - 0.41% to
8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean!!!

young with bottle tops or brightly coloured plastic. Colourful plastics are
much easier to spot, and to birds that
have simply evolved to register colours
in the ocean as food, this can be deadly.
Red appears to be the most attractive
colour, which is no surprise as even we
have evolved the ability to see red simply in response to knowing when certain fruits are ok to eat.

Over 100, 000 marine creatures incl.

turtles, seals, whales, dolphins, fish,
penguins etc die every year from ingestion or entanglement in debris.
Over 1 million seabirds die from ingesting plastic pollution every year.
This Laysan Albatross was fed the plastic by its parents.

All of the trash that is gathered in this

area can affect all of us in a great way,
to do this we first have to look at what
effects it is having on the environment.
The process we must look at is called
bioaccumulation. To start, the smallest
ocean organisms (e.g. plankton) feed
on these micro-plastics by accident
as they filter the water around them.
Small fish then consume these plankton, and are in turn predated upon by
larger fish or even higher predators
such as sharks. Throughout each level the amount of plastic that the more
dominant organism is consuming will
increase each time you go up the food
chain, resulting in large fish with a
large quantity of plastics / toxins within their bodies. And yes, this includes
us eventually if you eat fish!
Sometimes marine animals are involved in cases of mistaken identity,
thinking the plastic pieces are their
prey such as turtles eating jellyfish
/ plastic bags, or birds feeding their
15 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

The extraction operation is not only the

stations in the ocean, but also encouraging regular coastal clean-ups on land
organised by groups such as the Ocean
Conservancy with the help of local volunteers taking the responsibility upon
themselves. Prevention is about making the plastic pollution problem more
public and to create a global awareness campaign on the impact of ocean
waste. By making it more visible we
are hoping it makes more people stand
up and try to make a difference.
The final step is intervention. In this process
they are going to use
the same designs for the
ocean arrays and place
them on rivers. This will
stop the trash from ever
entering the sea. These
will be most effective
near heavily industrialized areas where there is
more likely to be plastic
and other rubbish entering the waterways. For
more information on
this project look at their
website: www.theoceancleanup.com

Whats being done to

combat this problem?
How does all of this
affect us ?

approach: Extraction, Prevention and

Interception. The idea is to stop waste
from entering the water in the first
place, but at the same time to remove
the problem that is already there.

Stopping it at the source. Many Governments around the world are putting
a large focus on recycling programs,
trying to reduce the amount of plastic
ending up in the oceans. Or trying to
establish cash for container programs
which incentivise people to return
their plastic bottles, cans etc for money. Concerned citizens are establishing
beach clean-up groups that conduct
beach cleans weekly to remove the
trash from the beach before it is washed
into the ocean. But this alone will not
solve the problem. There needs to be
more funding for innovation, design,
and education programs that focus on
reduction, recycling and clean up.
Recently an amazing initiative has
come to light that could help if not
combat the problem with the North
Pacific Garbage Patch. It is an oceans
clean-up project that is based around
developing a set of stations that will
collect the suspended micro-plastics
and move it to an area where it can
be sorted and sent off for recycling or
waste storage. The Ocean Cleanup Array project is based around a 3 prong

What you can do to help?

Reduce!
Whether we catch this waste in the
ocean, the rivers or simply recycle it,
arguably the greatest issue is our own
consumption. Do we really need all
this plastic to live? You can do something about it. Why not pressure companies into making glass bottles of
coke rather than plastic? Why wrap
anything in cling film when you can
use tin foil that can be recycled easily?
Any little thing you can do will help,
things like: support shops that dont
use plastic bags or charge for them, or
take your own bag for life bags. When
you are out having food and drink
dont use a straw to drink with, dont
use plastic cutlery, and take a Keep
Cup for take away coffees. Try getting
involved in initiatives like Plastic Free
July. Just these small things can make
a very big difference. Think about the
fact that there are over 7 billion of us
on this planet, what if we all recycled?
What if we all used less plastic? Now
do these things seem so small? Come
on make an effort, I think we owe this
world that much.

Padi Course

Be a hero,
Become a
Rescue
Diver
By Eugene Beery

The PADI Rescue Diver course is arguably one of the

most important courses divers of all levels will take.

Its the first course in recreational diver training that
is other person-oriented, meaning the vast majority of
the course is about helping, as well as being generally
more aware of, other divers. At this level divers are
confident with skills, equipment and the environment
which allows them to begin focusing on more than just
themselves.
The Rescue Diver course not only prepares you to deal
with emergencies, minor and major, but teaches you
how to see the warning signs of potential problems so
that you can act appropriately to stop a situation before
it even occurs. Through knowledge development and
various rescue exercises you learn how to assess a
variety of situations and respond appropriately to each.
Some of the skills introduced cover the following:

This course is often referred to by many divers as the

most challenging, the most rewarding and fun course
they have ever taken! Even the Instructors look forward
to these courses as they are a lot more interactive, and
usually allow you to really test your students.
So that is the PADI Rescue Diver course in short, but
the Rescue course at Pez Maya is a whole different
story. Due to the fact that we have long term volunteers
and are able to spend prolonged periods of time with
our students we can devote extraordinary amounts of
time and effort into perfecting knowledge and skills.
Even after the course is complete we have the opportunity to continue presenting scenarios at random and
see how our students respond to surprise situations,
which is one of the most rewarding parts as an Instructor as we get to see all of our students hard work in
action.

Self-rescue

Recognizing and managing stress in other divers

Emergency management and equipment

Rescuing panicked divers

Rescuing unresponsive divers
At the end of the course your skills are assessed in the
form of a rescue scenario where all of your skills and
knowledge come in to play to respond appropriately to
a given situation.

16 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

The
Bends
In the 1940s the SCUBA regulator was invented and opened up the option for more and more
people to explore the oceans. Initially diving was a
sport for fit young men or a job for deep sea Navy
divers. As research developed the recreational dive
planner (RDP) diving became a recreational sport
available for almost everyone. Today thousands of
people have taken courses to allow them to dive
for recreational purposes and explore oceans, lakes
and rivers all over the world.

By Kerry Passingham

Whether you are a diver or not, most people will

have heard of the term the bends. For some of you
stories of deep sea divers surfacing with chronic
joint pain may have been enough to deter you from
giving SCUBA diving a go, but for many others the
beauty of the underwater world was something
you could not miss out on.
The bends is another term for decompression sickness (DCS). Nitrogen is the primary gas concerned
with DCS: a condition whereby bubbles enter the
bloodstream and tissues causing blockages in circulation. These bubbles can occur anywhere in the
body and for this reason can produce a wide variety of symptoms. DCS can occur if you stay at
depth for longer than the recommended time as
your body takes on too much nitrogen for it to be
eliminated safely before the end of the dive. Another dangerous condition is lung over expansion
injuries such as a collapsed lung. These typically
occur due to the diver either ascending too quickly
or holding their breath whilst ascending. A combination these conditions are referred to as decompression illness (DCI).
Its important to note that most dive related injuries occur due to diver error. The importance of
good dive training cant be disputed. During the
entry level PADI Open Water Course all students
practice emergency skills and how to plan multiple
dives within safe limits using either the recreational dive planner or a dive computer. What cant be
stressed enough when deciding where to take your
course or where to enjoy some guided fun dives
is picking someone you feel comfortable with and
diving with a buddy you trust. Certainly going with
the cheapest option is not always the best idea.
Of course avoiding DCS is not always possible.
There is always a small element of risk involved
but that risk can be reduced by following the
guidelines in the box opposite and by not diving
in situations outside of your experience level.
Keep yourself fit and healthy, as long as you stick
with your training and respect your limitations,
there`s an endlessly exciting and easily accessible
world just a short dive away.

17 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

To avoid DCI all divers should do the following:

- Dive with a reputable shop that you feel comfortable with.
- Plan your dives using the RDP and dive with a timing device and depth gauge
to ensure you stick to your plan. Alternatively you may dive with a dive computer
which will alert you if you need to ascend and help you monitor your safety stop.
- Plan a contingency for your dive too. If you dont have a dive computer you
must plan what to do if you accidently exceed your maximum depth or time,
use the RDP to do this.
- Remember a safety stop on every dive waiting at 5 meters for 3 minutes gives
the body extra time to release nitrogen safely.
- Watch your pressure gauge frequently so you dont risk running out of air.
- Remember the safe ascent rate of 18 meters per minute.
- Dont push your limits. Your maximum duration at 18 meters is 56 minutes but
you should never plan to dive this closely to your maximum no decompression
limit.

The wonderful world

of regulators
By Jim Clark

Most of us will know from our PADI Open Water course, one of the great lines in the video, You inhale, and the air flows with
a reassuring hiss from your regulator, and for the first time, you breathe underwater. This is a great experience if its your first
ever dive or 600th dive, however, the feeling of when you hear that hiss on land is not quite the same experience.
We are going to go through some of the frequent problems that can occur with your equipment; what to look out for, what the
problem is, how you can fix it, and more importantly can I continue with my dive!?
Leaking at regulator yoke between the tank valve; Tiny bubbles to huge!
Problem is most likely the tank O-ring, look for damage, cracks and tears in the O-ring. If the
O-ring wasnt in place when you turned the tank on, or the yoke was not tightened enough, it
can blow the O-ring which most people in a 100m radius will be able to hear!
Fix. If a blown O-ring or any damage noticed, replace the O-ring and apply a small amount
of silicon to ensure it makes a nice seal.
Continue diving? Of course! Most dive operations will carry spare O-rings, its a very frequent problem.
Leaking at either end of your hoses any of the hoses. Usually constant stream of tiny
bubbles.
Problem will be that the O-ring will be dirty, worn or cracked. Or if the regulator has been
serviced recently, it could be that the hose isnt tightened enough, which can also lead to a
blown O-ring, which will result in similar situations as stated above.
Fix. Remove the hose from the first stage or whatever is attached at the other end, inspect
the O-ring, replace if needed and replace nice and tightly: not too much, but not finger
tight!
Continue diving? Since most of these will be small leaks, you should be safe to continue with your dive. However, if it is on your Low Pressure (LP) hose you might think of
finishing the dive early as this will leak more than the other hoses, but can still enjoy the
dive, just watch your air a bit more.
Leaking somewhere along the hose, a small chain of bubbles usually, or can be a bulge in the rubber casing.
Problem. This is wear and tear of the hoses, over time the hose
flexes so much and develops a weakened area, this is where the air
will leak through to the outer layer of the hose.
Fix with a new hose! Ensure you replace with the correct hose as
some of them differ quite a bit.
Continue diving? This is a bit of a judgement call, dependent on
the size of leak. If it is the LP hose you should end the dive to replace the hose immediately.
18 Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Leaking from the SPG (submerged pressure

guage) connection to the hose, small bubbles but can be quite a lot them.
Problem. Dirt accumulation inside the hose,
O-rings on the spool damaged/cracked etc.
Fix by removing the SPG and cleaning up
the thread of the hose and any dirt you see.
Replace the O-rings on the spool if needed,
or a small amount of silicon will help to
make that seal. A bit more technical but give
it a try!
Continue diving? It can sometimes sound
and look a lot worse and make you want to
finish the dive, if it is a high pressure hose;
there is a lot of pressure but small volume,
so you wont be losing a lot of air, but make
sure you watch your gauge!

Leaking from your second stages due to issues with your

intermediate pressure; Either one or both of them, a slow
hiss that will stop after purging the regulator, but then
start up again a few seconds later.
Problem. The intermediate pressure in your first stage is
not staying at a constant level, this excess pressure causes your second stages to release the pressure with a hiss.
Fix with a technician: they will need to open up the first
stage to assess if parts need to be replaced to create the
seals needed for the regulator to work efficiently.
Continue diving? As you breathe from the regulator, this
reduces the intermediate pressure and will temporarily
stop the leak, so it is still safe to dive with. However, the
problem will not go away anytime soon, so go get those
precious regulators serviced and give them the love they
deserve!
Leaking first stage, somewhere along the seams of the first stage
housing, and can range from a few bubbles to a steady stream.

Leaking from your second stages (again!), but a

constant hiss; even after purging the regulators,
that hiss is persisting.
Problem. A very common problem, and it occurs
due to the fact that most people are diving somewhere from a beautiful beach sand, as well as
dirt, grit or corrosion will cause the regulators not
to seal properly.
Fix this problem by cleaning the second stages.
this can be done by purging the regulators while
swirling them in water, it can dislodge any foreign materials that might be causing the problem.
If still on land, you can open up the second stage
to clean properly, just make sure you keep all the
pieces and put them back in the correct order.
Continue diving? Cleaning them on land or swirling them can reduce the leak, but it might need
to be looked at more closely by a technician to
replace seats inside the second stages.

Problem is that the first stage might not be assembled correctly

or just wear and tear.
Fix, unfortunately needs a technician to take it apart to see what
needs fixing/replacing.
Continue diving? The issue shouldnt get any worse during the
dive. If noticed before the dive, try a different regulator and
jump straight in!

So there you have it, a short list of what can be done for your regulator the next time you hear the dreaded hissing
sound around your regulator and tank. Always remember to look after your equipment, washing your regulator
after every dive will reduce any build-up of dirt, and proper care will increase its lifetime. You now know what to
listen out for, and what to do to make sure you can still go on the next dive!

By Craig Jessop

The Bravest Race is a five

kilometer
obstacle
course
through a sub-tropical forest
organised by Xplor Adventure
Park. Littered with cenotes
and underground caverns, it
was going to be a long hard
and demanding race for everyone involved.
The Pez Maya staff and volunteers chose to do this race
as one of our main Challenges
of the year to raise money for
charity via our GVI Charitable Trust.
Swimming, running, climbing,
being chased by foul monsters,
crawling through very tight
spaces and jumping off high
cliffs into water, no matter
what you were scared of this
race could send a shiver down
your spine.
We gathered at the start point
as a team and decided that it
would take everyone to battle through all the obstacles and evade the chasers
who would pick off lone runners with ease.

lenges to navigate, we started at a steady pace cruising

the first few sections, easing
our way into the course, but
as time went on the constant
running on uneven ground and
climbing up and over obstacles began to take its toll on
the team, but we remained together and as a unit we helped
each other get through the
obstacles.
All of this may have been too
much for our team if we werent
urged on by the thoughts of
our amazing chosen charity
Save the Children.
They needed our help to obtain such basics as mopping
supplies and educational materials like pens and paper,
books and paint for the underprivileged children who often
had very little home life or
no home life at all.
The fact that they needed
our help just to supply these
small amenities really drove
us on during the fundraising
and throughout the race.

As we prepared for the race

with a warm up, excitement was
high and as the horn sounded
for the start we almost giddily began in a mad rush of
anticipation.

In total we raised just over

our target goal of 500.00
and with the help of friends,
family and previous Pez Maya
volunteers we reached a total
of 503.84.

Like bullets from a gun we all

shot off to the first hurdle, which was literally a
set of hurdles that increased
in size.

At the end of the day this

whole event was not about the
race and all the enjoyment we
got out of it, it was about
the Save the Children Charity
and how we can make a small
difference to some childrens

There were 30 different chal-

lives, as well as to make the

lives of the wonderful people
that commit to this charity
on a daily basis a little easier.
At the end of the race we all
crossed the line as a group,
as a team and as conquerors of
the mighty assault course.
This marked the end of all our
hard work, the training, the
fundraising, the organizing
and finally the race.
We all received our medals
for finishing and then after
washing the worst of the mud
from our soaked bodys regaled
each other with tales of our
exploits during the different
sections and obstacles, how we
had evaded chasers and jumped
off 5 meter high cliffs.
With everyone very tired but
elated the day was done and
everyone parted ways for the
night, but we will probably
never forget that day and the
cause that we battled for.

If you wa
nt to supp
ort
our partne
rs here or the GVI Charitable
Trust for
anywhere
around th
to: http:/
e world go
/gvi.org/

The Story of
Empanada

second part

By Steffanie Ransom
Empanada had heard stories
of a bird on the shore,
great, large and wise
from him hed learn more.
He swam under the bridge,
and unto the breach, searching for the finest of birds,
perched on the beach.
After hours of searching,
and nothing unique there in
sight, he approached a small
bird, black of beak, chest of
white.
As
the
he
he

Empanada drew near,

bird puffed out its chest,
thought this was weird,
was not that impressed.

Hello and welcome,

I am the Crow in the Know!
If theres anything you need,
My insight Ill show.
Empanada, confused,
furrowed his brow, there was
something quite obvious he
had to say now.
Im sorry to tell you,
but a crow you are not,
I came from the Mangroves,
Ive seen Least Terns a
whole lot.

Dude, just be cool!

Amused he was not,
Youve gotta know what
to market, not be accurate
with what.
So Crow in the Know
isnt exactly the truth,
but Least Tern in the
Learn isnt catchy or
couth.
So ask me a question
or get out of my way,
I have breeding to do
what I dont haves all
day.
Afraid of his temper,
though not of his size,
he plucked up his courage,
he raised up his eyes.
Ive come to learn more
about this life that Im in,
I know about the Mangroves, but little of the
ecosystem.
What about the sea?
Like whats that over
there? He giggled and
he laughed, Its like the
ocean has hair.

It has many uses though it

doesnt smell great.
Turtles can hide below it,
its called Sargassum, mate.
It can be very annoying,
especially near the shore,
When you try and swim through
it, youre confronted by more.
But it helps makes the beach
as do plenty of corals. Never
think things are useless, just
one of my morals.
So its just a plant
that lies on top of the sea,
what about the ones
at the bottom I see?
Ah yes, the seagrass,
I know plenty of that;
theres the Manatee thats thin,
and the Turtle Grass thats fat.
Thats a weird way round,
youd think the Turtle Grass
was thinner. No, the Crow
exhaled, The bigger ones his
dinner.
So thats all seagrass is?
Some marine animals food?
Ah the young, so simple and
crude.
The roots stabilize the seabed
and slow down rushing tides,
Its done more to protect the
Mangroves than you might believe, besides.
It also stores carbon,
Just like shells and the sand,
its way better storage
than the trees on the land.
So seagrass is nifty
for a myriad of stuff,
I could go on forever,
but I think thats enough.

21Pez Maya Magazine 2015

Empanada was gobsmacked,

he just thought they were
weeds,
but now hed discovered
it meets many needs!
If you want to know more,
and I see that you do,
you should go out to sea
and experience the new!
Never forget who paid you
this heed, Ive broadened
your mind, credit me for the
deed.
Empanada looked out,
afraid but excited,
Was he at all ready?
His heart beat delighted.
Look, I get that youre nervous, youre feeling unsure,
but that feeling will fade
when you swim the ocean
floor.
Ive counselled many young
fish, every nerve did I soothe,
theres just something about
me, that inspires a move.
So
and
He
but

take all my wisdom,

spread the good word
could have gone on,
enough he had heard.

Empanada knew that

he needed more he could
learn, or at the very least,
to get away from the Tern!
He
but
He
he

felt a knot in his gut,

a surge in his strength,
would swim out to sea,
would go any length!

The
Pez
Puzzler

22 Pez Maya Magazine 2015