Today was day 4 of the Coastal Awareness Week. This year it is being held under the theme "Building Coastal Resilience Through Innovation" and this morning at the Battlefield Park it was certainly all about innovation. Courtney Weatherburne has more.
There wasn't much activity at the booths at the Battlefield park this morning
But that doesn't make the displays at Coastal Awareness Week Innovation Fair any less fascinating.
Arlene Young, Coastal Zone Director, CZMAI
"The event is to showcase the work that Coastal Zone is doing as well as the work of our partners both local, regional and international partners what we are collaborating in terms of promoting the sustainable use and management of our coastal resources."
One of those international partners is the UK based organization CEFAS, Center for the Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. They have been conducting research in Belize since 2017 such as measuring water acidity and studying how marine species are impacted by the changes in the sea and climate.
Silvana Birchenough, CEFAS Rep.
"We are trying to understand the common effects of changes in climate but also changes in the fisheries now we have two big commercial species here in Belize, the conch, the queen conch and the spiny lobster and as we know, the environment is changing, the water chemistry is changing, the temperature is changing, the nutrients is changing and that is the kind of things that organisms like lobster for example need a
certain amount of carbonate in the water to build hard structures. And this is what we are trying to understand, we are trying to document the changes in the water so we have, for example measurements like that, this is sea water from the Caye in which we measure PH and we understand the alkalinity of the water, but equally as well we measure the environment, how things have changed in regards to temperature. Then we are bringing it all together and the idea is we are working with Coastal Zone but also with the Fisheries Department so they can have the information to make decisions about the stocks, to make decisions about how sustainable they can exploit the stocks. But also how things are going to change and adapt in the future in relation to climate."
And another UK based organization, the National Oceanography Center is also doing their own data collection on water quality and the impact of land activities and nutrient run off on the Mesoamerican reef.
Dr. Christopher Pearce, Senior Marine Geoscientist, National Oceanography Center
"We have just last week deployed the very first ocean acidification monitoring station on the Mesoamerican reef. This is providing us with real time information about PH temperature, acidity and oxygen levels which can be used to improve the understanding of the sensitivities of the environment to the impacts of global climate change."
"One of the key bits of what we have been doing through the commonwealth and marine economies program funded by the UK is to look at the impact of land use change in the Belizean water shed and how changing land use practices influence the release of carbon and nutrients through the river down to the costal zone and when this nutrient reach the coastal waters they a stimulate agro-growth, nutrification and also provide sediments that can clog the corals reefs."
And while the center focuses on underwater testing, the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association focuses on the monitoring the environment from a bird's eye view with drones.
Shantel Espadas, Assistant Operations and Education Rep., TASA
"The reason why we are out here is to show how we are evolving, how are adapting to the different enforcement and project management we do out at Turneffe, we are using the Mavic pro right now to assist with enforcement, to assist with monitoring of natural disasters, assist with project developments."
In the end, it is clear that the merger between technology and environment is key in policy decisions and the overall goal of sustainability.
The week of activities ends tomorrow with a run for the coast challenge starting at 6 from the Digi Park in Belize City.
