Author: Debbie (---.asm.bellsouth.net)
Date: 04-28-06 23:11
----------->"Don't bother reading FWS or NOAA reports on the island or the damage that all you people are doing to the reefs there either, because they are so unregulated for recreation. People, coral, fish, whatever, as long as you get your kicks, who cares who or what gets hurt, right."<-------------
One of the reasons we love diving there so much is because the reefs are in much better shape and more incredibly healthy than anywhere we've dived, including Belize, Bonaire, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Hawaii, Honduras, South Florida and the Keys, Gulf Coast of Florida, North Carolina and the Gulf of Mexico. I have done 1/3 of my lifetime dives off of Culebra, all in the last six years. There's something to be said for that. I have the means to dive elsewhere, yet I continue to return to Culebra. Why? Because the reefs are incredibly healthy. Why? Because very few people dive there, thus preserving the reefs. But you wouldn't know this as a fact because you've never been there.
The worst offender of damage to coral reefs in Culebra - high water temperatures that cause coral bleaching, resulting in die-offs of massive amounts of hard corals. Perhaps you would like to familiarize yourself withhttp://coralations.org/, so that you can see that the people on Culebra are trying to do some good. Along with the FWS and DNR in Culebra, there is certainly environmental awareness.
------->"I don't know a single person who ever made a liveable wage working "over on the beach."<--------------
Consider the fact that Puertoricans and gringos alike who have the privilege to live on this paradise have taken the time, and gone to the trouble and expense to build a guesthouse on their property or give up a room in their house to host strangers. The fact that they are making a liveable wage by opening their homes to strangers is a problem for you? Why? I doubt any person on Culebra renting their guestrooms/guesthouses are making anything more than $25K annually. The "season" is just not that long, and you can't count on renting out anymore than about 20 weeks a year. At $100/night, that's about $14K a year. Poverty level, as you so aptly pointed out.
Enjoy your PR vacation. Perhaps stepping foot on the soil will actually educate you. Meanwhile, pardon me while I perpetually daydream of wanting to be somewhere else.
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