Post COVID-19 Reefs Show off the Splendor of 50 Years Ago

It is tremendous what is happening and future generations will study this pandemic and its consequences on people and the economy. However, to give some hope in this global crisis only one consequence could be positive; the environmental one.

This is the first time the planet has come to a standstill, confining billions of people. In just a few days the level of C02 in many capitals was reduced by more than 80%. The little activity in coastal areas favored the arrival of marine species to the coast and to observe scenes that were not lived since more than 50 years.

Animals walking in urban areas that took over the main roads of the now empty cities. In a few weeks’ animal populations doubled, marine corals and the thousands of species living on them were able to restore themselves in many areas’ thanks, among other things, to the quality of their waters. During the days of confinement, millions of pieces of waste were no longer dumped into the rivers and oceans.

A microscopic virus confined the supreme and absolute being that we believe to be capable of dominating the earth, plundering its resources and putting its interest above that of the common good, the good of our future generations.  It is ironic, but given that only a minority (a growing minority, but a minority after all) cares about the environment, one could think that it is nature that has put this stone in our path.

The world can’t stop but we can think about nature as we move forward with it, not against it.  If it has improved in a few weeks, let’s not go back. Let us keep what we have earned and do everything we do from now on in more empathetic manner not to go back.

Let’s get the message and not test it again. Let us enjoy ourselves and bring out the positive in all this sadness. Now in many places, nature is back to what it was 50 years ago. Let’s have a good time during these moments back in time.

Enjoy diving again as never before with such quality of the waters, reefs, numerous and rich populations of marine flora and fauna but first and foremost with strong respect, commitment, common sense and environmental spirit.