Tending To A Changing Sea

On the tiny island of Middle Cay, perched on the windward edge of a rare Caribbean atoll known as Glover's Reef in Belize, the Wildlife Conservation Society maintains a busy little facility to support the study and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. At the Glover's Reef Marine Research Station, there are docks, dormitories, labs, dive shacks, dining rooms, and outboard motorboats. There are 12 Belizean dive masters, cooks, boat handlers, and maintenance personnel. They are divided into two shifts. Each shift spends two weeks at a time on the remote island, providing crucial services to visiting scientists and students. By rule, scientists who dive with scuba tanks to do research from Middle Cay must be accompanied by a trained WCS dive master...