Oreana Wouters is from the Nature and Environment Directorate and worked with Parque Nacional Arikok on the project to inform and raise awareness of the ‘Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease’ among people working in the marine area.
We actually find that there are a lot more people who are aware of what’s happening to coral and marine life that we all need to protect. The community is interested and alert and that the information days help to understand more about what the diseases are, what we as the Directorate of Nature and Environment and Arikok National Park are doing and what we may need to prepare for in the future.
The idea is to intensify the communication between those who use our water the most and the communication is much closer together. The Nature and Environment Directorate led and came up with a document to work on a plan and called on other public authorities with Parque Nacional Arikok to set up a working group.
The Nature and Environment Directorate coordinates and facilitates the process to begin by informing ourselves who work in the field and the ministers who also need to be more aware and accustomed to the situations that may arise in Aruba and who, as a mandate, also need to be prepared to make the necessary decisions.
Nature and Environment also supports the Arikok National Park where the two information evenings were held together. We will also communicate with various government agencies to keep everyone informed of what is happening and how Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease is developing in the Caribbean waters and in the area in Aruba.
According to Oreana Wouters, it sounds like we live on an island, but not many of us swim and not many of us visit the beaches regularly, some people do it maybe once a month and often they do it in the family and are not constantly in the water to spend time with nature. This is also why little is known about coral disease.
Some people know about coral bleaching because it’s a problem that’s been going on for years because of changes in the nature and temperature of the sea. Most fishermen know this area, but coral diseases themselves are unknown to many of us. Not only the civilian population, but even the marine biologists know not everything. Worldwide, there is also insufficient information about the disease because of insufficient attention.
It’s a much bigger task to work with other countries, but also to see what works for Aruba and that depends on the public in the community. That’s why these conversations help to stimulate discussions to take action more quickly, but there are also options you may not have considered yet, such as the Nature and Environment Directorate and Arikok National Park.