Time is of the essence-without quick restoration, coral colonies can die within a few weeks. Successfully tested by Hurricane Delta, the policy provides a fast injection of cash for reef repairs after a storm. But the Guardians’s work was enabled by a pioneering collaboration aimed at saving the reef and the economy it supports: this 100-mile stretch of the Mesoamerican Reef is the world’s first natural asset protected by an insurance policy. Normally after a natural disaster, when the need for help is widespread and urgent, the rapid restoration of a coral reef might not rank high on the list of priorities. Hidden beyond Puerto Morelos’s ivory beaches lies the Mesoamerican Reef, the second largest barrier reef system in the world. A week after the hurricane, when the sea had settled, he was among roughly 30 ‘Guardians of the Reef’ who set about clearing debris and re-rooting and re-attaching damaged coral colonies.“We worked 12 hours every day for a month and a half,” says Rubio. Rubio is part of the local brigade of volunteer conservationists who care for it.
Hidden beyond Puerto’s ivory beaches lies the Mesoamerican Reef, the second largest barrier reef system in the world. Less noticeable, but perhaps even more consequential, was the damage sustained by the vibrant coral just offshore. “For a half hour, as the eye of the storm passed over us, there was a complete silence no insects, no birds, nothing.” And then the storm came crashing back with a vengeance claiming the town’s pier as one of its many structural victims. The wind quickly got up to 100 miles per hour and all one could hear above it was the snapping and crashing of trees and building fixtures. “Everyone was hiding at home with their families, nervously praying for as little damage as possible,” recalls Jacob Rubio, a local marine biologist and scuba instructor. The foreboding, churning clouds of Hurricane Delta amassed like a riotous mob before charging headlong into the diminutive Caribbean pueblo. On 7 October 2020, the sky over the sultry Mexican fishing town of Puerto Morelos began to darken and the wind started to whistle and howl.
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