VIDEO: Raising Coral Bleaching Awareness with Alanna…

Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants and NFB Education hosted a field trip hosted by Ocean School Science Producer and intrepid explorer Alanna Canaran on February 9, 2024!

If you missed the livestream, everything that Alanna shared is now available here! Check out the video and educator resource pack to explore coral reef bleaching and what you can do to save the reefs

Meet Alanna

My name is Alanna and I’m a science producer for Ocean School and a PADI scuba diving instructor. Join me in exploring coral reefs in Roatan, to learn more about biodiversity, the threats they face, and what can be done to save the reefs.

Alanna Canaran scuba diving wearing all black scuba gear. She is diving on a coral reef with different species of soft corals, like sea fans, and sea rods behind her.

Scuba diver Alanna Canaran underwater on the Mesoamerican reef system in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Mexico. Photo by Alanna Canaran.

Roatan is an island in the Caribbean Sea, part of the Mesoamerican barrier reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef. There's so much biodiversity here from beaches and dunes to mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and coral reefs, which support some epic marine life like sea turtles, tropical fish, and whale sharks.

I did my PADI Divemaster training in Roatan in 2016 and so it has a very special place in my heart. It’s where I became a better diver, gained confidence in the water, and really decided that I wanted to work as a scuba diving professional. At that time in my life, being in Roatan was when I was the most immersed in the ocean I had ever been. This past January I had the opportunity to go back to Roatan and I was shocked and saddened to see what 8 years of increased human pressure and climate change did to the reef.

A partially bleached coral on a reef in the Roatan Marine Park. The coral is showing a gradient of bleaching, with it being the worst in the centre, where the coral is white, and becoming more colourful towards the outside of the coral structure.

Partially bleached star coral on a reef in the Roatan Marine Park. Photo by Alanna Canaran.

Coral reefs are currently experiencing two significant challenges: coral bleaching and Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). Coral bleaching occurs when corals are stressed due to factors like high temperatures or pollution. SCTLD is a bacterial infection that affects specific types of coral, eating away at their fleshy polyps

Thankfully there are local conservation efforts to help restore the reef. The coastal waters around Roatan are protected and monitored by the Roatan Marine Park which plays a vital role in protecting these ecosystems through initiatives like setting up mooring lines to prevent anchor damage, lionfish hunting to control invasive species, and coral restoration efforts to help damaged reefs recover.

By understanding the challenges and learning about conservation efforts, we can all play a part in protecting these fragile ecosystems.

A man filleting invasive lionfish on the back of a dive boat in Roatan, Honduras. There are dozens of dead lionfish in a pile with their orange, white, and black stripes visible on their bodies, fins, and spines. The man is placing the filleted lionfish in an ice bucket.

A divemaster at Cocoview Resort in Roatan, Honduras filleting invasive lionfish that were caught by a group of divers using Hawaiian slings licensed by the Roatan Marine Park. Photo by Alanna Canaran.

You don't need to be a scientist or a scuba diver to make a difference. Simple actions like using reef-safe sunscreen, participating in shoreline cleanups, and spreading awareness can contribute to ocean conservation.

Let's take action together! Visit oceanschool.nfb.ca/make-your-ocean-promise to make an Ocean Promise—a commitment to help protect our oceans. Share your promise and inspire others to join this wave of positive change. Together, we can make a difference for our oceans and coral reefs.

To learn more, check out the full recording with Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants Honduras reefs and coral conservation with Alanna Canaran

My ocean promise

As an ocean educator, scuba diving and mermaid instructor, my ocean promise is to help people make a meaningful connection to the ocean for themselves, to inspire them to live with the ocean in mind.

Make your ocean promise today!

My ocean promise

A scuba diver is using a brush to clean the algae off a coral tree at a coral restoration site in the Roatan Marine Park. The coral trees are made of plastic tubes and pipes that are arranged to look like branches of a tree, with coral fragments hanging from them.

A scuba diver cleaning algae off of a coral tree at Sea Quest Deep, a coral restoration dive site in the Roatan Marine Park.

Make your ocean promise today!

Now it's your turn to make your ocean promise!

No matter where you live, your life depends on the ocean. The ocean shapes everything, from the air you breathe and the food you eat, to the weather and climate that you experience. It’s time to give back and show the ocean we care.

Now it's your turn to make your ocean promise!

Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants

Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants is a virtual education non-profit which coordinates 40+ monthly live, free, interactive programs connecting scientists and explorers globally with classrooms! In February, they're commemorating the International Day of Women in STEM by running a whole month featuring solely incredible women in science - from jellyfish biologists to NASA engineers, global health experts to coding all stars and more!