Recently the Aquarium launched the Live Blue Initiative, an online tool that allows people from all over the world to share their commitment to protect the blue planet. The divers are sharing their own live blue profiles describing how they care for the oceans. Here's a look at Dive Safety Officer John Hanzl's Live Blue profile.



John Hanzl
Dive Safety Officer

Complete the Sentence:
I live blue because the ocean is both my passion and my second home.

Why do you care about the environment?
The question really should be "How can you NOT care about the environment." It is what makes life possible. Without it our planet is nothing but an airless, lifeless hunk of rock.

How has your environment affected your career/education decisions?
My love of nature in general, and of the aquatic world in specific, is what led me to make a drastic change in careers many years ago. I transitioned from career in electrical engineering to being a diver for the New England Aquarium and is a decision I've been grateful for ever since.

Read more here and follow this link to see John's plot of ocean in the Phoenix Islands.

To help with today's blog I have asked Sarah Taylor (at right) to join me. Sarah is an Aquarist at NEAq in Boston and the Trip Leader for our current expedition. She is also a very experienced diver.

Bud: Sarah, why do we do these collecting trips every year?
Sarah: We do them to replenish the fishes and invertebrates in our Caribbean reef exhibits. Simply put, we are replenishing species that die off because of their natural mortality rates.

Bud: Do we need a permit to collect in the Bahamas? Are there any restrictions on what we can take?
Sarah: Yes. We work very closely with the Bahamas Ministry of Fisheries. A Bahamian official comes on board during the trip. He monitors our collecting techniques and examines our "catch." We don't take anything on the IUCN Red List - or anything that is endangered or threatened.

Bud: How is the trip going so far in terms of what we want to bring back to Boston?
Sarah: We're happily ahead of the curve! We actually have more fish on board then expected at this stage. Great!

Bud: Are we harming the reef ecosystem by pulling out these fish and invertebrates?
Sarah: We only use nets; no chemicals. We carefully avoid damaging the corals. And, we take only a very, very small number of animals relative to the size of their populations in the wild.

Bud: How will life in captivity for these animals differ from life in the wild?
Sarah: They will be very well fed and very well cared for by the staff in Boston. Generally, they live longer and grow larger than in the wild. And, of course, because any potential predators (e.g. sharks) in our tanks are well fed, their usual prey has a much better chance of surviving longer.

Bud: How does a collecting trip like this one support marine conservation efforts in the Bahamas?
Sarah: We do species and abundance surveys to help monitor the biodiversity of the reefs. We share our data with REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation), an organization that is working to protect the reefs throughout the Caribbean.

Bud: And, by exhibiting these animals in the New England Aquarium in Boston, we teach people about the importance of reef conservation.

Today's best finds:
4 Tobacco Fish (4-5 inches) Serranus tabacarius
1 Trumpet Fish (11-12 inches) Aulostomus maculatus (above right)
2-3 Yellowhead Wrasse (5 inches) Halichoeres garnoti
Several Fairy Basslets (1-2 inches) Gramma loreto

All in all, a great day down here in the Bahamas!