Truly inspiring to see what reef fish populations can look like. Not to rain on the parade, but for just a bit of perspective, it's the fish populations here that are dramatically healthier than elsewhere, not the coral populations. The coral cover, macroalgal coverage, etc. here are right about average for the Caribbean. In other words, the stony coral coverage is drastically lower than it was a few decades ago (by ~80%) whereas the macroalgal cover is higher. Unfortunately, protection from fishing can't stop the spread of coral disease, or counteract global scale stressors like climate change.
The fish though, are incredible, and remind us what we can have with protection, and what we can lose without it.
cj
