A set of video footage from the Vauxhall Fringing Reef in Barbados over the period 2015 to early 2023.
- Reef Crest onto Seaward Slope
- Orbicella spp. Reef Crest onto Seaward Slope
- Leading edges of Spurs, Seaward Slope/Reef Front
- Orbicella annularis & Acropora
cervicornis on the Reef Front - Fish
- Acropora prolifera at the Reef Flat/
Reef Crest Interface
COMMENTS
Years 2015 to early 2023: a Healthy Reef
In the early months of each year from 2015 to 2020 and from 2023 to 2025, I had the good fortune to spend a lot of time snorkelling on the Fringing Reef at Vauxhall*, Barbados, a camera always in hand. Up until early 2023, it was a healthy reef with overall high % living coral cover and high coral diversity and an abundance and diversity of fish. As such, it stood out from other fringing reefs in the MPA which were (and still are) highly degraded.**
* Reef # 34 in the MPA, see Map **. See Video Transects of Vauxhall & 2 Degraded Fringing Reefs
“The Wreck” and adjacent outer fringing reef at Vauxhall were and still are a popular site for snorkel boats. Boats tie up to fixed mooring about 150 m offshore and snorkelers explore The Wreck and the outer edges of the fringing reef. In February of 2025, a skipper of one of those boats told me that even following the recent damage to the outer reef from Hurricane Beryl (July 2024), the Vauxhall Reef is by far the best snorkelling reef in Barbados.
2023 to 2025: Rapid Decline in Reef Health due to External (global) Factors
In late 2022, SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease) arrived in Barbados. As documented in pages on this website, the disease proliferated rapidly on Vauxhall Reef in early 2023. Extreme warming/coral bleaching occurred in the fall of 2023 and again in the fall of 2024.* On July 1, 2024, swells from Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the west coast of Barbados.** These three disturbances had dramatic negative effects: SCTLD attacked many brain and massive corals, the extreme warming affected most of the Acroporoids and Milleporas in particular, but also many brain corals; and Hurricane Beryl physically disrupted the Porites-dominated spurs on the seaward slope.
* See Coral Bleaching – Barbados; ** see List of Barbados Hurricanes.
On the Future of Vauxhall and other Fringing Reefs
Global research on and practical trials of new coral reef restoration techniques* give me lot of optimism that much of the degradation of the fringing reefs world wide could actually be reversed in future years. I am encouraged that degradation of fringing reefs in Barbados is being addressed and I believe will ultimately be reversed through the efforts and commitment of volunteer groups such as CORALL Barbados, academic researchers at UWI Cave Hill, by reef management activities of the Barbados Government, and more broadly through the remarkable good will and optimism of Bajans.
* See, e.g., the website for the Coral Restoration Foundation.
About the Videos
This set of videos illustrates the state of Vauxhall Reef 2015-early 2023, before the onset of SCTLD, the bleaching events of 2023 and subsequently and before Hurricane Beryl. I am working on another set of videos to illustrate changes in Vauxhall Reef 2023-2025 in relation to the state of the reef illustrated by these 2015 to early 2023 videos.
These are 1920×1080 pixel MP4 videos posted on my versicolor.ca webspace. Depending on the browser, they may be shown directly or require downloading.
Getting good videos was not a goal of my explorations, getting good photos was. However, I took many videos ancillary to the photos and enough were of good quality to allow me to produce this set. Except for Video #5 Fish, the speed of the videos was reduced by half to minimize shake, thus the sound is also reduced by half.
The videos may be copied, modified and distributed under the conditions of the Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0.
– david p, Aug 18, 2025.