pez maya magazine vol1 issue2

8/20/2019 Pez Maya Magazine Vol1 Issue2

1/19

Trippin’ on Turtlesmagazine

We want you!Apply for a scholarship now!

The Story of Empanadapart one

Washed UpTransforming a trashed

landscape

THE NITROX KICK

The Newest Specialty CourseAvaliable in Pez Maya

BEHIND

THE

SCIENCE

The Hunt

Least Tern Time

The Creatures ofPez Maya

The Razor


2/19

Contents A Pez Maya Publication

Facebook:

GVI Mexico Yucatan

Twitter:

GVI Mexico

Instagram:

GVI Travel

Publisher

Andy Ez

Editors

Andy Ezeta

Jodie Savage

Jill WheelerSam Wilson

Contributors

Sam Wilson

Lara Kalisch

Rachel Parry

Kerry Passingham

Eugene Beery

Jodie Savage

Steffanie Ransom

Photography Editor

Andy Ez

Photographers

Andy Ez

Alejandro Durán

Sarah Davies

Pez Maya Magazine

Second Quarter 2015

Vol 1 Issue 2

2 YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE

3 BEHIND THE SCIENCE

5 TRIPPING ON TURTLES

7 W ASHED UP:

TRANSFORMING A TRASHED L ANDSCAPE

9 THE HUNT

11 LEAST TERN TIME!

12 THE CREATURES OF PEZ M AYA,

THE R AZOR

13 WE W ANT YOU!

14 THE NITROX KICK

The Newest Specialty Course Avaliable in Pez Maya

15 THE STORY OF EMPANADA, PART 1

17 The Pez Puzzler

Cover photo by Andy Ez:

Big storm in Pez Maya.

The Pez Maya Magazine is published every 3 months by the GVI Mexico - Pez Maya team.

This is and always will be a free publication. Copyright GVI.2015

1•Pez Maya Magazine •2015


3/19

Global Vision International (GVI) is a multi-award winning social enterprise that runs high impact

volunteer and international education programs.

For more than 15 years GVI has helped thousands of people make a real dierence to the world they

live in while also gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to live and work in a globally interde-

pendent and culturally diverse world.

We began more than 15 years ago with a simple mission: To work hand in hand with local commu-

nities, NGO’s and government organisations to facilitate real change on the ground while also giving

our participants the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.

It’s an undertaking we’ve been proud to pursue in over 25 countries, through 450 programs and by

the support of over 25,000 participants and we are thankful to all past present and future volunteers.

you are the difference



4/19

So the second quarter of our year has been and gone, and despite the rainy

season´s best efforts at catching us off guard and stopping us from diving,

we completed four of our monitoring sites, even the fish monitors managed

to complete the same number of sites as us this time!

For this quarter, we´ve drawn up a few graphs of the coral cover and the

species richness. Now the fact that these graphs mirror each other fairly

well show that the sites with more corals recorded provide a greater range

of species.

On the surface this seems a fairly simple and obvious result, however, with

our current knowledge on the ecology of coral reefs, trends like these can

provide useful base data for future studies to use and reference. Everything

in our school text books has to be proven at one time or another, and this is

the kind of information we can base those on.

Now that we have reached somewhat of a milestone at Pez Maya, having ten years of data, we can finally get a clearer image of how our reef is functioning.

Is it improving? Degrading? Staying the same? Has it disappeared overnight as if abducted by aliens? Well let´s find out.

As you can see fom the graphs below the majority of our sites don´t show significant trends. Only PL20 is showing a significant increase, and while PL10

showed an equally large amount of coral it has shown less of a tendency to increase over time. We will be looking at other influences on coral growth to

see if there is any correlation between our hard coral cover and other groups of organisms, such as parrot fish and algae. So stay tuned!

Behind

the

ScienceBy Sam Wilson & Andy Ez



5/19

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

PP10

SMDR10

SMDR20

PY20


Now in the case of fish, and yes, we managed to

do the same amount of sites as the corals. I don’t

know what the big commotion is, but anyway ...

In the case of fish the dominant families did vary

in almost all sites, unlike last quarter in which two

families; Acanthuridae for adults and Labridae for

juveniles, were the dominant groups for all the

monitors.

At site PP10 the Acanthuridae family (surgeon-

fish), was most commonly sighted by a conside-

rable margin and for juveniles the Pomacentridae

(damselfish) were the most abundant.

The site SMDR 10 was the one with the most

sightings reaching 108 fish. The Haemulidae fa-

mily (grunts) for the adult and the Labridae family

(wrasse) for the juveniles stood out from the rest.

In SMDR 20 again the Acanthuridae family was

the most popular while the Scaridae (parrotfish)

was greater for the juveniles.

And last but not least in PY20, again the Acanthu-

ridae family was the most abundant for the adults

and the Labridae for the juveniles.

In the case of these sites it is interesting to see that

there is a level of diversity between the dominant

families, and that we are not just seeing Labridae

and Acanthuridae throughout.

And now in another note we also have ten years of data for the fish and enough information to make a more complete analysis of our reefs. A small

example we can show you SMDR 10 and 20.

What we can see in these graphs is that there is a small increase (especially for SMDR10)

in the last 10 years in the amount of fish spotted. This growth is occurring slowly, but the

important thing is that it’s happening.

We still have more analysis to conduct on these sites, but we hope that in the coming

months we can work with the data to see what our overall reef ecology looks like.

R² = 0.0056

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Total SMDR 20R² = 0.207

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Total SMDR 10

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Pomacentridae Labridae Scaridae Acanthuriade

PP10

SMDR10

SMDR20

PY20

In this graph you can appreciate the

abundance of the families of adult fish

And in this one you can see the numbers of the

juvi fish families


6/19

Slaughtered or their eggs, meat and shellssea turtles suffer rom poaching and over

exploitation. Tey also have to ace habitatdestruction and accidental capture by fis-hing gear. One o their biggest threats cau-sed by humans is pollution: debris can harmor even kill sea turtles through ingestion andentaglement.



7/19

Trippin’onTurtles

urtles are a requent sight in Pez Maya. Either rom the boat or on a dive, turtles are always a welcome surprise.Luckily or us in Pez Maya, we have three o the seven turtle species that can be ound around the world, these areGreen, Loggerhead and Hawksbill which nearly all are considered Endangered.

Only the emale returns to land to nest, mostly during the night, and can range rom two to nine times during thenesting season (dependant on species), which is between June and September in Mexico. Te emale turtle crawlsto a dry part o the beach and begins to fling away loose sand with her flippers. She then constructs a "body pit" bydigging with her flippers and rotating her body. Afer the body pit is complete, she delecately and expertly digs anegg cavity using her cupped rear flippers as shovels. Te average size o a clutch ranges rom about fify to hundredand ninety eggs, depending on the species.

Te incubation will take about 60 days, although the hotter the sand surrounding the eggs the aster the embryoswill develop. Surprisingly, the temperature o the nest has an influence on whether there will be more emales ormales. Cooler nests has a tendency to produce more males, while warmer nests produces a higher ratio o emales.

Te ''mother turtle'' is never there to help the hatchlings to emerge rom the nest, she returns to the sea as soon as

she has finished laying and covering up the nest, they must do it all by themselves. o break open their shells hat-chlings use a temporary sharp egg-tooth, called a "caruncle''. Once emerged rom their egg they dig out o the nestas a group, and unortunately some o them sacrifice themselves so the others climb on top o them to get ree - thisprocess can take several days. Te little turtles orient themselves to the brightest horizon, and then dash toward thesea. Unortunately there are many hurdles baby turtles have to overcome to reach adult hood, and some start rightout o the nest, or example dehydration and predators like birds and crab.

Once in the water, they typically swim several miles offshore, where they are relatively sae. One o the most re-markable acts in the animal world is the ability o seaturtles to migrate or hundreds or even thousands o ki-lometers rom their eeding ground back to their nes-ting beach where they were born. So we might see ourlittle turtle babys again one day! Although there mightbe some time to wait, as it can between 3 to 50 years toreach sexual maturity, depending on species.

We have plenty o turtles nesting on our beaches everyyear and hope that this will continue. Seeing baby turt-les hatching is a one o the most ascinating things I haveever seen. I you did not have the opportunity to see thiswonderul event yet, I hope that you that you will get thechance one day!

by Lara Kalisch



8/19

Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape

Alejandro Durán has found trash from over 50 different countries. Thisrubbish has been carried to the shores of Sian Ka’an from all over the

globe, and must travel over the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef to get here.

The Washed Up project events and the opening of the Museum of Garba-ge which were designed to create and promote environmental awareness

about rubbish, ultimately trying to encourage a change in the patterns of

consumption and waste we have.

Dawn (2011)

All images are © Alejandro Durán 2015. All Rights Reserved

By Rachel Parry



9/19

Never has the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” been so rele-vant than at the Museum of Garbage in the Sian Ka’an Reserve. The Museum of

Garbage, or El Museo de la Basura, is part of multimedia artist Alejandro Durán’s

Washed Up project. Alejandro Durán has been visiting Sian Ka’an for over five

years and says that when he first arrived he was surprised and disgusted by the

amount of rubbish that washed up on the shores in this UNESCO World Heritage

site. His project, Washed Up, looks at the issue of plastic pollution making its way

across the ocean and onto the shores of Sian Ka’an, Mexico’s largest federally-

protected reserve.

In May this year, Alejandro and GVI joined forces to organise events leading up

to the official opening of the “Museum of Garbage” at the Xo Ki’in retreat lodge.

The lodge is right by Punta Allen, the tiny but world-famous fishing town where

GVI provide weekly English lessons at kindergarden, primary and secondary le-

vels.

On the 6th of May, after our regular English classes, our volunteers and staff

members travelled to the Museum of Garbage for the first event: the pre-opening

of the museum for the children of Punta Allen. We then helped to set up variousart exhibitions. Some of us washed blue shoes and arranged them in a beautiful

spiral, some carefully positioned toothbrushes among the mangroves and others

separated washed up rubbish into different categories.

When the children came, staff and volunteers showed them around the museum

with Alejandro as a guide. They started at the International Rubbish station where

rubbish from over 50 different countries was displayed along with a map showing

all of the countries of origin, by colour.It was wonderful to see all of the students

engaged and curious as to what piece of rubbish came from which country. The

students spoke about their disappointment that there is so much rubbish in the

ocean, and talked about the messages they would like to send to the world to try

to stop the pollution.

The students explored the museum and learnt a lot about recycling and plastics,

including which plastics are recyclable and which aren’t. The installations and art

work were displayed amongst the jungle like secret pockets of treasure and the

accessibility of the exhibition made the children feel like explorers and helped to

keep them interested and engaged. After the tour, the children took part in a quick

beach clean. Then, with one last talk from Alejandro, the event came to a close.

On the 11th of May we returned to Punta Allen to pick up two truck-loads of

garbage from the Museum, all carefully sorted into different colours. In Punta

Allen, GVI went to the Primary school and Secondary school and took groups

of students out to the local park where they made posters with the messages they

wanted to send to the world about recycling and ocean pollution. Everybody hel-

ped to make a mega art installation on the football field using all the rubbish

GVI brought. The children, students, parents, friends and supporters all positioned

themselves around the art installation in a circle while Alejandro took photos with

his drone camera. The photos were taken from above and showed the community

coming together as one to help spread the message: “cuida al planeta” or “look

after our planet”.

The Washed Up project was an important opportunity to educate not only the

children and people of Punta Allen and the local community, but also ourselves.

All staff and volunteers who participated are now more educated ambassadors for

the environment, with an increased motivation to change the disposable mindset

created by our excessive consumerism of plastics and other resources.

It has been said that if you want adults to recycle, then all you need to do is teach

their children why it's so important. The work that GVI does with the children at

Punta Allen has always focussed on educating and creating awareness. Our aim is

to improve not just the livelihoods of the children, but subsequently, all creatures

of nature. Our Marine Conservation project at Pez Maya can only be useful if we

are able to educate people on how to improve their interactions with nature and

help to protect and conserve our environment.

Spill (2010)

Algae (2013)

Shoots (2014)

Jade Wind (2011)



10/19

The Hunt

Tey are beautiul, dressed with vivid colors ored, white and black. Tey have elegant veno-mous spines and a developed killing instinct.Tey are one o the top predators o this area,

but the problem is, that they are not supposedto be here.

Lionfish are a threat to our rees. Tis invasivespecies is eating the native fish without anyoneto stop them. Not even sharks seem interestedin them. Someone needs to make a stand, andthat someone is us, the Pez Maya team.

By Andy Ez



11/19

So with that on mind we decided to organize “HEHUN”. Tis event had a triple purpose; the main one, ocourse, to help our ree by removing some o the Lionfishound in the area. Te second was to help our ellow GVIcolleagues in Nepal by raising money to buy supplies orthe earthquake victims o the May 2015 earthquakes inthat area. And, last but not least, this hunt was the launch

o our new Lionfish research project at Pez Maya, werewe will study, monitor and dissect this species in a morestructured program.

Te event had the participation o two teams, ‘Te Guar-dians o the Ree’ and ‘Te Aven-gers’. On the first day a knowledgetest was organized that includedquestions about the biology, beha- vior and history o this fish. TeAvengers took the victory at thisfirst challenge, so they were ahead

beore the big day!

Te ollowing days consisted o in-tense training through watching vi-deos, receiving lectures, practisingusing the spear on land, and then inwater; and finally finishing off withthorough saety precautions, espe-cially on handling the fish afer theyhave been shot.

Ten came the day or the big hunt

and we were all prepared to enterthe water and catch as many Lion-fish as possible. Te teams were ex-cited and created songs to rally thetroops. Our battleground was thediving site amous or the amounto Lionfish sightings, Special K. omake it air the direction the teamscould go in were switched on thetwo different dives, north or southor 38 minutes to catch as manyLionfish as possible.

Te first dive proved to be mostproductive with Te Guardians othe Ree capturing seven, while TeAvengers captured five. Te seconddive o the day was not as produc-tive as the first but Te Guardianso the Ree managed to capture ourmore while Te Avengers capturedtwo more. By the end o the hunting Te Guardians o theRee took the victory with this part o the competition by

removing eleven Lionfish rom the Sian Ka’an reserve. Intotal an impressive eighteen Lionfish were removed romthe ree in one day.

With the hunting completed or the day, and all the tro-phies had been admired and photographed it was time tomove to the next parts o the competition. All fish weremeasured, filleted, and dissected and the inormation re-corded. Interesting finds in the stomachs were things like juvenile filefish, and a praying Mantis Shrimp – showingwhat a voracious predator the Lionfish really is. Ability

games were played o who could assemble the spear thequickest etc, both teams seemed evenly matched over thecourse o the day, and it seemed as though it was anyone’sgame!

Te final part o the competition or the day was the coo-king challenge, enthusiastically judged by one staff mem-ber who was impervious to bribery. Points were up orgrabs or presentation, originality and flavour. Te Guar-dians o the Ree were a little more elegant, creating abreaded Lionfish dish served with white wine and dip-ping sauces. A waiter was asked to deliver the plate whi-le the judge was sitting at a table overlooking the ocean

while listening to classical music.Te Avengers were a little more da-ring and created a ceviche ull withflavour, strategically placed alongthe torso o one o the team mem-bers, who wore a simple palm loin-

cloth. Tat act earned them the pri-ze o the best presentation (and a loto laughter) while Guardians o theRee won the award or originalityand best flavour.

At the end o the day, owing to theirteamwork and hunting prowess, thewinning team was Te Guardianso the Ree and although that groupwas a little behind in other challen-ges, the amount o fish they caught

and amount o unds raised carriedthem to victory.

In total 18 Lionfish (a new record inPez Maya) were captured and morethan US$800 was donated to theGVI Nepal project.

Tis event besides being very en-tertaining proved to be highly suc-cessul. We hope to repeat this huntsoon. We will keep you posted.



12/19

Photographs by Sarah Davies

Least Tern TimeIt´s April, the sun is out and there is some light squeaking in the air, but where is it coming from? Thenyou see them, seemingly a hundred or more small, flapping birds. It’s Least Tern time! It’s around thistime of the year that we get a short few months of Least Terns (Sternula antillarum ), they only join us fromlate May to the end of June to nest on our beach.

Typically these small shorebirds nest at our mangrove mouth estuary, favouring the soft sand and largeprofile of the beach there, especially as it is adjacent to a rich feeding ground. Now unfortunately, due tothe changeable nature of our beach, we have failed to find any nests this year, as it appears the conditionswere not favourable this season. This is a shame, as while the Least Tern is listed as “Least Concern” (hah..get it?) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, their populations are in a significant decline.

As the photos show, these birds do not build elaborate nests high in trees, or hide their eggs in theundergrowth, they simply rely on the speckled pattern of their eggs to camouflage them intothe bare sand.

Their mating rituals involve males flying with a fish in their

mouth, followed by 1-4 females. They are monogamous, andwhile they share the incubation of eggs, females typicallyspend more time on the nest, around 80% of the incubationtime. During this time the male fishes and returns to feed her.

They dig a small pit into the sand in which to lay their eggs,with incubation lasting around 21-23 days. 1-2 days afterhatching, chicks will begin wandering up to 200m fromthe nest while parents forage, but occasionallyas much as 1 kilometre from the nest intimes of disturbance.

The young usually fledge and leave their nestsaround 3 weeks post hatching, with parents con-tinuing to care for them for up to 8 weeks beforethey become independent.

Hopefully next year our beach will be moreappealing to our little Least Terns, but for now wewish them well with their nesting along other

beaches in the Sian Kaán.

by Sam Wilson



13/19

Creatures of Pez MayaMastigodryas melanolomus

This type of Racer snake can be found in tropical dryforests throughout Central America. They are not ve-nomous and they primarily eat lizards. This racer isknown to bite when caught but otherwise avoid interac-tions with people. They love to hang out in the staffand volunteers huts at Pez Maya.



14/19

We Want You!

I am often told how lucky I amwhen I talk to people aboutthe work that I do, and where

I live. And honestly, I revelin their replies – I do nothave the worries other peo-ple have living in the ‘realworld’. Rent or mortgage pay-ments, long commutes to work,where to dine out this week,what to watch on TV, I don’teven need to worry about whatis in fashion and what is not.I live at Pez Maya and I managea marine conservation projecton the second largest barrierreef system in the world!

It has been a long journeygetting here, lots of educa-tion, training and in-field

experience, but it has allbeen worth it, believe me. Istarted off doing a degree inMarine Geography, which wasclosely followed by working onprojects such as this one, ta-king me to all parts of theglobe including the Philippi-nes, Kenya, Turks & Caicos Is-lands, Australia, Costa Rica,and now Mexico. There have beena few more degrees, managingprojects, and some other jobsthrown in there along the way,

But at the end of the day Ihave never looked back.

So today I thought I would talkto you about the amazing op-portunity we offer here at PezMaya to those people who arelooking for their first or nextstep into the world of marineconservation and diving: get-ting in-field experience as aMarine Scholar. This positionis mainly offered to ex-‘PezMayan’ volunteers, but reallyanyone who is a PADI Divemas-ter with marine underwater re-search experience can apply.



15/19

The staff team is made up of seven permanentstaff positions: the Base Manager, a Mainte-nance Officer (who is also second in charge),two Lead Dive Instructors, two Science Offi-cers, and a Community Officer. On top of this,we normally offer one or two Marine Scholar

positions (as voluntary staff members). Theserun for a three-month term.

All staff are considered ‘Field Staff’, andhave shared duties. They are responsible fora range of tasks, including assisting and/or teaching PADI diving courses (up to Res-cue Diver); training volunteers on coral and/or fish identification and underwater moni-toring techniques; conducting science dives;driving the outboard engine boats; supporting

the Base Manager in the day-to-day logisticsand smooth running of base through daily du-ties, inventories, shopping, and administra-tive duties; and ensuring that strict healthand safety regulations are complied with atall times.

Sounds like a busy job? It is! But I do feelthe Marine Scholar position at Pez Maya is anincredible experience to list on your CV: tea-ching diving, marine conservation and scienti-

fic monitoring techniques; managing and lea-ding volunteers; driving boats; working withthe community; and at the end of the day it isa first step into GVI - a global organisationthat has a lot of equally amazing projectsaround the world.

Being a field staff member is an absolutelyamazing experience. Yes it is challenging,and yes it is hard work, but we all absolutelylove it here. We have a great staff team whoare enthusiastic, passionate, and who supporteach other and enjoy working together. Thevolunteers add their own flavour each time,which makes the job very varied and interes-ting.

So what do you think? Feel like you have whatit takes to be a Pez Mayan Marine Scholar? Oryou might know someone who does? Then read theMarine Scholar Information booklet and com-

plete the Application Form. We are waiting tohear from you.

CheersJodie

Base Manager at Pez Maya


https://goo.gl/Mq2pzzhttps://goo.gl/w0307nhttps://goo.gl/w0307nhttps://goo.gl/Mq2pzz


16/19

This quarter on base has seen our first ever En-riched Air (Nitrox) Diver Course for three of ourvolunteers and even some of our staff. This hasbeen a great opportunity for our volunteers todelve deeper into the world of diving physics andphysiology, as well as to learn some new practicalskills.

All recreational divers learn to dive with com-pressed air. This is simply the air that we breathecompressed into a tank – 21% oxygen and 79% ni-trogen. Once you are Advanced Open Water certi-fied you are able to join a course to become certi-fied to dive with enriched air. Enriched air divinginvolves diving with a blend of gases that has hig-her levels of oxygen – up to 40%.

During their Open Water Course, all divers learnthat nitrogen is the primary gas concerned withdecompression illness (DCI). The longer and dee-per we spend underwater, breathing compres-sed air, the more nitrogen our body takes on. Aslong as we plan our dives with the RecreationalDive Planner (RDP), or dive with a computer, theamount of nitrogen in our body should stay withinacceptable limits and our chances of getting DCI

are small. Of course there are always variablesand other factors which mean the risk of DCI willnever be zero.

So, what if you want to dive a wreck that’s a bitdeeper and the RDP doesn’t give you enoughbottom time to explore the wreckage? Nitrox isoften the answer. By increasing oxygen levels inthe air you are breathing the nitrogen levels arereduced, meaning you are taking on less nitro-gen throughout the dive. This means you can staydeeper for longer, so long as your air consump-tion allows you to do so. For example the RDP

gives a maximum bottom time of 24 minutes at30 meters when diving with air. However, withnitrox 32% you would have 30 minutes and 36%would give you 35 minutes.

The course teaches you how to decide which per-centage blend is best for the dive you are plan-ning, how to request a tank, how to analyse a tankto be sure of its contents, and how to plan yourdives. It also teaches you the main safety con-cerns of with diving with increased oxygen, whileopening up the opportunity to dive at some incre-dible dive sites around the world.

By Kerry Passingham & Eugene Beery



17/19

The Story of

Empanadafirst part

To be Continue...

Once upon a time, and in a Mangro-ve nearby, there lived a young Lemon

Shark who was ambitious, yet shy.

His name was Empanada, and how he

longed to explore. He swam the whole

Mangrove, though he wished to know

more.

Every way that he went, new friends he

would meet, they waved pincers or fins,

whatever would greet.

They too were born and in the shallows

they grew, and yet they all shared in

questions about the yonder Big Blue.

What was there out there? Were there

others like him? He yearned for the an-

swers, but feared the great swim.

One day he felt brave, and approached

the Wise Crab, he knew many things,he had a gift of the gab.

Impetuous and eager, questions burst

from his lips, “Why are we here? And

what’s with those tips?”

“Oh my young friend,” The Wise Crab

replied, “There is so much to teach you,

listen up!” He cried.

“This place is the Mangroves, it’s the

best place to be, for guppies like you,

and old crabs like me.”

“There’s an abundance of shade(abundance means lots) to keep us coo-

ler and safer, despite all the crocs!”

Empanada shrunk back, afraid and with-

drawn, “I’m terrified of crocodiles,

especially at dawn.”

“Oh my young shark friend, you’ve more

in common than you think. You’re both

top of the food chain, the most domi-

nant link.”

“So we’re the most important, right?

Nothing else here can best us. In fact

it’d be foolish if a fish tried to test us!”

“Calm yourself, pup, you’ve a long way

to go. If you think you’re the best, Ha!

You’re as high as you’re low.”

“Sure you eat the fish, but when the

day is done, you’ll just decompose, then

us crabs´ll have our ton!”

Mildly disheartened, and not at all relie-

ved, Empanada listened to the tale the

Wise Crab weaved.

“It’s such an intricate system, where

could I possibly start?” “Where did I

come from?” asked Empanada, pure of

heart.

The Wise Crab considered the biological

truth, but instead lied through his pincers

as the old do to youth.

“Well, your parents wished, and hugged

very hard” “I mean about the Mangrove!

Don’t leave me scarred.”

The Wise Crab exhaled, and after a

brief awkward pause, he continued with

the science behind old Mangrove lores.

“So as you well know, you were born

here and raised, like so many guppies,

to spend early days.”

“The ‘tips’ that you mentioned, they’re

Mangrove roots, they absorb the salt

water” “To make tasty fruits?”

“Not quite” said the Crab, and smiled

with a gleam, “they transform it for us

into water, fresh and clean.”

“They remove pollutants, poisons of many

forms; and the big and dense branches

protect shores from the storms!”

“The humans call it an ecosystem, I

guess that’s what we’re in, it describes

how we work together, hand in hand,

fin in fin.”

Empanada nodded, taking in all that he

said. The knowledge was swimming, as

in water, but in head.

“Wow that’s pretty awesome, I had no

idea, Mangroves are vital to all I hold

dear.”

“Much more than that, to the seagrass

and reef, but my knowledge ends there,

much to my grief.”

“One day you’ll have grown and with a

need to be free, you’ll embrace who you

are, you’ll swim to the sea!”

“But what will I find there? What good

would it do? Can I ever come back, or

do I start all anew?”

“You’ll one day return, for one reason

alone, it’s a magical time to start a fa-

mily of your own.”

A little confused, but with some answers

at least, he thanked the Wise Crab, his

curiosity increased.

By Steffanie Ransom



18/19

The Pez

Science

Puzzler

Across

1. Don’t wave a red flag at this (shark)3. Loud, noisy, black bird always around and makes you think of the sound a witch would make (bird)4. Angelina Joli’s lips (coral)5. Messy drawing or writing and implement to make things less blunt (fish)6. Beautiful, deadly, but don’t belong here. Hear them roar and then shoot (fish)7. You smell the flowers (coral)10. It has a huge head (turtle)14. Don’t stick your dick in it (coral)15. Its green fat gives the name to this (turtle)16. Oscar, an experienced fisher likes to watch over the volunteers’ huts (bird)17. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming (fish)18. Would live in Paris and the heavens (fish)19. Clive’s a knob (coral)

Down

2. Looks like lettuce (coral)4. Alice is looking after her sheep (coral)8. Sits on a throne with a gun (fish)9. Pterodactyl like (bird)11. Would work in a hospital (shark)12. Heals people for a living (fish)



19/19

pez maya magazine vol1 issue2

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