An adventure to Buccoo Reef Marine Park takes us on board one of the iconic glass-bottom boats to peer into an utterly unique ecosystem and to meet the people whose lives are integrated with this environment. Pat Ganase visits Buccoo Reef and talks with Edgar Johnson.

We meet the boat at Buccoo. Solo Amor is bright with fresh paint on the jetty. No waves ruffle the calm of the bay. It’s late July. Brief daily showers cool the air. The Orinoco is not yet running in flood. Sky and sea off Tobago are clear. We board and find seats around the boxes that are picture frames to the sand bottom. As we motor out to the edge of the Buccoo Reef Marine Park, designated for protection since 1973, the underwater world comes alive. Corals, sea fans, fish and the occasional ray shimmy across our glass screens.

Edgar Johnson, captain of the Solo Amor, talks about the ocean backyard where he grew up. This area on the toe of Tobago includes Pigeon Point, Buccoo, Bon Accord and Store Bay, and was home and livelihood for his father’s family of ten children and now his family.

“Fish Tea was my nickname.

"I grew up in Buccoo. My garden is in Buccoo Village. I was the second of ten children of James Ebenezer Johnson – they called him Daniel – and my mother Gertlyn. We were five boys and five girls, one went to Canada, one in England. Two were in the Coast Guard. One deceased.

[caption id="attachment_1030675" align="alignnone" width="591"] Through the glass bottom, we see corals, sea fans and fish nibbling the algae on the bottom of the boat. - Pat Ganase[/caption]

"My father was a fisherman all his life. There was another person before him called Daniel who gave his name to Dan’s Bank, that’s what the Nylon Pool used to be called, Dan’s Bank. There was a Johnson Bank, Bruce Bank, Top Elder Bank and Bottom Elder Bank, Cecil Bank. All named for people who were fishermen in Buccoo.

There are the Long Reefs, Gethsemane and Bull Head just beyond the reef. We had these names so we could identify and refer to different spots; and navigate between the dark spots."

The sea grass beds as well as the reef itself may be considered “dark spots.” Solo Amor has taken us out to the dark edge of the reef. Here the sea is green, with ripples and small waves. As we slip into the water, we feel the tug of a determined current and are warned to stay within reach of the safety ring attached to a long tow rope. With snorkels, masks and flippers, the littlest visitors swim above the corals, surprising a stingray and schools of fish. We are urged to hang on to the rope and hold fast as Solo Amor slowly takes us to the patch reef called Coral Gardens. These patch reefs are encircled by the fringing reef which encloses an area about seven sq km and includes the lagoon and mangrove swamp.

The Nylon Pool

"I think I was about eight when I first went out on the reef. We used to dive with masks just to look at the reef.

"When I was 14, I started working on the reef.

"We used to go to the Nylon Pool at night looking for shells. There was a shell