I spent last week far from Mason County, on a remote bay along the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Espíritu Santo Bay is a part of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, named for a Mayan phrase that means “where the sky is born.” Every day I marveled as the spectacular skies reflected off the crystal-clear waters of the bay, where it indeed looked like the skies were born from tropical waters. This 1.6 million-acre preserve helps protect the unique wildlife, plants, and ecosystems of the Yucatan Peninsula—especially the fragile marine environments threatened by the beachfront tourist destinations that have developed in recent decades.
Who visits wild places like Sian Ka’an, and why do they make an effort to do so? As a biologist who specializes in biodiversity, I seek out such places to discover and study the Earth’s vast living richness that makes our planet so unique and special. The thin but rich film of life that clings to Earth’s surface certainly makes our planet stand out among the other planets in our solar system. If anything like Earth life exists on other planets elsewhere in the universe, it exists on places so far away that we are unlikely to ever see them.
Although we depend on Earth’s biodiversity for everything from the food we eat to the air we breathe, it is easy to forget how special and important diverse and intact natural areas are to our existence. Beyond utilitarian uses of plants and animals, the beauty of our world is intimately connected to its wild and natural places. Perhaps because the Earth’s biodiversity is so vast, it is easy for many to take life’s diversity and beauty for granted. Every day the Earth’s billions of humans cut down forests, plow up grasslands, dump our wastes into waterways, and pump toxic fumes into the atmosphere. As a result, it is getting harder and harder to find places that function as they have for millions of years. Across the planet, we are losing or have already lost much of what makes Earth so special.
What does a preserve in Mexico have to do with the Texas Hill Country? More than might be obvious at first. Like the area that surrounds Sian Ka’an, our local economy of Mason County depends heavily on various forms of ecotourism, even if we don’t always identify it by that name. Many people visit the Texas Hill Country to enjoy our spectacular displays of spring wildflowers, or to float, swim, and fish in the spring-fed waters of the Llano River. In the fall, hunters flock to Mason County for its abundant game animals, especially Whitetail Deer and Rio Grande Turkeys. These activities depend on our maintenance of intact and natural ecosystems. Many people who hunt and fish do so to recharge in nature, and the wild animals that they observe are an important part of the experience. Fewer people hunt or fish today simply as a way to obtain food. Instead, hunting and fishing are important ways for people to appreciate, connect to, and learn about nature.
As in the Texas Hill Country, most of the visitors to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve are there to experience a relatively intact natural area that has not yet been degraded by excessive human exploitation. Jaguars, Ocelots, and Manatees still roam there, as do countless birds, amphibians, reptiles, and of course a great diversity of fishes and other marine life. The only sport-fishing that is allowed in the area is catch-and-release fly fishing, which is carefully regulated by a limited number of daily licenses. I was there with a group of dedicated fly fishers, who were seeking the thrill of catching fishes like Tarpon, Permit, Bonefish, and Snook on hand-tied fishing flies. The flies are designed to look like small fishes, crabs, and shrimp, and beyond their intended use, they could be considered an art form created out of a medium of feathers and hair.
Fly fishing is one of the most challenging and often least-efficient methods of catching a fish—especially a wary and picky fish like a Permit (a tropical fish that is the main goal of many of the fly fishers who travel to Sian Ka’an). So why do people go to such great lengths to do it? I asked this question of several people who have spent much of their lives mastering fly-fishing for Permit. A successful fly fisher needs to know a lot about the biology and habitats of their intended targets, and a successful Permit angler needs to develop some exceptional skills. I watched members of our group describe the great efforts that they take to learn about the prey and feeding habits of Permit and other sport fishes. They were justifiably proud of their efforts to tie imitations of the specific crabs and shrimp that Permit prefer. After creating life-like imitations of a fish’s prey, they still need to cast the light fly accurately just in front of a feeding Permit, and present the fly in a way that closely resembles a fleeing live crab or shrimp. If the fish takes the fly, the fisher must set the hook immediately, or the Permit will quickly realize that the fly is a fake and spit it out. People spend years or even lifetimes mastering these techniques, just to catch a fish and release it.
The large brains of humans drive us to do some pretty crazy things. As we have figured out ways to make obtaining food relatively easy, many of us feel an emptiness as we become more disconnected to nature in the modern world. I know that I share with many others a deep longing to feel that we are still a part of the natural world. People who feel this way often seek out challenges to test our skills in nature, whether as an observer, a discoverer, or a predator.
Bow hunting is popular in the Texas Hill Country not because it is the easiest way to harvest a deer or feral hog—but rather because it is not. Bow hunting requires hunters to learn the movements and habits of their prey, and to develop the difficult skills of a sit-and-wait predator. Much like fly fishing, mastering bow hunting takes time, knowledge, and effort. A good hunter (of any kind) needs to be quite knowledgeable about the biology of their quarry. Learning such skills occupies our brains and allows us to become a player in a natural world. Not everyone feels this drive, but if you do, you know the obsession that I’m writing about. These obsessions are manifested in many ways, from bird watchers to fly fishers to snake enthusiasts to bow hunters to master gardeners. These activities all help satisfy a deep desire in humans to learn about and interact with the enormous biodiversity of our planet.
—Have a question about science, especially as it relates to Mason County? E-mail me at [email protected] and I will do my best to answer it in this column.
—David Hillis is the Alfred Roark Centennial Professor in Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Biodiversity Center. He also owns and operates the Double Helix Ranch in Mason County, where he lives.
