Today the beauty and peace and pristine nature of Teahupo’o is in danger. It's #France 's turn to host the '24 #Olympics so the logical place to hold the #surfing is at the world's most beautiful wave, here in Teahupo'o.
Because of powerful economic incentives for the local government and numerous local contractors, the project has been rammed through with no ecological impact study.
But plans for the over sized aluminum judging tower that will sit over the #reef require building a new base. Every year a wooden tower is erected and taken down. It uses the same foundation that is in place. The new tower requires #drilling into the reef and redoing the previous work that has been functioning well for two decades. The 72 drill holes will be 4m long.
An assessment was done a dozen years ago by #IFRECOR, a French NGO that works for the preservation of coral reefs.
They warned that any degradation of the reef could have dire consequences. The #disruption of #coral has been known to augment levels of ciguatera, a dangerous #neurotoxin that comes from a micro #algae that grows on dead coral. In addition, the structure of the wave could be altered by a degradation of fault lines in the reef.
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