Symbiosis at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

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If folks saddle up and ride to Florida, head way south into the Florida Keys. The Spanish word cayo means "little island". The Keys are an archipelago, and U.S. Highway 1 takes you to Key Largo (Cayo Largo, long little island). Then head out to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

There are plenty of activities year round. Boating, walking, hiking, and so on. But the good stuff for our purposes happens underwater. People who do snorkeling and diving can get a good look.

At this marine state park, there are examples of mutually beneficial relationships and other indications of our Creators design work.
Flickr / Matt Kieffer (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Symbiosis happens with mutually beneficial relationships, but things that happen in coral reefs are a mite surprising. Corals tend to be on the tiny side for the most part, and the living parts (polyps) generally eat zooplankton. Meanwhile, single-celled algae called zooxanthellae have a symbiosis with corals.

Another fascinating bit of symbiosis is what are called cleaning stations. Big fish queue up and let little fish swim into their mouths and clean their teeth without getting themselves chomped. Kind of like a neutral zone where animosities are on hold.

Symbiosis is baffling to believers in universal common ancestor despite their bravado, and is clearly the design of our Creator. Add to symbiosis the stages of ecological succession. I won't summarize this part for you, it's in the article.

I surely enjoyed leading college student groups on spring break camping trips to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo in Florida. Diving excursions to the coral reefs about three miles offshore were my favorite parts, but there were also fascinating boardwalk and canoe trips to the mangrove forests along the shore. Near-shore swimming gives opportunities to meet intriguing sea creatures up close and personal, plus trails wind through exotic forests that grow nowhere else in America. On a late-night walk along a sandy beach, you could stir up flashing points of light by disturbing bioluminescent sea creatures—“fireflies” of the sea. Want to come along?

The rest is found at "John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park".