Cook Islands

Aitutaki’s Grazers

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 4 It is always exciting to visit a new place and to dive on new reefs. What I find remarkable is that you can tell so much about the state of a reef, the …

Whale Season

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 3 As we landed in Aitutaki, the science team was excited to discover that it was humpback whale season. Each year between July and October these majestic animals pass by the Cook Islands on …

Charismatic Coral Cover Indicators

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 2 One of the most charismatic families of reef fish are the butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae). We’ve written about these species in previous blogs, but the importance of these species as an indicator of reef health …

Addressing Acanthaster in Aitutaki

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 1 Over the last four years, the Global Reef Expedition (GRE) has focused on the Pacific and Indian Ocean. These reefs are vastly different from Caribbean reefs, especially with regards to the numbers of …

Q&A with filmmaker Alison Barrat

Alison Barrat’s film “Mapping the Blue” follows the story of the world’s largest marine park. The film is one of the entries in this year’s American Conservation Film Festival. Barrat lives in Maryland, near the Chesapeake Bay, and works for …

Mapping the Blue Wins Film Award at BLUE!

LANDOVER, MD November 15, 2014 – The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and its founder, His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, have won the award for Best Film in the Conservation Innovation and Solutions category …

Mapping The Blue

GIS Mapping for Cook Islands Mega Marine Park In 2012, the Cook Islands announced a Mega Marine Park, what was, at the time, the biggest marine park on Earth. This is one of the most awesome places on the planet …

The Global Reef Expedition

The Foundation is conducting one of the largest coral reef studies in history. Called the Global Reef Expedition it will circumnavigate the globe surveying some of the most remote reefs on the planet. It will take five years to complete …

Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) Crisis

The venomous thorn-like spines that protect this crown of thorns starfish are the least of our problems – this species is destroying coral reefs in many parts of the world due to an imbalance in the oceans – find out …

COTS: Aitutaki

By James Barrat In May 2013, when the science team of the Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation plunged into the waters surrounding Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, we discovered a reef in crises. Something had damaged between 80 and …