Palau

Troubling Taxonomy

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Expedition Log – Day 12 One of the largest challenges for our coral surveys is the proper identification of the corals.  When measuring and counting corals along transects we rarely identify them to species, mainly because there are some 450 …

Turning Back the Hands of Time

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 11 On most of the barrier reefs we’ve examined off the south and west coast of  Palau, the coral community has been thriving, with 60-90% of the bottom covered in a diverse assemblage of branching, …

Blue, You Say?

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 10 While I perform my task of taking coral photo transects during our survey dives, I get a close look at the reef (one square meter at a time). One side effect of focusing my …

Angaur’s Marine Lakes

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 9 After surveying the reefs located off Angaur, an oceanic Island about 10 km south of Peliliu, we headed ashore to explore the island.  Tucked away in a lush tropical rainforest at the northwestern end …

Rebirth of the Forest

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 8 1998 was a bad year for coral reefs. In many parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans an unprecedented coral bleaching event swept across the reefs, killing much of the coral.  In some countries, …

Swimming with the Jellies

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 7 I felt like I was floating in an emerald green broth chock full of mushrooms.  Thousands of mushrooms, actually more like 13 million mushrooms. I dove to the depths and looked up, rays of …

A Big Mouth

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 6 When our benthic team is conducting surveys, we are usually looking down at the benthos, concentrating and writing furiously on our dive slates. We often come back to the boat and hear excited questions …

Fragile Flowers

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 5 Usually we find the most delicate corals in protected deeper lagoonal waters.  Species such as Anacropora, a cousin of Acropora which forms bushes of long spindly branches, up to a meter tall but only …

Longjawed Mackerel: A Real ‘Big Mouth’

These weird and wonderful fish are the Longjawed Mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta). They swim around with their mouths open and gill rakers exposed, filtering zooplankton from the water for food. They swim in densely packed schools and are widespread throughout the …