Surprise in Surprise Atoll: A Cast of Hermit Crabs

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Written by Serge Andrefouet While scientific expeditions are generally driven by precise objectives implying rigorous data collection and protocols, they also occur in the wild, in an uncontrolled environment. Generally, we wish for surprise encounters with charismatic mega-fauna that could …

Wobbling Coastlines of the Chagos Islands

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 18 I’m spending the week walking the coastlines of as many of the islands of Peros Banhos atoll as I can with an accurate global positioning system (GPS). The challenge we face when extracting the …

Marine Bucket List

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 17 Every marine biologist has a bucket list of creatures they want to see during their life underwater. I am no exception and during the BIOT missions I seemed to have amazing luck, with the …

Bountiful Butterflyfishes

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Expedition Log – BIOT Day 16 We’ve been seeing a great diversity of butterflyfishes here in BIOT, around 18 different species. Butterflyfish belong to the family Chaetodontidae and are consequently known as chaets by their most avid fans and researchers. …

The Rays of BIOT

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 15 The science team is always eager to see rays during any dive, and diving in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) hasn’t disappointed us when it comes to majestic ray encounters. During our first …

The hunt for the (surprisingly) elusive model coral

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 14 Scientific breakthroughs are made every day, though the vast majority go unnoticed by the general public. Particularly important are discoveries that can lead to improvements in human well-being, such as those culminating in novel …

The Colors of BIOT

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 13 On a recent lagoonal dive in the center of Salomon Atoll I felt like I was at a carnival swimming through a pool of rainbow glazed popcorn. Fluorescent lime green, pink, purple, blue and …

Ocean Acidification: Breaking it Down

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Guest Co-Host: Allie Toomey, Earth Echo International On Thursday, April 30th at 1pm Eastern/ 10am Pacific, join the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and our partners at Earth Echo International for “Ocean Acidification: Breaking it Down,” an exciting Hangout …