Seabirds of Chagos: The Islands are for the Birds

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 12 The distances in Chagos are vast, but we know we are nearing a new island when we begin to see more seabirds – a technique sailors have used for centuries. Today, like most days, …

Day of the Octopus

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 11 It wasn’t long after we started our surveys of the Chagos Archipelago that we noticed that the Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) was quite common here. Usually an intelligent creature like an octopus is enough …

A Diversity of Decapods

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 10 The first thing you notice when stepping onto the islands of the Chagos Archipelago are the many crabs. From the rock crabs at the water’s edge to the plodding hermit crabs and scurrying ghost …

Grouper Aggregation

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 9 Blacksaddled Groupers (Plectropomus laevis) are aggregating in Chagos. Groupers are usually solitary fish, except when it comes to spawning, when small groups or larger aggregations form to release large quantities of eggs and sperm …

Tawny Nurse Sharks

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 8 Within the first few days of surveying in Chagos, our fish and benthic surveyors have had multiple encounters with large and often pregnant tawny nurse sharks (Nebrius ferrugineus). Tawny nurse shark swims over the …

Giant Groupers

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 7 Before starting our research in Chagos, I read several reports stating how many fish we could expect to see during the mission. Chagos is supposed to have more fish than anywhere else in the …