Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
Eco Magazine Special Issue: Sea Level Rise July 19, 2021 Following the discovery of a rich portfolio of vintage aerial photographs of the atoll islands in the Chagos Archipelago from the 1960s, scientists are learning how the coastline of these uninhabited tropical islands …
Chagos News July 23, 2021 By Liz Thompson Scientists aboard the Global Reef Expedition – the largest systematic coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history – travelled to Chagos Archipelago to explore its remote coral reefs. What they found …
In 2018, we partnered with Alligator Head Foundation to implement our Jamaica Awareness of Mangroves in Nature (J.A.M.I.N.) program in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Through this program, we have educated teachers and youth about the mangrove ecosystem. Although this initiative has …
BBC World Service March 4, 2021 Newsday BBC News interviews KSLOF’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Sam Purkis, about what it was like to watch coral reefs bleaching in the Chagos Archipelago The Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean are one of …
The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain.
It’s a paradise. At least it was before the heat wave.
News@TheU By Robert C. Jones Jr. VIRGINIA KEY, Fla.—No one lives on them, but a group of atolls in the central Indian Ocean could teach coastal communities and island nations a valuable lesson about how to respond to sea level …
Global Geneva Magazine April 21, 2021 By Liz Thompson & Renée Carlton Scientists aboard the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—traveled to the Chagos Archipelago to study some of the most pristine coral …
In addition to science, education and outreach are important components of conservation. That is why on many of the missions of the Global Reef Expedition (GRE), we used a three-pronged approach: science, education, and outreach. While on the Solomon Islands Expedition, the education team provided land-based education seminars throughout the Western, Choiseul, Isabel, and Temotu Provinces at schools and communities.
These educational efforts were conducted in partnership with local Solomon’s representatives from the Government of the Solomon Islands, a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called OceansWatch, and local cultural liaisons. During the mission, schools were either taking exams or on holiday break, so the majority of the seminars were provided to communities where men, women, and children attended the talks. Overall, the Foundation conducted 4 school and 25 community seminars and 4 ship tours reaching a total of 2,891 people. This was the greatest number of people reached on any of the GRE missions.
Having first visited the Chagos Archipelago in 2006, it was an immense pleasure to return with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation under the auspices of the Global Reef Expedition. Returning to the archipelago offered the chance to continue work that had been initiated nearly a decade earlier by other scientists—monitoring of the fish assemblages and health of the coral—but also begin new science initiatives.
Following the discovery of a rich portfolio of vintage aerial photographs for the Chagos Archipelago taken in 1963, we are examining the dynamics of the coastlines of the many islands in the archipelago in an effort to understand how low-lying atoll islands respond to rising sea level. Largely uninhabited, Chagos is one of very few places in the world where the behavior of islands can be tracked in the absence of artificial coastline modifications. That is, “natural” island behavior can be quantified.
University of Miami, News@TheU By Janette Neuwahl Tannen March 19, 2021 In his travels around the world to survey and map coral reefs, Sam Purkis, a professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has witnessed firsthand …
