Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
MarineLink by Alexandra Dempsey April 16, 2020 Assessing the health of coral reefs in the Kingdom of Tonga Healthy coral reefs provide critical ecosystem services for millions of people globally, but with climate change and anthropogenic stressors, the landscape of …
For thousands of years, Palauans have practiced “bul,” which is a traditional method of ecosystem conservation. In this practice, coastal communities will close areas to fishing and prohibit access for a designated amount of time, though not indefinitely. This traditional practice has become the basis for a large network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Palau. Most marine conservation efforts in Palau are led by individual states, which established their first internationally recognized marine conservation area as far back as the 1950s. Since then, many states have established MPAs and the national government of Palau has implemented large scale MPAs offshore, protecting 80% of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from commercial fishing.
On our Global Reef Expedition mission to Palau in January 2015, our team of scientists surveyed 85 different coral reefs, stretching from Angaur in the south, through the majestic reefs of the Rock Islands UNESCO World Heritage Site, all the way to Kayangel Atoll and Ngeruangel Reef in the north. The team explored barrier reefs, atolls, fringing reefs, reef channels, back reef environments and lagoonal patch reefs assessing the community dynamics and health of corals, fish and other benthic organisms.
Perhaps one of the more striking takeaways from this mission was the incredible coral cover and diversity. Palau boasted over 40% live coral cover across all sites surveyed—the highest overall average live cover observed on the Global Reef Expedition. To put that number into perspective, when the GRE visited reefs in Fiji we recorded an average of just over 30% live coral cover. Even when compared to other locations that are well known coral hot spots, like French Polynesia and areas of the Great Barrier Reef, Palau’s live coral cover still appears to be unrivaled.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is proud to release our findings on the state of coral reefs in Palau. Our research, based on extensive underwater surveys, found Palau’s reefs had the highest live coral cover of all the reefs studied on the Global Reef Expedition, a scientific research mission to assess the health and resiliency of coral reefs around the world.
Published today, the Global Reef Expedition: The Republic of Palau Final Report summarizes the Foundation’s research on the status of coral reefs and reef fish in Palau and provides conservation recommendations that can help preserve these outstanding coral reefs for generations to come.
The latest report from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation finds Palau’s reefs had the highest coral cover observed on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history. Scientists at the Khaled …
The Global Reef Expedition: The Republic of Palau Final Report provides a comprehensive summary of our findings from the Global Reef Expedition mission to assess the status of coral reefs and reef fish in Palau. It also includes recommendations that can help Palau continue …
Despite an earthquake, our resilient J.A.M.I.N. students from Port Antonio and Titchfield High Schools were back in their classrooms and ready to investigate the presence of mangrove disease earlier this year. Our students were the first to research the occurrence of mangrove disease in Port Antonio, Jamaica. They were ready and eager to begin.
Subsistence fishing provides food for billions of people around the world. As human populations continue to rise, fishing technology becomes more efficient and advanced, and demand for fish increases, many of the nearshore fish become vulnerable to over-fishing. Coral reefs are home to many commercially important fish species such as grouper, snapper, and parrotfish, among many others. In some cases, fishers will preferentially target species of fish because they can sell them for higher profits or are the preferred fish to eat in the area. Management of the nearshore fish populations usually falls under the jurisdiction of the national government, however, in some cases, it is left to the smaller communities to manage their marine resources.
Between October 26, 2014, and November 24, 2014, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation conducted a coral reef research, outreach, and education mission to map and characterize the shallow marine habitats and assess the status of coral reefs and coral reef species in the Solomon Islands. On the last days of the mission, the team of divers was able to dive on an active volcano, Tinakula.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) is pleased to announce our findings from the Global Reef Expedition mission to the Solomon Islands! Released today, the Global Reef Expedition: Solomon Islands Final Report summarizes what we found on a monumental research mission to study corals and reef fish in the Solomon Islands and provides recommendations on how to preserve these precious ecosystems into the future.
