Death by 1000 Cuts

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Worldwide, coral reefs are declining at an alarming rate.  This is most apparent in the Caribbean, where reefs have been transformed from coral gardens – 60-70% of the bottom was carpeted in thickets of elkhorn coral and staghorn coral, mountainous …

Midshelf Reefs

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After diving our first set of offshore Ribbon reefs we began exploring the Green, Pink and Blue Zones on a set of midshelf reefs.  The depths, water clarity and habitat structure are all vastly different from offshore reefs.  Most of …

Swimming Among Soft Corals of the Great Barrier Reef

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The Indo-West Pacific is known for their rich, diverse soft coral (octocoral) communities, and the Ribbon Reefs were no exception.  They are plant-like, resembling trees or bushes, but they are made up of polyps just like a stony coral.  Distinguished …

Ribbon Reefs

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For our first three days of research, we are comparing the coral and fish community within three Ribbon Reefs.  Ribbon Reefs form a chain of 10 individual reefs beginning to the north of Cairns and stretching close to 120 km …

Back in Tonga

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We are thrilled to send you this update! We’ve been pretty quiet over the last few months as we’ve been hunkered down crunching data from previous research expeditions. However, we’re in the field now and ready to send blogs and …

Green Snails: Valuable Aliens

By Alison Barrat and Alexandra Dempsey You don’t have to look too far to find a horror story about an invasive species that has completely disrupted a natural ecosystem. Cane toads in Australia come to mind or Pythons in the …

Scientist hard at work

Our scientists sure work really hard when aboard the M/Y Golden Shadow.  Here are some shots of them in action.

Austral Islands Field Report

Between April 10, 2013 – April 20, 2013, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation conducted a research mission to the Austral Islands, French Polynesia as part of the Global Reef Expedition.  The research focused on coral reefs surrounding the …