Sustainable Seaweed Farming – Part 1

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Last night we transited 10 hours from Gizo Island to get to our new location, the Arnavon Islands. Today, our scientists surveyed the areas around these islands, while the education team conducted a program in the Wagina communities. While visiting …

Studying Reefs, Staying Dry

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We collect enormous amounts of data and observations during our missions, a lot of which is collected in situ, or in its original place, by researchers while they’re underwater. But one of the things we do while underwater is take …

Best Dive

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On every mission during the Global Reef Expedition survey divers can usually point to one dive as being the highlight of the trip. It might be a dive with lots of great looking healthy coral or maybe a dive where …

Stories of a Fish Surveyor

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Marine parks have been introduced worldwide to preserve biodiversity and protect important underwater habitats. Protected zones serve as baselines for undisturbed, natural ecosystems that can be used to measure the effects of human activities in other areas, and thereby help …

Surprise Encounter with an Olive Sea Snake

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Let me tell you about yesterday’s wonderful (seriously) sea snake encounter while it’s still fresh in my mind. First of all, up here in the northern Great Barrier Reef we’re getting close to saltwater crocodile territory.  They can grow to …

Rugged Reefs

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Sitting at 25 m (82 ft) wrapped in a completely tangled metallic chain that would make Mr. T envious, I often ask, “What have I gotten myself into?” Indeed, one may wonder why anyone would want to take a long, …

Encounter with the Amazing

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Humans have long been in the habit of naming exceptional trees. The General Sherman sequoia, the Methuselah bristlecone pine, and a certain specimen of Ficus religiosa better known as the Bodhi Tree are three such notable individuals. Humans don’t live …

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 …

Turn of the Tide

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Today as the sun came up we made our way to the west side of the Vava’u archipelago. After about twenty minutes in the car we reached the small town of Koloa and turned down a narrow track that petered …