Adventures in Chagos (BIOT)

‘Adventures in Chagos,’ posted in the Scripps Institution Coral Reef Ecology blog, was written by Samantha Clements, a science team member on the Living Oceans Foundation’s BIOT Mission earlier this year. Adventures in Chagos Coral Reef Ecology Blog of Smith …

Solomon Islands Field Report

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 …

Stunning Sponges

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 20 For some divers, sponges are just unspectacular filter feeders hidden among corals, algae and other organisms but for others, including me, they are fascinating organisms. On many tropical Pacific reefs they are relatively uncommon, …

Walls of fish at Victory Bank

Written by Chris Mirbach Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 19 On a single dive on Victory Bank in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), I saw the greatest abundance of fish I have ever witnessed, after having completed nearly 1000 …

Coral Bleaching Hits Indian Ocean Reefs

Findings of coral bleaching in the Indian Ocean from the Global Reef Expedition mission to BIOT were published on CBSNEWS.com. Coral Bleaching Hits Indian Ocean Reefs CBSNEWS.com May 19, 2015 Michael Casey Coral bleaching has reached the Indian Ocean after …

Surprise in Surprise Atoll: A Cast of Hermit Crabs

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Written by Serge Andrefouet While scientific expeditions are generally driven by precise objectives implying rigorous data collection and protocols, they also occur in the wild, in an uncontrolled environment. Generally, we wish for surprise encounters with charismatic mega-fauna that could …

Wobbling Coastlines of the Chagos Islands

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 18 I’m spending the week walking the coastlines of as many of the islands of Peros Banhos atoll as I can with an accurate global positioning system (GPS). The challenge we face when extracting the …

Marine Bucket List

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 17 Every marine biologist has a bucket list of creatures they want to see during their life underwater. I am no exception and during the BIOT missions I seemed to have amazing luck, with the …