Written by Dr. Andy Bruckner, Chief Scientist Society Islands from 1000 feet offers a unique perspective of the beauty of French Polynesia as well as some of the challenges we face on the upcoming research mission. We overflew the eight
One of our most ambitious research missions of the Global Reef Expedition to date will take us to the South Pacific, where we will spend more than six months exploring coral reefs throughout French Polynesia. We arrived late Thursday night
When we entered the water for our first research dive at Wolf island, the first thing we saw were thousands upon thousands of fish. The fish were so numerous it made seeing the bottom difficult. Underneath the clouds of fish
In preparation for the next leg of the Global Reef Expedition, Dr. Sam Purkis, Jeremy Kerr, Captain Steve Breen and Dr. Andy Bruckner flew over Andros and Abaco Islands, Bahamas on the Golden Eye seaplane. Their goal was to identify
Over the last ten days we were fortunate to have excellent weather and a hard working research team. We completed surveys of representative reefs around both islands, hitting nearly every location we had planned. Throughout this series of blogs, I
As the Living Oceans Foundation circumnavigates the globe, one of our core activities is rapid assessments of the health and resilience of coral reefs. Our assessments tell us about the diversity and population structure of corals and fishes, the types
Our morning dive at Sandy Point was like travelling through time, with glimpses of the past and a foreshadowing of future directions of Caribbean reefs growth visible simultaneously. Built on a foundation of 200-500 year old corals, many over 5
Afternoon Dive A major component of our work during the Global Reef Expedition focuses on understanding factors and processes that enhance the resilience of coral reefs (reef resilience). We evaluate a number of ecological, physical and chemical parameters at each reef
Our research team headed south for today’s dives, surveying two reefs off the southwestern end of Nevis and one off the northwestern end. The first site, Caverns, was a raised terrace with large volcanic boulders at its margin and a
Afternoon dive For our third dive, we surveyed Brimstone Shallows, a submerged shelf edge reef about 2 miles off St. Kitts. Extending for several miles along the leeward side of the island, the reef begins at about 50 feet and
