BIOT

Planning a new Marine Protected Area in the Chagos Archipelago

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Mauritius, with the support of the Zoological Society of London, hosted a workshop from 27th- 29th of February intended to allow scientists and practitioners from different parts of the world to interact with Mauritian scientists and relevant stakeholders and exchange knowledge to inform the planning, implementation, management, and financing of a proposed MPA in the Chagos Archipelago. KSLOF was invited to participate in this event and gave expert advice on 1) a strategic plan and vision for the new Chagos MPA, 2) the identification of new data inputs for zoning, marine spatial planning, ecological monitoring, and identifying technologies for illegal fishing enforcement, and 3) the importance of documenting cultural heritage and traditional ecological knowledge to integrate across the planning process….

What We Learned: Marine Protected Areas Work in Conserving Coral Reefs

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Managing marine resources is a challenge for communities around the globe. On the Global Reef Expedition, we had the opportunity to visit protected and unprotected reefs in both remote locations and those regularly used by humans. The degree of protection varied, but we found that areas with the highest protection had the healthiest reefs.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a tool commonly used by governments and communities to manage their marine resources. An MPA can have varying degrees of regulations, including no-take and no-entry where no fishing is allowed and entrance into the park is not permitted, to varying permitted use that regulate the fishing and use practices. Some of the countries we visited, such as Australia (Northern Great Barrier Reef), Palau, and New Caledonia have large human populations utilizing the reefs and have prioritized establishing large protected and managed areas to conserve their nearshore reef systems.

Last Stop on the Global Reef Expedition

Chagos News July 23, 2021 By Liz Thompson Scientists aboard the Global Reef Expedition – the largest systematic coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history – travelled to Chagos Archipelago to explore its remote coral reefs. What they found …

‘Wonderful to look at, but truly depressing to understand’

BBC World Service March 4, 2021 Newsday   BBC News interviews KSLOF’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Sam Purkis, about what it was like to watch coral reefs bleaching in the Chagos Archipelago The Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean are one of …

Watching coral reefs die in a warming ocean

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The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain.

It’s a paradise. At least it was before the heat wave.

Researcher studies the coastal dynamics of uninhabited islands

News@TheU By Robert C. Jones Jr. VIRGINIA KEY, Fla.—No one lives on them, but a group of atolls in the central Indian Ocean could teach coastal communities and island nations a valuable lesson about how to respond to sea level …

The Last Great Coral Reef Wilderness

Global Geneva Magazine April 21, 2021 By Liz Thompson & Renée Carlton   Scientists aboard the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—traveled to the Chagos Archipelago to study some of the most pristine coral …

Can the Chagos Archipelago keep pace with rising seas?

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Having first visited the Chagos Archipelago in 2006, it was an immense pleasure to return with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation under the auspices of the Global Reef Expedition. Returning to the archipelago offered the chance to continue work that had been initiated nearly a decade earlier by other scientists—monitoring of the fish assemblages and health of the coral—but also begin new science initiatives.

Following the discovery of a rich portfolio of vintage aerial photographs for the Chagos Archipelago taken in 1963, we are examining the dynamics of the coastlines of the many islands in the archipelago in an effort to understand how low-lying atoll islands respond to rising sea level. Largely uninhabited, Chagos is one of very few places in the world where the behavior of islands can be tracked in the absence of artificial coastline modifications. That is, “natural” island behavior can be quantified.

Marine biologist documents the impacts of climate change

University of Miami, News@TheU By Janette Neuwahl Tannen March 19, 2021   In his travels around the world to survey and map coral reefs, Sam Purkis, a professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has witnessed firsthand …