The screech of plane wheels, a jolt as the plane touches down, a muggy wait in line through Customs, a taxi ride to the cruise ship pier and a first glimpse of the Golden Shadow at the dock; in a
Early on the morning of June 30th, as part of the Living Oceans Foundation’s (LOF) Global Reef Expedition (GRE), a Cessna seaplane named the Golden Eye took off from South Florida’s Opa-Locka Executive Airport bound for the southern Bahamas. Aboard
Today, most of the research scientists disembarked the M/Y Golden Shadow at the conclusion of a very successful research project in St. Kitts and Nevis. As they walked down the pier, we welcomed 23 students and 4 chaperones from St.
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
While our daily dives may sound calm and cheery all of the time, foul weather and scientific diving in strong currents with heavy equipment can make it challenging to even get off the Golden Shadow onto the dive boat and
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
