The Farasan Banks is a very unique and diverse marine ecosystem with more reef habitat per unit area than anywhere else we’ve surveyed along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. Like other areas, the major framework builders of these structures
Over the last few weeks, you’ve heard a lot about our SCUBA surveys, what we’ve seen, and the health and resilience of these reefs. One of our major goals during this Expedition is to identify areas of rich biodiversity, as
Most of us have read about the coral reef crisis and have heard about the factors that have contributed to the degradation of reefs – most often overfishing, pollution, sedimentation have been cited as the causes, and more recently climate
During a dive on an inshore reef I saw my first cuttlefish, a pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis). A cephalopod related to the squid and octopus, this animal has eight tentacles and two arms located in pouches beneath its eyes. It
We headed east today in search of a dive spot protected from the swell, with hopes that the wind would die down. Good fortune, as conditions improved, and we were able to explore both the protected southeastern and exposed northwestern
This morning we headed to Shib Ammar, a submerged patch reef at the outer edge of the Farasan Banks, some 40 miles offshore. Twenty knot winds from the northwest, and a 1.5 meter swell made for a wet and bumpy
Our fifth day of research was an epic day. Once again, we had blue skies, calm seas and clear water. One of the local experts warned us of strong winds and a change in conditions, but so far the seas
Our team continued reef assessments along middle shelf locations to better characterize the spatial extent of the disturbance. We first examined two locations along the unnamed submerged reef platform described yesterday, first at the northwestern tip, about 6.4 km west
For our third dive of the day we surveyed a submerged mid shelf reef, adjacent and west of a deep water channel that bisects the Farasan Banks. As I descended to the bottom, something seemed amiss. Unlike the crystal clear,
Saturday, April 4. Our research team boarded the Golden Shadow on Saturday morning, departing from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia around mid day for a 7 hour (120 mile) journey to the northern end of the Farasan Banks. We reached our first
