Today was the first day of the Global Reef Expedition in the Solomon Islands. The weather was perfect for both research and education. There was essentially no wind today. Looking over the side of the boat was like looking through
Our science team has embarked on our last Global Reef Expedition (GRE) mission in Oceania, and the first in the Coral Triangle. We have begun our exploration of the Solomon Islands, a Pacific Archipelago comprised of 992 mountainous islands and
We collect enormous amounts of data and observations during our missions, a lot of which is collected in situ, or in its original place, by researchers while they’re underwater. But one of the things we do while underwater is take
While most of the reefs we have surveyed in the Great Barrier Reef have an emergent reef flat, one of the northern reefs we were studying was fully submerged and quite difficult to locate. After circling around our GPS coordinates
On every mission during the Global Reef Expedition survey divers can usually point to one dive as being the highlight of the trip. It might be a dive with lots of great looking healthy coral or maybe a dive where
If you ask someone “Why do fish school?” you will likely get “to avoid predators” for an answer. After all, the more eyes you have watching the harder it is for anything to sneak up on you. Furthermore, if a
Marine parks have been introduced worldwide to preserve biodiversity and protect important underwater habitats. Protected zones serve as baselines for undisturbed, natural ecosystems that can be used to measure the effects of human activities in other areas, and thereby help
The Great Barrier Reef… home to thousands of marine species. Dazzling coral reefs, majestic sharks, elegant manta rays, imposing groupers and cods, ancient giant clams, and rainbow coloured reef fish such as butterflyfish, angelfish and damsels. These are some of
Brightly colored sea stars are a regular occurrence on our survey dives. We only tend to notice them when we see a new and highly decorated species or dive a site where they are highly abundant. One survey dive we
In 2003, my wife and I immigrated to Far North Queensland, Australia – gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Throughout the years, we take every opportunity to hop on a dive live-aboard or join scientific expeditions to spend as many
