French Polynesia is a long way from my hometown of St. Albert in Alberta, Canada. For many of my students, coral reefs are an abstract concept. Fortunately, in my short time with the science team, I have acquired many amazing
One of the most exciting aspects of this expedition is that every morning we get in the water having no idea what we’re about to find. There’s always something interesting to see, but sometimes the reefs we find are a
Science Without Borders® is a registered trademark of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. When Walter Wyatt’s airplane went down in remote seas in the Western Bahamas, it sank almost immediately. The unfortunate pilot could not have imagined that
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the corals, how they are faring, and what invertebrates are eating them. I’ve only briefly mentioned fish, even though they are the showcase of the Red Sea. From charismatic megafuana like the
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
After another spectacular day exploring the Farasan Banks, I was once again enamored by the wonders of the Red Sea and the rich diversity of life that abounds on the reefs and in surrounding waters. We completed two spectacular wall
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
Even though we are in a very remote location off the southern Red Sea coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, fishermen abound. There are many coastal villages near the Farasan Banks with large fishing communities. Many of our sites
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
