This past month, we’ve been having a lot of conversations with fishermen in Tonga. Here is a short summary of what we’ve been hearing. Fishing in Tonga targets reef fish and pelagic fish species, as well as other reef organisms
Title: Chief Scientist Name: Andrew Bruckner Questions: What do you do? I am a Coral Reef Ecologist. I am working to identify strategies to halt the degradation of coral reefs and promote their conservation and sustainable use. As Chief Scientist,
The hunt for marine invertebrates begins… It is 6:30 in the morning, and Nathaniel (“Nat”) Evans and Daphné Grulois depart with the film crew (Alison Barrat, Ernie Kovacs) to Surprise Atoll. Depositing Alison and Ernie at their filming location, Nat
Returning from their third dive of the day, most of the science team was happy to wash and pack away their gear, before heading for a hot shower and dinner. For two members of our dive team, however, the day’s
We are currently visiting a remote coral reef about 150 kilometers off the northern coast of New Caledonia called Cook Reef, where we’ve seen an unusually high abundance of top predatory fish. The large numbers of predatory fish are likely
My role on the LOF expeditions in the Pacific has been underwater photography. In addition to being on the lookout for interesting or beautiful subjects for the Facebook photo gallery or to illustrate blog postings, my primary duty is to
Yesterday, while exploring a nearby island, Dive Safety Officer, Nick Cautin, spotted 15 sea snakes on the beach! We seem to be seeing them everywhere – on land, SCUBA diving, and even on the aft deck of the M/Y Golden
Two days of diving and our coral reef research is well underway in Isle de Pins, New Caledonia. Although sea conditions were very murky, we explored three lagoonal patch reefs yesterday and successfully completed our standardized coral, benthic and fish
Our 17th mission of the Global Reef Expedition is to New Caledonia, a special collectivity (a former territory under special status) of France located in the southwest Pacific about 1200 km from Australia, and home to some of the most
In the middle of towing Ron across the local marine protected area (MPA) set up in front of Mavana Village, on Vanuabalavu Island, he popped his head up to shout, “Hey, this MPA is really working! The fish are huge.
