Between October 26, 2014, and November 24, 2014, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation conducted a coral reef research, outreach, and education mission to map and characterize the shallow marine habitats and assess the status of coral reefs and
During the 2016 WiLDSPEAK event in Washington DC, we had a chance to speak with conservation photographer Michele Westmorland about what it was like to join the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation on the Global Reef Expedition in French Polynesia
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 14 Crown of thorns starfish (COTS) have undergone population explosions since at least the 1960s and scientists and managers have tried to control these outbreaks for just as long. The standard practice to control COTS
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 11 Every diver will have a selection of fish that make them smile each time they come across them. For me, one of the new additions to my list this year was the two-spot banded
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 10 Crown of thorns starfish (COTS) are novel among the animal kingdom for many reasons. They can shed an appendage, or even lose more than half their body and survive by quickly re-growing the injured
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 4 Whenever crown of thorns starfish (COTS) are reported, we never know if they will still be in the same location or how much they have moved. In part, this depends on how quickly a
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 3 On every dive we have done around Gili Lankanfushi we have seen dozens of moray eels. We have seen two species so far; the giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus) and the honeycomb moray (Gymnothorax favagineus). We
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 2 In May of this year we began receiving emails from marine biologists based in the Maldives requesting assistance to manage the growing crown of thorns starfish (COTS) populations. Although COTS have been seen here
Expedition Log: Maldives – Day 1 From the window of our airplane, I gaze in amazement at the expanse of high rise buildings crowded onto the tiny, low lying Indian Ocean island of Male, the capital of Maldives. Home to
Written by Carly Reeves Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 7 We’ve been chasing down the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) here on Aitutaki for twelve days now, and I’ve got the scars to prove it. A spine to the leg /
