Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
Each year I have the pleasure of getting to know the incredibly talented winners of our Science Without Borders® Challenge. With Zoom becoming a popular method of communication during COVID-19, I thought that I would talk to our winners face-to-face …
Subsistence fishing provides food for billions of people around the world. As human populations continue to rise, fishing technology becomes more efficient and advanced, and demand for fish increases, many of the nearshore fish become vulnerable to over-fishing. Coral reefs are home to many commercially important fish species such as grouper, snapper, and parrotfish, among many others. In some cases, fishers will preferentially target species of fish because they can sell them for higher profits or are the preferred fish to eat in the area. Management of the nearshore fish populations usually falls under the jurisdiction of the national government, however, in some cases, it is left to the smaller communities to manage their marine resources.
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 coral reef species in the Solomon Islands. On the last days of the mission, the team of divers was able to dive on an active volcano, Tinakula.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is thrilled to announce the winners of their annual student art competition, the Science Without Borders® Challenge. Every year, this international contest engages students in ocean conservation through art, encouraging them to create artwork that inspires people to preserve, protect, and restore the world’s oceans and aquatic resources.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) is pleased to announce our findings from the Global Reef Expedition mission to the Solomon Islands! Released today, the Global Reef Expedition: Solomon Islands Final Report summarizes what we found on a monumental research mission to study corals and reef fish in the Solomon Islands and provides recommendations on how to preserve these precious ecosystems into the future.
Throughout human history, compounds found in plants and animals have been used to heal an array of medical conditions. Traditional medicine, sometimes referred to as “bush” or “folk” medicine, was used to treat ailments prior to the emergence of modern medicine. Many of these customs are still being practiced today. The healing properties of mangroves were first discovered by those practicing traditional medicine. Like with modern-day medicine, many of its uses were discovered through trial and error. When a cure worked, the knowledge and information was passed along from generation to generation.
In January, our second-year J.A.M.I.N. students were tasked with collecting a variety of growth measurements from the mangrove trees that they tagged and identified inside their quadrats. Before we started, I wanted to review the characteristics that are unique to each species of mangroves, a skill they learned previously during the first year of the program. I decided to quiz the students instead. “How can we identify the red mangrove?” I asked. The replies came quickly. “Prop and drop roots.” “Pointy, thick leaves.” “Green bean-like propagules.” All correct. But among the flurry of eager replies, one stood out as several students shouted in unison. “Red tannin!”
Although it has been an amazing year implementing the J.A.M.I.N. program, a piece of my heart has been swept away with Hurricane Dorian. For the past four years, I’ve been working in partnership with Friends of the Environment in Abaco, The Bahamas to implement our B.A.M. program at Forest Heights Academy and Patrick J. Bethel High School. By August 2019, we were in full swing, planning the first phase of the new academic year and discussing how we were going to celebrate our five-year anniversary. These plans came to a sudden halt when, on September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian wreaked havoc on the Abaco Islands.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists of the 2020 Science Without Borders® Challenge, our annual student art competition. This year we asked students to illustrate things people can do to help save coral reefs–and boy did they deliver!
The foundation received more entries to this year’s competition than ever before. Nearly 700 students from 43 countries sent in artwork, so picking the finalists was a difficult decision. Ultimately, finalists were chosen based on how well the artwork exemplified this year’s theme, the quality of the artwork, and the creativity and originality of their artwork.
We hope you will be as impressed with the submissions we received as we were.
One of the most interesting locations we visited in New Caledonia was Prony Bay. Prony Bay is located at the southern end of Grande Terre at the base of a large nickel mining operation. The towering red-tinged mountains in the background were just the beginning of the intriguing research site of Prony Bay. The visibility was very low because of fine reddish silt that formed a cloud every time a fin kick was a bit too close to the bottom. Therefore, the scientific divers had to be very careful with their buoyancy control. High turbidity, low salinity, and sedimentation run-off are poor environmental conditions for corals to be able to successfully live—let alone thrive. But a robust and diverse coral community is exactly what we found.