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BIOT’s Bounty – Part One

Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 26 My initial thoughts after a diving on BIOT’s reefs can be summed up in a few words: remote, largely inaccessible, seemingly untouched, and flourishing with life. BIOT’s Reefs teeming with life like these Golden sweeper Parapriacanthus ransonneti. Amid the sun-drenched, aquamarine waters was a myriad of...

Restoring Jamaica’s Pedro Banks

In the 1970’s, Jamaica’s reefs were the pride of the Caribbean, teaming with large fish that supported a vibrant tourism industry and provided seafood for local communities. But overfishing, disease, hurricanes, and development pressure degraded many of these reefs in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, and few healthy reefs remain in Jamaica’s waters today. Scientists...

Green Snails: Valuable Aliens

The introduced green snails, Turbo marmorartus, at home on the reef near Raiatea in French Polynesia. (Photo by Serge Andrefouet) You don’t have to look too far to find a horror story about an invasive species that has completely disrupted a natural ecosystem. Cane toads in Australia come to mind or Pythons in the Everglades or even lionfish in the...

Fearless Sharks and Gender Changing Fish

When we set out to survey the reefs on Pedro Bank, Jamaica, we didn’t know that we were going to find two fish mysteries to solve: one about small stoplight parrotfishes and the other about much larger nurse sharks … both ultimately linked to overfishing. Altered Fish Behavior Linked to Overfishing? Pedro bank lies approximately 70 kilometers...

A Day for the Birds

Today, for the first time, we’re not alone. We are anchored in the lee of Cayo Serranilla, the largest of the few islets at Serranilla Bank. There’s a lighthouse on the island that doubles as an outpost for the Colombian Navy, and once a month a Coast Guard ship comes to trade out personnel. That ship is anchored just across the lagoon from us. Our...

Healthy Corals at Alice Shoal

We made it to Bajo Nuevo this afternoon after a final productive day diving Alice Shoal corals. Though we didn’t find as much coral at Alice as we might have expected, there is positive news to report here, and chief scientist Andy Bruckner solved one last Alice riddle just before we left. We didn’t see many grouper at Alice Shoal corals but did...

Final Reflections from Navassa

The mission to Navassa wrapped up on Friday. As the sun began to set, activity on the Golden Shadow continued. Laptops whirred while everyone entered their data for the week. Those not entering data compared notes, stories, and observations from the trip. Information about fish species, coral counts, discussions with the fishers and a lot more information...

Virtual Connections

Throughout this week, students from two high schools—Gig Harbor High School in Gig Harbor, Washington and Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, Arizona—have been virtually following the Global Reef Expedition to learn more about the work of the Living Oceans Foundation. Recruited through the Coral Reef Educator on the Water (CREW) Program,...

Mission's End

The first day of spring was the last day of diving for the Pedro Bank mission. Winston “Shucksman” Kerr, a local fisherman, guided us to two sites within sight of the Golden Shadow. No nurse sharks today, but lots of coral, and two reef sharks appeared on the second dive. Nathalie Zenny speared a lionfish, which Winston neatly trimmed of its spines...

Shark Day

St. Patrick’s Day saw the Calcutta leaving early for the far eastern end of Pedro Bank. The route took us across an area of deeper water and larger swells, so it took close to three hours of hard bouncing to cover the 41 km (25.5. mi) to Portland Rock, without a doubt one of the least inviting islets in the Caribbean. A nub of steep, sharp rock lashed...

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