Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
You can’t talk about coral in the Galapagos without talking about the atmospheric phenomenon called El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Normally, west-blowing trade winds push warm waters into the western Pacific Ocean. Every four or five years on average, though, …
When we entered the water for our first research dive at Wolf island, the first thing we saw were thousands upon thousands of fish. The fish were so numerous it made seeing the bottom difficult. Underneath the clouds of fish …
Our first coral reef research site was by the island of Marchena. Old black lava blankets the land and flows down beneath the waves. Underwater, the porous lava and a few species of branching coral create a complex habitat for …
“The area was swarming with large sharks—or ‘gobblers,’ as we called them…The gobblers were a constant problem. At times there were as many as twenty nearby. They were of all species and sizes.” That’s what underwater archaeologist and treasure hunter …
Our afternoon dive today was more surreal than most. We were on the far side of the lagoon here exploring Bajo Nuevo’s corals and instead of a large, defined reef mound, we were wandering through what looked like a field …
Suffice it to say there will be no more photos of a mirror-like sea surface anytime soon. This morning we fought high winds and 1.5-meter swells in the channel that runs between Bajo Nuevo’s two main reefs, but still managed …
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 …
At first, Alice Shoal seems something of a mystery. Many of the problems slamming reefs around the world are minimal here. This area doesn’t seem to be generally overfished, for instance, and there are no communities nearby to flood the …
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 …