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A unique coral reef study in Musandam in Oman has shown that the reefs are in good condition with coral cover reaching one of the highest levels in the world.

The survey, by Biosphere Expeditions and supported by HSBC, began in October 2008 and is expected to provide valuable help to Omani authorities while planning a network of protected areas in Musandam.

Biosphere Expeditions is a non-profit-making organisation offering wildlife conservation expeditions for everyone. The expeditions bring together people from different walks of life to support wildlife research and conservation in various parts of the world.

Members of the study team, addressing a news conference here, said the investigations proved that the reefs of Musandam were in

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is now accepting applications for its annual Ocean Science Journalism Fellowship program, which will be held from September 11-16, 2011.

Established in 2000, the program is designed to introduce science journalists to the interdisciplinary and wide-ranging fields of oceanography and ocean engineering.

Through seminars, laboratory visits, and brief field expeditions, Ocean Science Journalism Fellows gain access to new research findings and to fundamental background information in engineering, marine biology, geology and geophysics, marine chemistry and geochemistry, and physical oceanography.

Topics range from harmful algal blooms to deep-sea hydrothermal vents; from seafloor earthquakes to ice-sheet dynamics; from the ocean

Over the past two years, Gary Monks, a King’s Cove fisherman, has been noticing something in the water he’s never seen in his 40 years of fishing – the porbeagle shark.

In the fall of the year until about Christmas, Monks fishes herring. Lately he’s been finding porbeagles in his nets.

As of Christmas, 2010, he’s had four in his nets.

He told The Packet last week he was able to save one.

“He was twisted up by the tail so I tore a bit of extra net away and was able to get him clear,” Monks said.

There was some damage done to his nets by the trapped sharks, but he doesn’t hold a grudge.

“They are a bit of nuisance sometimes but it’s something you have to live with,” he said. “They are just trying to get a bite to eat, the same as we are.”

When it comes to a trapped shark in his net, Monks sa...

Although slugs are not considered to be the most exotic of creatures, their cousins the sea slugs are a completely different prospect.

A recent report by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) about sea slugs at Skomer Marine Nature Reserve (MNR) has revealed that sea slugs are flourishing – with a huge variety of these attractive, striking species being recorded.

In one area of just 13.2 sq km, 66 per cent of UK species were represented.

‘These are specialised predators’

CCW Assistant Marine Nature Reserve Officer Kate Lock said:

During an ongoing marine conservation work, the world’s highest coral reef cover has been found in the Musandam peninsula in Oman, according to a Biosphere Expeditions study.

Dr. Matthias Hammer, founder and executive director of Biosphere Expeditions, was quoted by the UAE-based Gulf News newspaper describing the reefs as “world class”.

“Oman has a beautiful and valuable inheritance in its marine environment ideal for careful protection and development for the sustainable benefit and enjoyment of future generations,” Dr. Hammer said during a media briefing held Monday at The Chedi, Muscat.

“Indeed it is hoped that the scientific work over the next few years will be useful to the Omani government and will help with planning a network of protected areas in Musandam,” he added.

Biosphere Ex...

While the remove-or-not-remove the Cambodian flag is dominating the terrestrial sphere, the close-or-not-close diving sites is a hot topic in Thai waters.

Some Bangkok Post readers have sent letters expressing their doubts over the National Park, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Department’s Jan 20 announcement on the temporary closure of 18 diving spots in seven marine national parks. The 14-month closure aims to allow coral reefs affected by bleaching to recover.

Diving ban sceptics think closing the sites will neither solve coral bleaching nor reduce sea temperature, which is believed to be the main cause of the bleaching. Such arguments are unsurprisingly similar to the outcries from divers and tourism operators who are disgruntled by the closure of the money-making dive sites...

Researchers have a new tactic to save endangered whales tangled in fishing line – get them to calm down with sedatives shot from a dart gun so they can pull closer and cut the potentially fatal gear away.

The method was used on January 15 off the Florida coast to free a young North Atlantic right whale from about 50 feet of line wrapped through its mouth and around its flippers.

A satellite monitor attached to the whale during the rescue attempt this month shows it survived.

“It’s a big step for us,” said Michael Moore, a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts who was on the rescue team.

The same team has tried the technique during one other rescue of a free-swimming whale.

Wildlife authorities for years have tried different ways to save wha...

Two UAE-based environmental organisations are among nine groups in five countries which will share in US$100,000 (Dh367,00) in grants, announced yesterday, from the Ford Motor Company Conservation and Environmental Grants programme.

The Dubai-based Emirates Diving Association (EDA) received $9,000 towards its Reef Check programme, in which volunteer divers and marine biologists regularly monitor coral reefs.

And the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which runs its Middle East programme from Dubai, will get $7,000 to teach fishermen and environment officials in the region about the negative effects of shark finning,

Rita Bento, who has been trained by the EDA, said that the money would allow Reef Check to expand from its current three locations in Dibba.

“We will be able to coll...

A study published last week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin indicates that newborn corals that inherit a particular fluorescent pigment exhibit a selective advantage in traveling further from their home reefs over their counterparts which lack this specific pigment.

This has important implications in how coastal resource managers can cope with a future, warmer ocean resulting from climate change. The less likely coral larvae are to settle, the more likely they will disperse far from their reef of origin and find more suitable environmental conditions.

The study focused upon Acropora millepora, a relatively abundant Indo-Pacific stony coral found from Sri Lanka and Thailand to Australia, Tonga, and the Marshall Islands...

Climate change has clearly wrought havoc on land resources. Less obvious but of equal concern is the damage it is causing underwater, warn marine scientists.

Marine scientists in the Philippines said they have detected abnormal rises in coastal temperatures in some areas over the past two years which could affect coral reefs