4/08/2016 9:30am-11:00am
Sharks: 2 (Coral reef, nurse sharks, sleeping/swimming)
Groupers: 1-5 (Coral reef, black grouper, swimming, 10-30ft depth)
Lobsters: 0
Snappers: 51-250 (Yellow tail, Grey, Schoolmaster, swimming)
Red Lion Fish: 0
Surface pressures: No
Boat Activity: yes
Subsurface pressures: no
Evidence of fishing: no
Evidence of coastal development: yes (5 miles away)
Evidence of the illegal trade of endangered species: No
Blog Archives
4/8/16
Shore- Salt water
Recreational Dive
45 minutes
Max Depth- 8ft, Visibility- 8ft
Temperature: water- 77, air-81, sunny
strong current
0 sharks
0 groupers
6-20 lobsters (hiding under rocks @3ft, shallow hard bottom, spiny)
6-20 snappers (rocky bottom under dock @5ft, gray and mangrove)
0 lion fish
no surface pressures
boat activity
subsurface pressures (glass bottle, tire)
no evidence of fishing
evidence of coastal development
4/08/2016 9:30am-11:00am
Sharks: 2 (Coral reef, nurse sharks, sleeping/swimming)
Groupers: 1-5 (Coral reef, black grouper, swimming, 10-30ft depth)
Lobsters: 0
Snappers: 51-250 (Yellow tail, Grey, Schoolmaster, swimming)
Red Lion Fish: 0
Surface pressures: No
Boat Activity: yes
Subsurface pressures: no
Evidence of fishing: no
Evidence of coastal development: yes (5 miles away)
Evidence of the illegal trade of endangered species: No
Looking for fish under pressure. Two marine biologists say they’ve set a record for the deepest underwater survey performed by human divers, at 136 metres down, off the coast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.
“We are seeing a lot of species previously unknown to science,” says Luiz Rocha at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
He and Hudson Pinheiro at the University of Santa Cruz have been looking for new fish species at these little-explored depths. The previous record for the deepest human survey, also set by Rocha’s team, was 130 meters. Many of the species they have seen are found only in these deep reef habitats.
The discoveries have their risks...
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International judges today condemned China’s great ‘water grab’ of the South China Sea – not least for its destruction of over 100 sq.km of pristine coral reefs, dredged and ground up to build artificial islands, and the ransacking of their wildlife, from endangered sea turtles to giant clams.
Today’s ruling by the Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration in the Netherlands strongly condemns China for the serious and permanent environmental damage it has inflicted to coral reefs and and their wildlife in the South China Sea.
The case was brought by the Philippines which is infuriated at China’s ‘occupation’ of islands and waters that fall within its exclusive territorial zone, and the severe damage it has caused to coral reefs and other natural resources.
Since 1998 the Philippines has documented...
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An illegal trade in marine turtles is continuing despite legislation and conservation awareness campaigns, a pioneering study has shown.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Exeter in the Cape Verde islands, 500 km off the West Coast of Africa, and one of the world’s leading nesting sites for the protected loggerhead species, found that the biological impact of the trade has been previously underestimated and that turtles are still being harvested and consumed.
The authors suggest that conservation interventions need to be refined and reassessed and believe the study’s findings will provide valuable knowledge about human behaviour and socio-economic influences for informing national policy-makers.
They recommend focusing both on suppliers and consumers for more robus...
Morning Dive, Sunny and calm, sight wind from the north. Entry 10:06am. Seagrass in good condition and from grass finned to reef wall. Coral in good condition. Glimpsed Dugong but in distance – amazing. No sharks, no turtles, no spiny sea urchins. Nice blue spotted ray.
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Florida’s coral reef, the only tropical reef in the continental United States, is disintegrating faster than scientists predicted and in a way that will accelerate as the oceans become more acidic, according to new research published Monday.
University of Miami scientists called the collapse of the reef’s limestone framework, a critical habitat for fish, “unprecedented” and “cause for alarm.”
“Lots of scientists think that ocean acidification is not going to be a problem until 2050 or 2060,” says Chris Langdon, a marine biology professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “This is happening now. We’ve just lost 35 years we thought we had to turn things around.”
Coral reefs around the world have been in decline fo...
A bigger-is-better announcement in an election year or a valuable way of protecting some of Australia’s most important marine environments? The Great Kimberley Marine Park could be all of this — and more.
Depending on who you talk to, it’s also a way of locking up fish, of creating Aboriginal jobs, a boost to the fledgling Kimberley ecotourism industry, a marketer’s dream and has elements of “greenwashing”.
Once established later this year, the Great Kimberley Marine Park will take in coastal waters from Camden Sound to the Northern Territory border, an area of 30,000 square kilometres which is home to pristine coral reefs, marine turtles and the world’s biggest population of humpback whales.
It’s a huge area of ocean — Environment Minister Albert Jacob says it will be the second-biggest...
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Australian authorities have raised the level of threat due to coral bleaching in theGreat Barrier Reef after an increased loss of corals was detected north of the reef, its most unpolluted zone, the media reported on Tuesday.
The Great Barrier Reef, declared a Heritage Site by Unesco, extends up to 2,300 km in northeast Australia and is the world’s largest coral system.
According to GBRMPA, the regions most affected by the bleaching and that has aggravated in the last two weeks, is located close to the Lizard Island.
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