Saint John coral reefs. Red Sea, Winter season.

• We decided to make a diving cruise to explore the reefs of Saint John during the coldest period of the year in the Red Sea. The water temperature is 23 degrees Celsius. It's 5 degrees below the temperature at the beginning of the summer and 7 degrees lower than in autumn. Because the fresh water, we hope to take pictures of silky or oceanic sharks. After a day of diving on the sites of Saint John which are certainly the most beautiful coral reefs in the Red Sea, the storm rages. It is accompanied by storms of exceptional violence. Underwater visibility is very poor due to strong winds that create large waves. The boat must hide to get protection against the winds. It becomes impossible to take photos of scenery scenes because the poor visibility; sharks will remain a dream. Too bad, we must adapt our work. During the rest of the trip, we focus our work on the portraits and behaviors of fish. We are always in search of colors. We therefore prefer the colorful fish. After several dives, we notice that the sandy coves where the boat is anchored are full of life that we do not know. These small fish and crustaceans are not very colorful but the behaviors we observe are sufficiently interesting and unusual to take the time to photograph them. For each image, we must be patient because the fish are hiding in their burrows at the slightest vibration or the slightest shadow on the sandy bottom. A work of patience and careful that will be rewarded by some beautiful shots.

   

Top 10 coral species at most risk of extinction

10 of the world’s most at risk coral species have been identified by the EDGE Coral Reefs project, as conservationists unveil plans to save coral reefs from extinction.

The elkhorn coral Acropora palmata has undergone a 95 percent decline in many shallow Caribbean reefs in the past three decades.

Led by scientists from the Zoological Society of London, the EDGE (evolutionary distinct and globally endangered) Coral Reefs project is aiming to preserve and protect the world’s most important species of coral from the increasing threats they face.

The entire surface of the distinctive pearl bubble coral (Physogyra lichtensteini) is covered in vesicles, which retract when the coral is disturbed.

Focal coral reef species
Among the 10 species chosen to kick start the project are the pearl bubble coral, a colonial species that forms massive colonies with many small, bubble-like vesicles, and the mushroom coral Heliofungia actiniformis, which lives as a solitary polyp with many long tentacles that provide shelter to a variety of marine organism, including the colourful clown fish.

Coral reefs are under pressure from a variety of threats including overfishing, pollution, rising sea temperatures due to climate change, and increased ocean acidity, both of which can lead to coral bleaching. When a coral is bleached it expels its symbiotic algae, known as zooxanthellae, meaning the coral cannot photosynthesise and so cannot feed.

“Coral reefs are threatened with functional extinction in the next 20-50 years, due predominantly to global climate change. 2010 seems set to have been one of the worst years for coral bleaching.” Catherine Head, co-ordinator of the EDGE Coral Reefs project.

Endemic to the Chagos Archipelago, the peculiar Ctenella chagius is able to extend its stomach onto the living tissues of an adjacent coral and kill it.

Conservationists intend to focus their efforts on the ‘coral triangle’ around the Philippines, the West Indian Ocean around the Mozambique Channel, and in the Caribbean Channel. They plan to provide local conservationists with the training and equipment needed to carry out the research, with initial projects lasting two years.
Importance of coral reefs
The project will temporarily increase the resilience of coral reefs to environmental change, but conservationists concede that part of the solution in the future must involve the designation of more of the ocean as marine protected areas. With coral reefs – the rainforests of the oceans – being the planet’s most diverse marine ecosystem, and harbouring up to a third of all marine life, it is vital that coral reefs flourish in the future.

Spotlight on: Seacology

When many people dream of the perfect summer vacation or holiday, visions of sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and lush forests come to mind. Islands are a home away from home for many travelers around the world but most people are unaware of the amazing biodiversity that island habitats support. This is where our partners at Seacology come in.
Seacology is an environmental nonprofit with the sole purpose of preserving the highly endangered biodiversity of islands throughout the world. In the last 400 years, the majority of the world’s plant and animal extinctions have taken place on islands. By working with indigenous island peoples, Seacology strives to find the middle ground between improving human life while maintaining the environmental integrity of islands habitats and species.
With a favorable year-round climate and isolation from large land masses, tropical islands support some of the most unique species on Earth. Here’s a sample of some of Seacology’s most recent projects, highlighting the endangered species they have helped to protect.

In exchange for a new community health clinic in Papua New Guinea, Seacology established a 988-acre no-take coastal marine conservation area providing a permanent sanctuary for many island species including the Asian giant softshell turtle, an easily recognizable species with its broad head and eyes close to the tip of its snout.

The stunning bowl coral is just one of the many corals, fish, crabs and other marine species safely protected for the next 10 years near the island of Tonga in the South Pacific. Through another agreement between Seacology and local island peoples, 368 acres of a critical marine habitat reserve are protected into the next decade in return for an updated community hall building.

Ocean life in shocking decline

The world’s oceans are in a “shocking” state and marine species may face an unprecedented extinction event, an international panel of experts has warned.

The many threats to the world’s coral reefs include increasing ocean temperatures, which can cause coral ‘bleaching’, as shown in this Acropora species.

The panel was brought together by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and involved scientists from across a range disciplines. It was the first to consider the cumulative impacts of the pressures facing the oceans, including pollution, ocean acidification, ocean warming, over-fishing and hypoxia (reduced oxygen levels).

Rapid pace of change

“The findings are shocking,” said Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of IPSO and a professor of conservation biology at Oxford University. “As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised… almost right across the board we’re seeing changes that are happening faster than we’d thought, or in ways that we didn’t expect to see for hundreds of years.”

Overfishing has brought species such as the southern bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction.

These rapid changes include the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and the release of methane trapped in the sea bed. More worrying is how different threats are acting together in ways that had not previously been recognised, their combined effects being worse than each threat alone.

For example, some pollutants have been found to stick to the surfaces of tiny plastic particles in the ocean, increasing the amounts of these pollutants being consumed by marine creatures. Global climate change, ocean acidification, pollution and overfishing are also working together to increase the pressures on the world’s coral reefs, many of which are now in severe decline.

Sixth mass extinction?

The combined effects of these stresses mean that ocean ecosystems are unable to recover, being constantly under attack from multiple threats. The panel concluded that not only are we already seeing significant declines in marine species and habitats, but that we now face losing species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation.

Life on Earth has gone through five “mass extinction” events in the past, and human activities are now thought to be causing a sixth such event. The panel’s report said that the combination of threats to the ocean is creating the same conditions found in every major extinction in Earth’s history. Levels of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the ocean are already far greater than at the time of the last mass extinction of marine life, some 55 million years ago. The rate of the ocean’s degeneration is also far greater than anyone had predicted.

Manta ray entangled in a fishing net.

Conserving the world’s oceans

The panel’s conclusions will be presented in a report at the UN headquarters in New York later this week, when discussions will take place aimed at reforming governance of the oceans. The report calls for urgent measures to better conserve ocean ecosystems, and in particular to improve governance of the largely unprotected high seas.

IPSO’s immediate recommendations include stopping exploitative fishing, especially on the high seas where there is little effective regulation. It also recommends mapping and then reducing pollutants, such as plastics, fertilisers and human waste, which are entering the oceans. In addition, sharp reductions need to be made in greenhouse gas emissions, and research is urgently needed into ways of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Like many marine species, the green turtle faces a range of threats. This species is classified as Endangered by the IUCN.

One of the report’s co-authors, Dan Laffoley, Marine Chair of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas, and Senior Advisor on Marine Science and Conservation for IUCN, admitted that the challenges were vast. “But unlike previous generations, we know what now needs to happen,” he said. “The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now.”

Northern Line Islands Expedition

Northern Line Islands

In 2010 and 2011, Dr. Enric Sala and a team of scientists traveled to the northern Line Islands in the North Pacific. There, the crew discovered a marine world that science never knew existed—one that hadn't yet been explored and damaged by humans, with an ecosystem little changed from its condition hundreds of years ago.
"We started at an island with 10,000 people and very degraded marine life," Sala explains. "We continued to an island with 2,500 people, then to one with ten people, and finally to one with zero people and a virtually intact ecosystem. It was a trip back in time, from degraded to pristine."

5 Underwater Hot-Spots

 Summer is coming and with it, the need to go to the beach, swim or practice water sports. Adrenaline is the driving force behind this exciting hobby. For the water sports fanatics, we have rounded up 5 of the best locations to practice snorkelling, diving, swimming or surfing.

1. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system that contains over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands. Located in the north-east coast of Australia, the Coral Reef is the only organic collective that can be seen from the Earth’s orbit. It has been declared a World Heritage site in 1981, also being rightfully considered one of the wonders of the natural world. The idyllic islands, sights and coral cays cover over 300,000 square kilometres. The abundant wildlife is probably the best reason to visit this amazing natural wonder: it is house to more than 1500 species of fish, 4000 types of mollusc and more than 200 species of bird life.

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2.Located in the Sulu Sea, Palawan, the Philippines, the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park is a true marine sanctuary made up of two atolls. The reef lays on extinct underwater volcanoes, having an amazing pristine coral reefs set on a 100-m perpendicular wall. Apart from several lagoons and two spectacular coral islands, Tubbataha offers one of the best diving experience worldwide. It is an opportunity to explore the habitats of many fish colonies or see the endangered hawksbill sea turtles. Apart from the extensive marine wildlife, the Tubbataha Reef is also a bird sanctuary, home to tens of thousands of birds during their annual migrations.

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3. Located near the town of Bouillante in Guadeloupe, the Jacques Cousteau Underwater Reserve offers the opportunity to snorkel and explore the vivid coral and marine wildlife or retreat on a beautiful black sand beach. The marine preserve encompasses several dive sites off the coast of Guadeloupe. Around the the area you can enjoy the National Park of Guadeloupe or the Botanical Gardens, packed with hiking trails, waterfalls and lush vegetation. Keep in mind that it is forbidden to take a piece of coral or bother a sea turtle.

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4. The largest raised coral atoll on earth, Aldabra is comprised of four coral islands that surround the shallow lagoon. The atoll is locatyed in the Indian Ocean, and belongs to the Seychelles. Protected from man’s influence, Aldabra is a major wildlife refuge, being home to 152,000 giant tortoises – the world’s largest population of this reptile. The tortoises weigh a quarter of a ton and can often live pass 100 years. Due to the fragile flora and fauna, the atoll receives around 1000+ visitors a year. Aldabra is recognized as an endemic bird area and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.

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5. Named one of the Seven Underwater Wonders of the World, the Galapagos Islands are one of the best scuba-diving destinations you can come across. The main dive hotspots are Wolf Island and Darwin Island, two eroded volcanos located on a volcanic ridge. The islands are inhabited by sea birds and are home to diverse marine species, being seldomly visited, except by scientists and scuba divers. They are famous for the “Vampire” finch, a species of the sharp-beaked ground finch that pecks at nesting boobies, drinking their blood. Also, Darwin Island is the only one in the archipelago where the sooty tern breeds. All things connsidered, the two attractions in the Galapagos Islands are one of the hottest diving hotspots in the world.

Undersea Explorer

Using state-of-the-art underwater photography, scuba divers travel the world's oceans, lakes, and wateways on intriguing journeys to rarely seen strange and unusual underwater kingdoms.