Chagos ISlands to become world's largest marine reserve

THE Chagos Islands? Ever heard of 'em?
Well these tiny British islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean are to become the world's largest marine reserve, the Government has announced.



The Marine Protected Area (MPA) will cover some quarter of a million square miles of sea around the archipelago in the Indian Ocean and include a "no-take" reserve banning commercial fishing.

The Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the establishment of the reserve in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) would double the amount of the world's oceans which were protected.

The announcement was hailed as "fantastic" by conservationists who have been campaigning for the creation of a marine reserve to protect some of the world's most unspoilt seas and coral reefs in the face of pollution, climate change and loss of species.

Mr Miliband said: "Its creation is a major step forward in protecting the oceans, not just around BIOT itself but also throughout the world.

He insisted the creation of the protected area would not affect the UK's commitment to cede the territory to Mauritius when it was no longer needed for military purposes.

The 55 islands across 210,000 square miles in the middle of the Indian Ocean which form the British Overseas Territory have at least 60 endangered species in their coral reefs and waters.

The islands are home to more than 220 types of coral, 1,000 species of fish and at least 33 different seabirds and have been described as the most pristine tropical marine environment on Earth.



Greenpeace biodiversity campaigner Willie Mackenzie said: "These coral seas are a biodiversity hotspot in the Indian Ocean, and unquestionably worthy of protection from destructive activities like fishing.

"And this marine reserve will provide a safe refuge for many globally endangered species such as sharks and turtles."

The commercial tuna fish industry wanted an exemption which would allow them to continue fishing, but in the run-up to the announcement scientists warned allowing the fisheries to continue would harm threatened wildlife.

Professor Charles Sheppard of Warwick University said the region was very resilient to the impacts of climate change - such as the bleaching and death of coral reefs - because it did not suffer from other impacts such as pollution and overfishing.

And he said: "The U.K.'s designation sets a new global benchmark for responsible ocean stewardship.

"The Chagos Protected Area will provide an important global reference site for a wide range of scientific ecological, oceanographic and climate studies, and will underpin the provision of benefits to humans throughout the Indian Ocean region into the future."

Tables turned on invading Lionfish

To scuba divers armed with cameras, they are the perfect spot, flamboyant, exotic and also beautiful to photograph.

Unfortunately, lionfish are also a damned fine predator that is threatening a number of eco-systems in which it has 'invaded'.

Now environmentalists around the Bahamas and Cayman Islands are fighting back to protect their pristine coral reefs.

Lionfish are native to the indo-Pacific waters and were until recently rarely found elsewhere. That was until a ten or so years ago when they began turning up in waters off the east coast of America and around the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.

How they got there is open to debate, but they posed a threat to the eco-system.
With no natural predator, their population exploded and with prey unaware of their voracious hunting skills, native reef fish numbers were decimated.

The fightback has seen divers capture more than 200 red lionfish on Cayman’s reefs since the ferocious species first invaded the local waters early last year, in a move copied from the Bahamas.

Licenced scuba divers, authorised by the Department of Environment and the Marine Conservation Board, have caught 233 of the fish on all three islands in the last 16 months and handed them over to the department to be destroyed.

Bradley Johnson, research officer with the Department of Environment, told CayCompass.com: "The invasion of the Caribbean by lionfish started in the Bahamas. They came from the east coast of the US to the Bahamas and then into the Caribbean.

“Our intention is to remove any and all lionfish we find in Cayman waters. The more we remove, the fewer native fish will be eaten by them.”

He said all the divers can do is keep removing them from the underwater habitat and hope that native species begin to adapt to this new predator.

jessica Alba fights for great white sharks

First Elle MacPherson, now Jessica Alba.

You've got to hand it to Tinsletown's female elite, they are doing their bit for raising awareness of the plight of endangered underwater species.

The star of scuba diving movie Into the Blue was reported to have been photographed earlier this month putting up posters of great white sharks in Oklahoma, where she is shooting her new movie The Killer Inside Me, in an effort to draw attention to the species' dwindling numbers.

Following an outcry - over the posters not the slaughter of the sharks, heaven forbid there is any outcry to save Jaws - the 28-year-old "Fantastic Four" actress issued an apology for her actions and the owners of the properties on which Alba glued the posters said they didn't want to see her prosecuted.

In her apology released to EW.com, Alba said: “I got involved in something I should have had no part of. I realize that I should have used better judgment and I regret not thinking things through before I made a spontaneous and ill-advised decision to let myself get involved with the people behind this campaign.”

Hell, no Alba. Have the courage of your convictions. You were absolutely right to get involved. Without people in the public eye getting involved, these issues could be missed by the general public until it is too late.

Thanks to the Rad Report, the shark is actually called White Mike and he is the face of the campaign to protect Great Whites.

The posters have been appearing all over LA and Malibu.

In a message on his blog (go and visit, now) White Mike, he said: "Some have asked why these images of the Great White Shark were posted in Oklahoma, a place far away from the slaughtering waters off Ecuador’s Galapagos or the booming shark fin markets of Hong Kong.
"The reason is that illegal shark fin hunting affects the people of Oklahoma. It affects us all.
"There is a dire need for us as a human race to try and stop the devastation of the Great White Shark. International pressure is the only way to do it and that starts in Oklahoma, the heartland of America."

White Mike, if you are reading this, make the posters available for us to download in whatever size is possible, I'm sure there are a few of us in Blighty who will post them around our neck of the woods.

Name That Shrimp

What a little cutie! And you could name it.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society is offering some lucky (and rich) person chance to name this deep sea species that is completely new to science.

PhD student Anna McCallum, who discovered the shrimp, has generously chosen to auction the naming rights of the shrimp and dedicate all profits from the auction towards marine conservation.

The ebay auction began at 9am (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time) Sunday 22nd March 2009 and will end at 9am (AEDST) on Tuesday 31st March 2009.
This shrimp was found 400m down in the deep waters of South-west Australia.

Morphing from yellow to green, this spectacular shrimp is covered in scarlet spots and sports a toothed crest across the top of its body, which gives it the delightful appearance of having a mohawk.

At the time of blogging 29 people had tried to get in on the act and the bid stood at AU $1,775.

For full details of the auction log on the AMCS or and check out ebay.

EU Action Plan For Sharks

Europe's threatened sharks have finally been given a lifeline in a new EU action plan offering the continent's first ever shark protection laws.
Scuba divers known for years that over-fishing, by-catch and the insatiable demand for shark fin products have left the species facing the threat of extinction.
Now Jo Borg, European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, has stepped in to help save the dwindling numbers from hunters.
And if politicians are finally prepared to act, the situation must be pretty bad- as they are not a normally a group willing to step in until the horse is not only out of the stable, but has vaulted the paddock fence and disappeared across next door's fields.
That said, it's better late then never - as long as the action plan lives up to its word.



The Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks aims to end overfishing, pay special attention to threatened shark species and close loopholes in the EU ban on shark finning in the hope of rebuilding shark stocks.
The EU fleet take around 100,000 tonnes of sharks and related species each year from the North Sea and the north-east Atlantic, which includes the Med, in an industry Commissioners now accept is lightly regulated, if at all.
The Fisheries Dept now acknowledge that: "Sharks, rays and chimaeras are ancient species that play a vital role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems.
"Since the mid-1980s, they have been under increasingly intense fishing pressure due to higher demand for shark products, especially in Asian markets.
"This over-exploitation affects populations that are generally fragile and is leading some species to the brink of extinction."
It goes on to state: "Shark populations are generally fragile because of certain characteristics of their life cycle: low fertility rate, large juveniles, slow growth and late maturity.
"Their capacity to restore their population in case of overfishing is consequently limited. As a result, these ancient species, which play a key role in maintaining balance in marine ecosystems, are sometimes endangered by overfishing and illegal fishing.
"For example, several species caught by the EU fleet in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean are on the Red List drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Some are 'critically endangered' (spurdog, porbeagle shark, several species of angel shark and ray), and others are 'endangered' (basking shark) or 'vulnerable' (short-finned mako, blue shark and hammerhead shark)."

Under the plan, (pdf version / Q&A details) catch limits will be set in line with scientific advice, fishing will be banned in areas crucial for reproduction and rearing young and observers placed on boats to report on the numbers of sharks being pulled in as bycatch.
The regulations will also apply to sharks' close relatives - skates and rays - and the restrictions will apply to all EU-registered vessels, wherever they operate.

Sonja Fordham, Policy Director for conservation charity, the Shark Alliance, said: “The release of the long-awaited EU Shark Plan represents a great step forward for the conservation of sharks in European waters and beyond.
"The Plan’s commitments to science-based fishing limits, endangered species protection, and a stronger finning ban are essential to securing a brighter future for some of Europe’s most vulnerable and neglected animals.”

Unfortunately the phrase "gradual implementation" appears throughout the document. But thanks to a suggestion by John Nightingale in his Biteback article in this month's Diver mag, maybe Jo Borg would like to hear your thoughts. he can be reached on cabinet-borg@ec.europa.eu

Some of us will remember the famous footage in the Blue Planet doc of hundreds of schooling hammerheads. Let's just hope that the EU aren't too late and one day when we jump in, cameras at the ready, to a hotspot for shark activity we can get to see sharks again in the numbers they should be.

Sharkrunners

Ever fancied a taste of ocean exploration, a bit of daring-do while collecting data on sharks prowling the world's oceans?

Yes? But you don't want to leave your armchair?

Well try the new Discovery Channel online Sharkrunners game.

It promises to be a game of "high stakes shark research" where "players take on the role of sharkrunners: daring and adventurous marine biologists who seek to learn as much as possible about sharks through advanced observation techniques".

It also guarantees to suck up hours of your life as you pilot your ship along the coast of who knows where looking for sharks.

The nice detail is that the game uses real-world telemetry data to provide the position and movement of actual great white sharks so every animal players encounter corresponds to a real shark out in the actual ocean.

The basics rules are that you get out on the ocean with your crew, plot a course and dive in with the sharks you encounter along the way. The boat journeys happen in real time so if your computer's on, you can leave it running until you pretend to jump in.

When you find a shark there are some nice videos and interesting facts that will keep kids happy and if it goes someway to reversing the slaughter of sharks by increasing interest in them then it's not such a bad thing.

And it appears some players are really into it - amassing trillions of dollars for their research work. Also check out Sharkrunners HQ for some interesting links to other websites.

Me, I've totalled about $7,000 and had a crew member chomped by Tiger Shark Kari. Oh well, no one said it was going to be easy.

Census of Polar Marine Life

You know how we all hate filling in the official form every ten years asking us what we do, how many people we've got stashed away at home and how much we earn?
Well thankfully there's a few scientists who can't get enough. And God love 'em because they've come up with an interesting study about marine life at either ends of the earth.
And there's some fantastic news. The Census of Marine Life recorded some 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic, including several hundred that researchers believe could be new to science.
But while polar bears live in the north and penguins prefer the south, researchers also found the Polar oceans shared some 235 species, including whales, worms, crustaceans and angelic like pteropods- despite being separated by nearly 7,000 miles.
University of Alaska Fairbanks plankton ecologist Russ Hopcroft, who took part in the Arctic survey said: "Finding species at both ends of the Earth — some of which don't have a known connection in between — raises a whole bunch of evolutionary questions."
The survey is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalogue all life in the oceans which will be published next year.
Victoria Wadley, a researcher from the Australian Antarctic Division added: "The textbooks have said there is less diversity at the poles than the tropics, but we found astonishing richness of marine life in the Antarctic and Arctic oceans We are rewriting the textbooks."
I guess the polar oceans are not biological deserts after all.
S'pose I best start looking at that PADI Ice Diving Specialty.

Coral reefs under threat

New Year New Gloom with research in Science journal indicating that coral on the Great Barrier Reef is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years.
The hidden threat to corals comes from global warming which is increasing acidification of the seas and stunting their growth.
Researchers used x-rays to measure the annual growth rings and discovered that while growth between 1900 and 1970 increased, it has now started to decline rapidly from 1.43 centimetres per year a decade ago to 1.24 centimetres per year.
Prof Glenn De'ath, who carried out the research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, believes that the increased acidification of the sea due to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the main culprit.
With CO2 levels expected to double in the next 50 years, he believes the changes in the biodiversity are "imminent".
The Canberra Times said that if we are not careful, the reef could be gone in the next 40 years.

Hope for our coral reefs

As the year ends with economic doom and gloom, today brought us divers one bit of bright news. It appears that coral reefs battered by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 are recovering much quicker than expected.
Surveys taken immediately after a massive undersea earthquake triggered the tsunami and sent it sweeping along the Indian Ocean coastline, showed that up to a third of reefs were damaged.
According to the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, examinations of 60 sites along a 497 miles stretch of Indonesia's Aceh province showed the reefs were bouncing back.
Digging beneath the headline statement, it appears the chief reason the reef has recovered so quickly is because local people had responded to the conservation effort.


Marine biologist Rizya Legawa surveys coral reefs off Aceh province, Indonesia. (WCS Andrew Baird)

Dr Stuart Campbell, co-ordinator of the WCS's Indonesia marine programme, said fishermen had stopped using illegal techniques such as dynamite and villagers had transplanted corals into areas that were hardest hit.
"The recovery, which is in part due to improved management and the direct assistance of local people, gives enormous hope that coral reefs in this remote region can return to their previous
condition and provide local communities with the resources they need to prosper," he said.


Coral reef transplantation site is seen off Weh island, Aceh, Indonesia. (WCS Rian Prasetia)

Which goes to show, mankind was the problem, but by listening to the conservation effort, man can also be a solution.
And the humbling lesson of the day - if people in poverty-stricken parts of the world that have just experienced a cataclysmic natural disaster can provide a helping hand to mother nature, then there is no reason why us westerners cannot make an effort as well.
Simple things like thinking about what fish we eat and perhaps not shopping in supermarkets which are still selling endangered species would be a start.
And the good news for us divers? The more coral reefs and the greater understanding of their worth equals more and better dive destinations.

Save the Whale Shark

Whey-hey! I've finally done my bit for marine conservation after finding a great website creating an online photo-identification library of whale sharks.

I know it's only a small step.

But being a frustrated adventurer (no guts) and discovering too late in my life (now have a credit card and mortgage) that I should've studied marine biology at university (instead of something far less worthwhile) it's a big deal for me.

The ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library is a visual database of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) encounters and of individually catalogued whale sharks from around the globe.

By analysing the unique skin spotting patterns behind the gills of each shark it's possible to distinguish individual animals. The information can then be used by marine biologists to research the lives of these majestic creatures.

And I've contributed an encounter # 15122008134247

I was diving the White Knight reef, north of Sharks Bay, Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt's Red Sea in July (08), when dive guide Saffy spotted the shark at about 40m.

There had been rumours that whale sharks were about but I didn't really think I'd see one in the Red Sea. When we did my eyeballs filling the lens of my mask, but I managed to ping off a few shots on my camera.

I've now added three images to the database where they'll be more use than the "Guess what I saw while diving?" bragging that they have so far been used for.

I'll let you know whether we've captured a new whale shark on camera or sited one that has already been identified.

Whatever the outcome, I hope it will go someone to helping us to understand and protect these magnificent creatures.

And, I'll never moan about diving the house reef again. You never know what you could find.

Taking the Plunge!

Okay. Well, here goes. My first blog.
I've agonised about how I would kick start this blog for so long, that I didn't think I'd ever get started.
I was looking for a sparkling, award-winning start to my blogging career, but in the end I've just decided to go with it now and wait for the scintillating prose (oh I do hope so) to come some other time.
So who am I? My name is Mark. I'm in my mid-30s and live in the most landlocked place in the UK. which is unfortunate as I have a deep love for the oceans borne out of my passion for scuba diving, one so strong I'd dive in a puddle if it were deep enough.
I started my diving career five years ago and I'm now PADI Divemaster helping to teach people how to dive - although not in puddles.
In my day job I'm a journalist (my other great love) covering the crime beat for three major newspapers. I know the two couldn't be further apart, but I'd already got the credit card and mortgage by the time I realised I wanted to be an ocean-going explorer and adventurer (or beach bum, whichever came first).
So, back to this blog. This is a way for me to unite my two passions and write about a subject I truly love.
In the end, it's going to be a mixed bag of things.
Hopefully it will become a place to share stories about our diving adventures, discuss the best places to dive, and the ones to avoid, look at dive gear (grrrrrrrr), have a laugh at some of our underwater exploits, and feature the discoveries being made beneath the waves.
Perhaps more importantly though, it will be a place to discuss marine conservation and focus on the pressing ecological issues affecting the undersea world.
By looking at research being done by marine biologists around the globe we can further our own understanding and also, as an online community, campaign for government and industry to change the practices the threaten the very future of our seas and the life in them.

Phew! There you go. It wasn't so hard after all.

I know it's a kind of mission statement, but I hope it appeals. As I stated at the beginning, nothing sparkling I know, but I hope you stick around to see what comes up in the next few weeks and months.

I'm thick-skinned (the day job taught me that) so please fell free to comment, criticise, poke fun at, whatever you like because only by participating can we all have a good time on those afternoons when we're stuck behind a desk desperately wanting to be beneath the waves.