A Caribbean island nestled in the Leeward Antilles, warm and sunny Bonaire is a diver’s paradise with lots of shore diving and easy-to-reach fringing reefs, attracting divers at all levels who wish to explore and enjoy its beautiful reefs and marine life. Matthew Meier shares his adventure there.
As global warming heats up oceans around the world, coral bleaching events are increasing in frequency and severity. Robert Osborne reports on how climate change has impacted his favourite coral reef in Cuba.
The wide and flat-faced, striped critter known as the splendid toadfish is just that—splendid! Underwater photographer and author Steve Rosenberg takes a closer look at what makes this lovable fish so special.
Sessile organisms, such as corals where adults are immobile and their growth position is determined at settlement, are confronted by unique circumstances arising in that particular location.
In some habitats, anthropogenic effects are causing large changes in community structure, as well as the environmental conditions to which they are exposed. On a densely populated reef space is a limited resource. One of the ways organisms can win that space is through the strategy of shape.
Tulum has changed a lot since I was here last, well over 45 years ago. Once a mere dusty village with beach huts, it is now a booming town with a main street full of bars, restaurants and tourist shops.
Like a fashion model up on the catwalk, great hammerhead sharks sashay into one’s field of vision, and, if they were human, you would probably say they have just “made an entrance”. Their strange mallet-like head, robust body girth and tall sickle-shaped dorsal fin make them well-nigh instantly recognisable, and most other sharks in the immediate area spot that too and give them a wide berth.
Current research has shown that waters off Florida and the Bahamas are important pupping and feeding grounds for several sharks, providing them with the critical habitat required for the conservation of these slow-to-mature ocean animals.
Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science studied the core home range of 86 bull, great hammerhead and tiger sharks tagged in waters off south Florida and the northern Bahamas.
A team of researchers from the University of Michigan focused on leatherback sea turtles nesting on St. Kitts, an island in the West Indies southeast of Puerto Rico. The team wanted to know what factors influence where and when the leatherbacks lay their eggs.
It has been suggested that characteristics of the sand, the slope of the beach and proximity to vegetation contribute to the success or failure of nests, but which factors cause female leatherback sea turtles to dig a nest in a particular spot has never been investigated.
A fifty-minute flight southeast from the bustle, cruise ships and tourist-centric Nassau, lies the sleepy island of San Salvador. Twelve miles long and five miles wide, she is the tip of an underwater mountain rising from 5,000 metres below (15,000 feet) surrounded by picture-postcard, crystal-clear, blue seas.
Many people are scared witless by sharks, but I love them. I scuba dive and freedive with them whenever I can.
