Some Mangrove Inspiration

Anyone interested in biology (and if you’re on this site, I bet you are) can’t help but be fascinated by mangroves.  Here’s a selection of photographs that I took in Mauritius that shows a mangrove thicket at its...

Ocean Micro-Plastics

Good morning all, as you can see Curacao just got hit with another major wave of floating ocean plastics!! This was caused after a week of strong winds and big waves bringing large amounts of trash to the shores of countless Caribbean islands, not just here. From my observations of looking through pile after pile of trash I noticed that this plastic and wood has been out to sea a long time and I bet your wondering how I came up with that?? Well, almost everything I found was covered in live barnacles meaning it was out floating in the open sea a long time. The big question now is; how in the world can this be cleaned up! I must say it’s enough to keep you up at night if you could see this mess in person, I personally felt very helpless just looking at it last night and even made a failed attempt to clean some of it up.

Reefs In Decline

Kauai, Hawaii coastline taken during a helicopter tourI have been lucky in my life to have had the opportunity to dive in some of the prettiest and most diverse underwater habitats on earth. Without exception, the nicest dive sites are far from civilization, which stands to reason. But today I want to talk about the places that are in trouble biologically speaking. The outer Hawaiian IslandsLast year, I went to some of the outer Hawaiian Islands for a nice vacation and, of course, to dive. My wife and I went to Hawaii on our wedding anniversary 44 years ago, and I dove then too, so I had an opportunity to assess the place decades later. The diving then was good, plenty of varied life with a smattering of sharks.