This morning we were at the International School of Monaco with 230 students talking about our missions in Colombia, Martinique and Hawaii about sharks, turtles and corals. The youth of today are leaders and decision makers of the future. That’s why it’s so important to get them interested and engaged in environmental issues.

Researchers Thomas Changeux and Sandrine Ruitton from the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography at Aix-Marseille University presented their research on Sargassum, a brown algae, at the Oceanographic Institute of Paris. The studies were carried out with the Monaco Explorations campaign on a mission crossing the Atlantic Ocean in October  2017. The research team is working to identify causes of the Sargassum proliferation, which, when it reaches shore can cause dramatic consequences for the water and air quality and health of shore communities.

For the first time, UNESCO World Heritage coral reef managers will partner with global climate resilience experts and local community stakeholders to build and embed comprehensive resilience strategies into their management of World Heritage sites.

The four-year USD$9 million initiative will build climate resilience leadership in an initial five of the world’s most treasured coral reefs and their communities, including Rock Islands Southern Lagoon (Palau), Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems (France), Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize), Ningaloo Coast and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia).

From left to right: John Kerry, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, H.E. Philippe Germain (President of New Caledonia), H.E. Isabel De Saint Malo de Alvarado (Vice President of the Republic of Panama), Abraham Goram, Dona Bertarelli, Dr. Fanny Douvere, Brett Jenks. H.E. Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: Our Ocean 2018.

The initiative is led by an international consortium of partners, including UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Rockefeller Foundation and its pioneering 100 Resilient Cities, BHP Foundation, the Nature Conservancy’s Reef Resilience Network, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the global consultancy in environmental engineering, AECOM.

The commitment was launched during the Plenary Session on Marine Protected Areas, chaired by John Kerry. The 2018 Our Ocean Conference was opened by H.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia.

Read more : http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1894

Read post on Monaco Matin.

The team leaves their basecamp near Don Diego Village on the Columbian Caribbean coast headed toward Santa-Marta. Beginning October 14th, the team has collected 42 fish samples and spent numerous hours at sea filtering water and setting cameras to collect eDNA data.

We are in Colombia on the Caribbean coast as a continuation of the work done in Malpelo in March 2018. This work is in support of the Megafauna Consortium and Invemar. This is the team’s first time collecting eDNA samples in this area, and they hope to work toward classifying this region as a marine protected area.

Photo © O. Borde / Monaco Explorations

The teams from the Malpelo Mission have returned to Colombia but this time they are on the coast of the Caribbean Sea near Santa Marta, Colombia. This relatively unstudied area is an extension of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta National Natural Park.

The scientific teams on site are from UMR Marbec, which combines staff from IRD, Ifremer, UM and CNRS.

The research targets on this mission are to catch fish for species identification and eDNA (species identification through genetic coding), and record species and abundance via fixed cameras on the seafloor and baited cameras. The footage from the cameras is used to cross reference the data collected through water filtering for eDNA.

Our mission in Malpelo has come to an end. As we sailed away tonight toward Panama we were lucky to have a beautiful send off from mother nature.

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Here is some footage stitched together from the many, many hours taken by the 36 hour cameras

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][KGVID poster=”https://www.monacoexplorations.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/36_hours_hero.jpg”]https://www.monacoexplorations.org/videos/36hours.mp4[/KGVID][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Look who came to visit the baited cameras!

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