Tides Are Changing
By Ruqayyah Thompson, Research Officer. International days are a powerful advocacy tool used to raise awareness on matters of public concern, garner political support and resources to address global problems as well as to celebrate humanity’s achievements. This month, we join with the global community to recognise World Oceans Day on June 8th under the theme, “Planet Ocean: Tides Are Changing”. The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and forms 95% of the biosphere, the part of the Earth where life exists. It produces at least 50% of the world’s oxygen and is a main source of protein for over a billion people. The...
From agreement to action, build back Biodiversity
By: Mr. Attish Kanhai, Benthic Ecologist, Institute of Marine Affairs. “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun”, French filmmaker Jean Luc-Godard was quoted as saying. Well, actually he was quoting someone else while making this quote, another filmmaker D.W. Griffith. The implication here is that action and romance keep us glued to our screens, the gun of course representing action and the girl romance Give the girl and the gun then we’re in for a doubly good time I suppose. But I digress. Action movies take it one step further by introducing big explosions, things burning and who doesn’t...
Recognising the Importance of Our Seagrass Meadows
March 1, 2023 marks the first-ever United Nations recognised World Seagrass Day. The day is being commemorated to raise public awareness on the importance of seagrass meadows and to recognise the importance of seagrasses to the health and well-being of the planet, as well as to the people, communities, flora and fauna that rely on them. Seagrasses are marine flowering plants that grow in the intertidal and subtidal zones along shallow tropical and temperate coasts. They are very productive, faunally rich and ecologically important marine resources that provide nursery habitats for several commercially important species such as conch, fish and lobster and a major food source...
PERSPECTIVES: The wonders of marine biodiversity
Vincent Van Gogh’s love for nature was no secret and the olive groves in Saint-Remy, France, were one his favourite places to paint. In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh once wrote, “The murmur of an olive grove has something very intimate, immensely old about it….it’s too beautiful for me to dare paint it.” What Van Gogh captures in his words is the reverence of nature which is often quite difficult to ignore when you are working in natural settings. As a marine biologist, working in the sea allows one the good fortune of seeing many marine species living life in their natural habitat. Marine biologists like Attish...
Coral Reefs, X-MEN of the SEA
The Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) recently partnered with bp Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT) and other government, private sector and community-based organizations to build its capacity in marine ecosystem rehabilitation, particularly coral reefs and seagrass beds, in a rapidly changing climate. This partnership is a significant step towards promoting wildlife conservation, especially in the Caribbean region, which has suffered greatly from the impacts of climate change and human activities. With coral reefs facing unprecedented levels of degradation, the partnership intends to deliver long-term biodiversity conservation and restoration of these ecosystems including avoided loss using a multi-pronged approach: (1) Ocean stewardship; (2) Restoration of Tobago’s...
It’s time to restore degraded wetlands!
As we join the rest of the world to commemorate World Wetlands Day on February 2nd we are reminded that it is time to restore our degraded wetlands. But why should we? According to the Global Wetland Outlook, 2021, wetlands have always provided services to humanity, yet recognition of the scale of these benefits and the consequences of their loss is quite recent. Critical wetland ecosystem services include: carbon sequestration and storage, particularly in peatlands and marine ecosystems; ensuring safe and reliable supplies of drinking and irrigation water; the provision of goods and services connected with food security; and management against water-related disasters such...
Protecting Tobago from Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
Prepared by: Hannah Lochan, Marine Technician Cruise ship season is here again after a long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we welcome visitors to experience our beautiful twin islands, there is one passenger we hope is not on board any cruise ship - the lethal pathogen that causes Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD)! This pathogen can be transported via ballast water in ships and is extremely virulent causing its own underwater coral epidemic having already decimated coral reefs in the region. Potential spread of SCTLD When a ship is preparing for a voyage, it often takes in saltwater into large holding tanks in its...
When Nutrients Become Pollution
Growing up in a Caribbean household one will often hear the phrase ‘too much of a good thing, is a bad thing.’ Children have also been encouraged to eat things that may taste particularly bad, with the promise that it is good for them. As we gets older, we find ourselves examining nutrition labels and slowly we come to the realisation that our parents were right! So now when one hears the word ‘nutrient’, surely, you may be tempted to think, we can’t have too much of it, not so? The term Nutrient typically refers to a substance or ingredient that promotes growth, provides energy,...
Tobago’s reefs are on their third consecutive year of coral bleaching
Trinidad and Tobago continue to be under Bleaching Alert Level Two for the period of October 23 for up to four weeks. Tobago’s reefs are now experiencing coral bleaching for the third consecutive year. The IMA Team has been observing pale and partially bleached corals in Charlotteville, northeast Tobago. We have also received reports of coral bleaching on many reefs in southwest Tobago, including Buccoo Reef, Store Bay Reef, Flying Reef and Mt Irvine Reef. Bleaching is occurring across many species – brain corals, mountainous star corals, staghorn corals, fire corals and even the soft corals. Staghorn Bleaching in Buccoo, Tobago What is coral bleaching? Corals form...
Blue Carbon is no reason to feel blue
Have you ever described yourself or someone else as “feeling blue”? In that case you are using a phrase coined from a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships. If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to homeport. I would like to think that this is true because it perfectly fits my narrative but given that the internet source was quite dubious it probably isn’t. Another source indicated that the use of the colour blue to mean sadness goes all the...