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Following three successful and productive weeks of research in Cay Sal Bank, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation’s Global Reef Expedition is off to a great start, said Captain Phillip Renaud, USN (ret), the Foundation’s Executive Director. “Our Cay Sal Bank research mission was ambitious, productive and a huge success” he said. “We accomplished more than we anticipated, being blessed with calm seas, clear water, sunny days and a great team effort.’

The Expedition spent 20 days at sea aboard the research vessel, Golden Shadow, at eight different anchorages around Cay Sal Bank. The diving team surveyed 39 unique locations around the bank, conducting 508 individual scuba dives for a total of 380 hours of underwater research observations. Additionally, the mapping team, led by the National Coral Reef Institute, surveyed 650 miles of the Bank by small boat and collected two million depth soundings and 550 underwater videos to facilitate accurate map production from the high resolution satellite imagery. A professional film crew was also on board for part of the mission to film this inaugural research mission.

Cay Sal Bank is a submerged platform that lies within a few hours travel time by boat from the Florida Keys and Cuba, yet it is remote, difficult to access and relatively un-impacted by man.

Seven researchers from The Bahamas joined a global team of researchers and scientists from the United States, Colombia, England, Austria and Canada for the Cay Sal Bank research. “The Bahamian researchers aboard were a pleasure to work with and a tribute to their country”, said Captain Renaud. ““This was the most challenging research project I have been involved with over the years, and we’re confident that the scientific knowledge we’ve collected will be of immense value to the Bahamas government in conserving this special place in the sea.”

Expressing appreciation on behalf of the Bahamas government, the Hon. Earl Deveaux, Minister of the Environment said, “By using the results of this ground-breaking research and the tools provided, we can take steps to enhance the conservation and management of Cay Sal Bank, and this precious resource can flourish for the enjoyment and benefit of future generations of Bahamians and the world. We are extremely grateful to HRH Prince Khaled bin Sultan for his vision of the Global Reef Expedition and his generosity in providing such a high caliber of resources to make it a reality”.

His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan, President and Chairman of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, said, “The successful completion of the Cay Sal Bank, research project heralds an auspicious start to our multi-year Global Reef Expedition. Over the past few years, the Global Reef Expedition has only been a dream. With the many accomplishments of this inaugural project now in hand, the Global Reef Expedition is becoming a reality.

My sincere hope is that this first research project, and many more to come, will provide the critical scientific knowledge so urgently needed by governments and resource managers to conserve the precious coral reef resources around the world.”

Key findings from the research include:

• Interesting features observed included sink holes, deep blue holes, perfectly circular sea grass beds growing on top of sink holes filled by sand, scoured hardground areas, sand shoals and moving sand waves. Well developed spur-and-groove reef systems exist on the outer portions of the bank in the south, east and west, and atypical coral and sponge patches were observed within the bank, each differing in structure and species assemblages.

• Many of the shallow coral habitats appeared to be biologically impoverished, with little living coral and large amounts offleshy seaweeds. Macroalgae like this is generally considered detrimental to the reef because it grows faster than stony corals, can smother living corals, and typically prevents settlement and recruitment of new corals. Yet, the macroalgae were easily detached and, underneath the algae, we observed high numbers of coral recruits and juvenile corals indicating resilience and providing hope of recovery.

• Larger corals, especially the dominant frame builders like mountainous star coral exhibited high levels of mortality from a past disturbance, similar to what has been observed throughout the wider Caribbean. Yet, these larger corals in Cay Sal Bank demonstrated unusually high resilience; numerous smaller (juvenile) colonies of these species and sexual recruits (which have been rarely observed in the past) occurred on these reefs. Also, most of the larger colonies had small surviving patches of tissue that were healthy and progressively re-sheeting over the old denuded skeleton.

• Fish communities were diverse, but highly variable throughout the Bank. Groupers and snappers were relatively low in abundance, which may be attributed to a natural absence of nursery habitat (mangroves) and probably not caused by over fishing. A notable exception to the typically low biomass of fish occurred in the vicinity of perfectly circular sea grass beds. At the center of many of these circular sea grass beds, a manmade object such as an aircraft, shipwrecks, and abandoned oil exploration equipment was found. These manmade objects provide habitat for fish and the aggregation of grunts and snappers yielded a concentrated biomass of fish. Interestingly, many of the observed fish species on these sea grass beds included species that normally rely on mangroves for their lifecycle. Invasive lionfish were seen on most reefs but their numbers were much lower than elsewhere in The Bahamas.

“The information we collected will be analyzed in the upcoming months, and will result in numerous outputs, including detailed high-resolution habitat maps that can form a framework for marine spatial planning, a marine Atlas, and other products,” explained Andrew Bruckner, Ph.D., the Expedition’s Chief Scientist.

The Global Reef Expedition is conducting six months of research in strategic parts of The Bahamas, the first leg of a five-year, worldwide study of the health of coral reef environments. Following the success of the Cay Sal Bank mission, in August the Expedition will move on to the southernmost district to study the Hogsty Reef and other areas off the Inagua Islands and will also go on to Andros and Abaco in October. The Expedition will also spend 10 days studying coral reefs in St. Kitts and Nevis in June.

About Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, founded by HRH Prince General Khaled bin Sultan, was incorporated in California as a 501(c)(3), public benefit, Private Operating Foundation in September 2000. Headquartered in Washington DC, the Living Oceans Foundation is dedicated to the conservation and restoration of living oceans and pledges to champion their preservation through research, education, and a commitment to Science Without Borders®.

Science Without Borders® is the overarching theme of the Foundation, where scientists come together from different countries to solve a common problem -- the threats to the world’s coral reefs. Science Without Borders® is registered to the Foundation for financial sponsorship of marine conservation programs and scientific research and to promote public awareness of the need to preserve, protect and restore the world’s oceans and aquatic resources.

For more information, visit http://www.livingoceansfoundation.org, or http://www.globalreefexpedition.com

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