#biommar

[arrecifescoralinos]

Our 90th post!

August 16-2020

Photos: Malpelo Island, Colombia.

#Shark Week

With this post I want to share one of the MOST AMAZING diving field trips I’ve ever had. And also an easy-to-use guide to identify hammerhead sharks 🦈🔨

This #tbt (2018-2019) was at Malpelo Island, an oceanic island 500km far away from the Colombian Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) coast. It’s know as one of the most incredible dive Island due to its huge diversity of benthonic and pelagic marine species. And also is a very important migratory point between Pacific Islands as Cocos, Costa Rica and Galápagos, Ecuador. That’s why we found a variety of marine creatures at different periods of time during the year. At this location I could meet the schools of hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and even the ‘monster’ shark from Malpelo. Can you imagine diving in a sea with very low visibility but with 200-300 hammerhead sharks swimming around you!?

That was crazy! But one of the best diving trips you can do. They aren’t aggressive animals with humans, besides, they are very curious about what your doing during your dive. 🥽 Same with the whale shark, the largest fish of the oceans. You can see some males and females during your dives. They’re HUGE! We saw some that measure more than 12m! But totally inoffensive, remember they’re herbivorous.

The hammerhead shark identification guide:

By: The Undersea Naturalist

With this identification guide you can distinguish between six species of hammerhead sharks 🦈

Recuerden utilizar esta guía rápida de identificación para diferenciar entre estas seis especies de tiburón martillo. Estos animales los pueden encontrar en el océano Atlántico, Mar Caribe, e incluso en el Océano Pacífico (como hice yo en la isla de Malpelo).

Bonus!

Follow the Discovery webpage where you can download some coloring pages...just to remember your time as a kid.

#sharks #wildlife #Sharks Week #Malpelo #biodibersity

[arrecifescoralinos]

Corals in the Mesophotic Zone (40–115 m) at the Barrier Reef Complex From San Andrés Island (Southwestern Caribbean)

AbstractThis data report included the collection and zonation of corals sensu lato (stony corals, hydrocorals, black corals and octocorals)

Mesophotic week!

The last one...

Here in our last day of Mesophotic Week, I want to share with you our last paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

With this paper we try to characterize and exhibit the incredible diversity in the Colombian Mesophotic zone, specifically in our Caribbean coast. With these amazing photos, we hope you enjoy learning a little bit of our marine biodiversity and try in the future to improve its conservation.

In our next publication, and next week, the subject will be deep-sea, one of the most under explored ecosystems in the Earth 🌎. First we will try to show the Mesophotic-deepsea connection, it’s importance and then show you the huge deep-sea diversity (in ecosystems, niches, animals, environments)

[arrecifescoralinos]

Steady Decline of Corals and Other Benthic Organisms in the SeaFlower Biosphere Reserve (Southwestern Caribbean)

Coral reef decline persists as a global issue with ties to climate change and human footprint. The SeaFlower Biosphere reserve includes some of the most isolated oceanic coral reefs in the Southwestern Caribbean, which provide natural experiments to test global and/or basin-wide factors affecting coral reefs. In this study, we compared coral and other substrate cover (algae, cyanobacteria, and octocorals), along population densities of keystone urchin species from two atolls (Serrana and Roncador Banks), during 1995, 2003, and 2015/2016. We also surveyed benthic foraminifera as a water quality proxy for coral growth in the last period. A steady reduction in coral cover was clearly observed at Roncador’s lagoon, but not at Serrana’s reefs, with significant differences between 1995 and 2015/2016. Percent cover of fleshy algae decreased significantly also at Roncador between 1995 and 2003 but did not change notably from 1995 to 2016 at Serrana. However, both Banks exhibited a loss in crustose coralline algae from 2003 to 2015/2016. Likewise, a reduction in bottom complexity, measured as bottom rugosity, was evident between 1995 and 2003. Roncador Bank had unprecedented high octocoral densities, which increased almost threefold from 2003 to 2015. In contrast, urchin densities were low in Roncador; only Diadema antillarum increased from 2003 to 2016 in Serrana Bank. The Foraminifera in Reef Assessment and Monitoring (FORAM) Index (FI) in the two Banks was below the range expect...

Our very interesting paper in *Frontiers in Marine Science* explaining the coral reef ecosystem evolution, changing from hard corals to ecosystems full of algae and abundant octocorals.

[arrecifescoralinos]