Good evening Earthlings, I come in Peace!! Today was a great day of diving for once, it seems like it’s been forever since the water has been clear but today it was!! I first did one dive with two lucky guys in the sub and a second dive later to clean up the invasive Lionfish [...]
Good morning friends, remember a few weeks ago Stijn and I went to Mount Christoffel for the whole day?? Well, this was one of the many surprises waiting for us at the top! This is called a French Prickle or Opuntia eliator and is one of the many different prickly pear species we have here in Curacao. [...]
Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Baby Squid!! Here’s another fun shot of my tiny little inch and half long squid that is currently still hanging out in our lagoon at the Substation. For this shot I ever so quietly held my breath and swam directly under him [...]
Hi friends, since I last mentioned hiking at Christoffel Park with Stijn many have asked me about the trail itself that leads to the top of the mountain and the condition it’s in. Well, it’s for sure not an easy trail as you can kind of see by this photo and if you do go [...]
Good morning friends, here is one of the new Land Snails, Neosubulina harterti that is now calling our house, home. This particular species of snail has just appeared out of nowhere and after any given rain the driveway is just full of them. These are very small snails, this one here was less than half [...]
Good morning everyone, here’s my new favorite photo of my best friend, Indi. This is a great shot that Barry took this weekend at St. Joris. The dogs love going here because it has so many different and unique areas. For instance; there are the mud flats with tons of crabs to chase, areas of beautiful dry grass [...]
Good morning friends, I have a big beautiful Tillandsia Air-Plant for you all this morning which was just one of millions that we saw on our hike last Sunday at Mount Christoffel. A Tillandsia is a Bromeliad but not all Bromeliads are Tillandsias. Bromeliad is the Family name, Tillandsia is the genus. Airplants are the common [...]
Good evening friends, did you all have a nice weekend?? We received a cool photo from some friends this weekend in South Dakota who went on a 7.5 mile hike in the snow with snowshoes, how fun is that?! That’s something Aimee and I have only ever done once but it was a blast. So [...]
Good morning friends, meet our buddy Juan. His real name is Juan Guillermo Palomeque Padilla and he is one of the nicest people we have met here in Curacao. We see him every week because he is the man who bags and carries our groceries out to the car at a little store called Vreugdenhil which is very [...]
Good morning friends, it 5:00am here and super quiet! I have a very busy day planned ahead IF it doesn’t rain again! I am picking up Stijn at 8:00am and we are both first taking a friend of mine out to the airport to get him a ticket so he can get home to see [...]
Chief Scientist Mark Patterson provides a mission summary, highlighting why they decided to come to Bonaire's pristine environment for scientific research and why they are seeing some troubling factors regarding the health of the coral reefs.
The team overcame the challenge of mapping underwater 'microbialites' - calcium carbonate mounds that result from the presence of a microbial community.
How is this Bonaire 2008 Exploration different from many of Ocean Explorer's other expeditions you may ask?
Acropora palmate (Elkhorn coral), once prevalent around the island’s leeward coast, can only be found in a few areas and then in only small patches.
Sixteen students, mostly upperclassmen pursuing degrees in biology, geology and environmental sciences, have come to Bonaire through the University of Delaware’s Caribbean Study Abroad Program.
Learn why the scientific dive team is navigating by GPS along a predetermined heading conducting video transects of coral cover.
The survey data collected by the GeoSwath sonar on the Gavia AUV provides a high-resolution side-scan sonar mosaic.
The bathymetric sonar onboard the Gavia AUV provides an incredibly dense map of the reef structure including the overhanging coral on the crest of the reef. Includes Video
Deploying the 165-foot-long BOA temperature array of sensors with data loggers and heavy concrete anchors was quite a project.
A recent inductee in the Explorers Club of New York is carrying a flag that has been on expeditions since 1934.
Students from the University of Delaware got their feet wet as they helped launch the Gavia AUVs.
The mission receives invaluable help from Ramón de Leon and Frank van Slobbe, from the government of Bonaire.
The science team prepares to scout out the island and the reefs of Bonaire and learn why they always have to be ready to improvise and adapt.
Coral reefs are often thought of as 'ecological oxymorons'. They harbor some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth, yet they develop in extremely nutrient-poor tropical waters. Reef-building corals represent ancient lineages that have evolved slowly over tens to hundreds of millions of years, yet the massive living reef structures we observe right now are geologically young features, often only a few thousand years old. And, the massive, robust calcified corals that build the reef framework are themselves quite fragile and sensitive to a host of natural and manmade disturbances and degradation.
Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Modules (EEM) are designed to reach out in new ways to teachers, students, and the general public, and share the excitement of daily at-sea discoveries and the science behind NOAA’s major ocean exploration initiatives with the people around the world.
An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), is a true robot able to move on its own without a pilot or tether to either ship or submersible. Designed to perform a predetermined set of maneuvers, take photographs, map, and collect data and samples. Discover why this technology is essential to scientist.
As a Marine Protected Area (MPA) Bonaire sets an important precedent regarding marine protection policy. Coral reefs offer a critical habitat in the marine environment, rivaled in biodiversity only by terrestrial rainforests. According to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California at Santa Barbara, coral reefs make up about 1% of the world's oceans, but they house nearly 25% of life in the ocean.
This 2008 expedition will begin in the Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles arguably the most pristine coral reef environment in the Caribbean. The goal of the Bonaire expedition is to survey this unique environment over a greater depth range than can be reached with compressed air SCUBA, using 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), technical diving, and in a future year, a manned submersible.