Marine Life & Conservation
Why not treat your favourite bit of coastline to a winter clean-up?
After a Christmas and New Year period that saw Britain battered by high winds, lashing rain and storm waves believed to be amongst the most extreme in living memory, many of the UK’s beaches have been left strewn with huge amounts of litter.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), which organises the annual Beachwatch Big Weekend in September when thousands of people clean and survey hundreds of UK beaches, says now is a good time to get out on the beach and really make a difference.
Lauren Eyles, MCS Beachwatch Officer, says some beaches have been left in a terrible state, but just a few trips and a couple of bin bags could really help: “When it comes to beach cleaning, every little helps. We would urge people to visit their local or favourite beach and pick up some of the rubbish that has either been blown there by the strong winds or washed in by the unusually high tides.
“After storms, the strandline is often higher up the beach than normal and on some beaches that our staff and volunteers have already cleaned we’ve seen much more litter than is usual at this time of the year,” Lauren continues. “Now is a really good time to become a Beachwatch Organiser and get family and friends together down on the beach. MCS needs all the information it can get about where litter on our beaches comes from and by organising a clean and filling out a survey form you can help our campaigns to stop beach litter.”
Plastic bits and pieces have been appearing on UK beaches in increasing numbers for over two decades, but storms like the ones we have seen in the last month mean that many unusual items are likely to have been washed up and need clearing away – and some could cause harm to wildlife or human visitors.
“Hundreds of species accidentally eat or become entangled in litter. Litter on our beaches is also hazardous to people – syringes, sharp glass can all pose a real threat,” says Lauren Eyles.
MCS says it’s easy to get cleaning, involving basic equipment such as bin liners and rubber gloves, and the permission of the beach owner – often the local council. If you would like to find out more about how you start beach cleaning then visit www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch where you can download a survey form to record what you find.
Blogs
Can reef conservation be both enjoyable and profitable?
At Wakatobi Dive Resort, guests are always thanked for coming to enjoy this special place, as it is their presence that creates the magic making ongoing reef conservation efforts a reality. “The more you know, the more you notice,” says in-house marine biologist Julia Mellers. “And what better place to learn about reef biodiversity and custodianship than in Wakatobi.”
“My main project for the first year is to establish a way of monitoring the health of Wakatobi’s reef ecosystem,” Julia says. “This will allow us to provide hard scientific proof that Wakatobi’s conservation model measurably benefits reef health. Holding a finger to the pulse of the reef will also assist management decisions, such as identifying priority areas for increased protection.”
Modern methods for reef management
The Wakatobi Reef Health Assessment program utilizes a customized set of modern imaging and data analysis techniques that provide a comprehensive indication of the state of a reef ecosystem. “We use the latest ecological theory, technology, and artificial intelligence to develop a novel package to efficiently and robustly measure reef health,” Julia says. “This will enable us to monitor how Wakatobi’s reefs are faring throughout the protected area without significantly diverting resources from protecting the reefs.”
The process begins in the water, capturing the reef’s sights, sounds, and landscape. Above water, Julia is developing and implementing analysis methods and training machine learning models to extract measures of reef health from captured data. When not on the island, she will research new approaches and ideas for coral reef assessment and help spread the word about Wakatobi’s scientific initiative.
“It’s an absolute privilege to work within a system that benefits both the reefs and the local people,” says Julia. “It also gives us a unique opportunity to assess and document reef health and dynamics within an ecosystem that is actually getting healthier. In stark contrast to declines in coral health recorded elsewhere, our scientific data is already beginning to demonstrate Wakatobi’s astonishing biodiversity – which is evident to anyone who ventures underwater at the resort.”
The program focuses on three indicators of reef health: the diversity of the reef community, which measures the variety and abundance of living organisms colonizing the reef surface; structural complexity, describing the degree to which the reefs incorporate elaborate details; and reef soundscapes, recording the noise a reef’s inhabitants make, including the snapping of shrimp and the feeding sounds of fish. By measuring these elements, it is possible to estimate how much life the habitat supports.
“Luckily, we don’t have to work all that out manually,” Julia says. Artificial intelligence plays a vital role. “I train machine learning models to identify signals of reef functioning that would otherwise be undetectable. For example, a model can be trained to recognize the sounds that characterize a healthy reef. This allows us to monitor the reefs at a scale, and with a thoroughness that would otherwise be inconceivable.”
Julia and the dive team have also started an eDNA survey of the reefs. ”This involves taking seawater samples near the reef at different depths and filtering them to trap environmental DNA (eDNA) that organisms shed into the water,” Julia explains. “The samples are now in a lab, where the DNA is labeled using probes and sequenced to identify which species are around. Using this technique, we should be able to detect hundreds of species from just a single litre of seawater. It’s a very cool process!”
A Wakatobi welcome
Julia says the Wakatobi team has been exceptionally supportive and welcoming. “They are able to maintain a totally laid-back atmosphere while coordinating an exceptionally professional operation.” She adds that Wakatobi feels remote in the best ways, with pristine reefs, peace, and quiet, while also being an extremely comfortable and well-connected place to work.
“Working within a system that works for the reefs because it works for the people is an absolute privilege,” she says. “It also gives us a unique opportunity to unpick reef health and dynamics within an ecosystem that is actually getting healthier. In stark contrast to declines recorded elsewhere, our scientific data is already beginning to demonstrate the astonishing biodiversity evident to anyone who ventures underwater at Wakatobi.”
The Wakatobi team has also proven to be an invaluable source of knowledge about the local ecosystem,” Julia says. “Wakatobi makes the perfect scientific laboratory. Being able to go from library to laptop to reef, all in the space of a hundred meters, is the perfect recipe for generating new ideas and trying them out. It is so exciting to work with open-minded innovators keen to try novel approaches and look at things from different angles.”
“Having such a dynamic team has meant that we’ve made progress quickly,” Julia says. “So far, we have a highly accurate machine learning model that classifies the reef community, a method to analyze the sounds that reef critters make, and a fully automatic way of measuring fish abundance. We are also in a position to add to this repertoire, trialing different techniques to quantify the complex 3D structure that corals make. We have added DNA analysis to the arsenal, which enables us to detect biodiversity invisible to the naked eye.”
From frogs to frogfish
Julia acquired her love of nature and biology from her parents, whom she describes as eco-friendly before the concept became trendy. “Camping, compost heaps, and Attenborough documentaries were features of a nature-centric English childhood. I raised pond-dwelling critters, peered down microscopes, and became transfixed by cephalopods.” Biology was an inevitable choice, she says, and the sea came into her life at a young age. “Having long been a sailor, with a family of sailors, I am at home at sea,” she says. “I took my first sip of compressed air at the bottom of a swimming pool in London and have spent as much time as possible eye-to-eye with octopuses since.”
After completing an undergraduate degree in biology at Oxford University, Julia shifted her Master’s focus to marine biology. It was a move she describes as swapping frogs for frogfish. “I went into marine biology because I see marine biological research as a powerful tool to connect people with the planet,” she says. “Of course, nature should be worth more to us preserved than destroyed – but if you can’t put a price on it, no one pays. Wakatobi has created an economic engine that financially incentivizes reef custodianship. This leads to an ideal scientific setting – demonstrably vibrant reefs linked to genuine socio-economic fairness.“
Julia’s Master’s project was done in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science and investigated mysterious bare rings of sand that surround reef patches within algal meadows. “We think these ‘reef halos’ form because foraging fish will only venture a short way from the shelter of a coral patch if they are under threat from patrolling sharks,” she says. “Since you can spot these halos from satellite images, they could be a neat way of keeping an eye on shark populations from space… and a possible addition to Wakatobi’s monitoring program”!
As the Reef Health Assessment program progresses, Julia will create new learning and participation opportunities for guests to enhance the depth and enjoyment of their Wakatobi experience. Wakatobi Dive Resort will also continue to provide updates and insights on the important work Julia and the rest of the Wakatobi team are doing to understand and protect some of the world’s most pristine and spectacular coral reefs.
Many thanks go to Wakatobi’s guests, whose continued enjoyment of the marine preserve helps keep ongoing reef protection efforts a reality!
Contact the team at office@wakatobi.com or enquire >here.
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View Wakatobi videos on the YouTube Channel.
Marine Life & Conservation
Book Review: Coral Triangle Cameos
Coral Triangle Cameos. Biodiversity and the small majority by Alan J Powderham
This colourful coffee table style book wonderfully shows off the incredible and vibrant marine life of an area, roughly triangular, that spans the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. The biodiversity here is incredibly rich. And this book covers the wonders that those lucky enough to dive here can experience.
It is worked into chapters that cover the types of marine life found here from coral to worms and everything in-between. The chapter on corals features lovely wide angle scenes, as well as close up details. And all the following chapters contain stunning images and interesting descriptions of both common and rare animals that have divers flocking to this region to discover. I think the cephalopods are my favourite. But this book certainly offers plenty of other options to marvel at.
This is a book to dip in and out of. Enjoy the beautiful images within (of which there are many). Peruse the descriptions of your personal favourite species and learn about new behaviours and interactions that are part of every day life on these abundant reefs. It is the type of book that will keep you coming back over and over again. And will always bring a smile to your face as you explore this incredible underwater world and the marine life that calls it home.
What the Publisher Says:
Dive into the Hidden Wonders of the Coral Triangle, a kaleidoscope of marine life which boasts the greatest biodiversity in the oceans. While most focus on the giants of the deep, Coral Triangle Cameos celebrates the “small majority” — the tiny but vital creatures that power this underwater paradise.
Renowned underwater photographer Alan Powderham brings the unseen to life with stunning visuals and he divulges the fascinating science behind these diminutive wonders in an accessible, relatable way.
About the Author:
Alan J Powderham is a seasoned underwater photographer with over 40 years of experience capturing the magic of the ocean depths. His previous books include At the Heart of the Coral Triangle (2021).
Book Details
Publisher: Dived Up Publications
Hardcover
Price: £45
ISBN: 978-1-909455-57-3
Published: 17th September, 2024
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