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 [...]
Hi friends, here’s one of the prettiest flowers on the island called a Passion flower or Passiflora foetida. It is also known as Love-in-a-Mist, Foetid Passionflower, Running Pop, Scarletfruit Passionflower, Stinking Passionflower, Tagua Passionflower, Wild Passion Fruit and Wild Water Lemon. The name foetida (Latin for foetid) came about because the damaged leaves emit an unpleasant odor. [...]
Good morning from the Caribbean! Well guess what, I am for once on the cover of a magazine!! The newest issue, soon to be released will have a photo of yours truly doing what I do everyday, taking pictures underwater of our new mini-submarine, pretty cool huh? For those of you wanting a copy, you [...]
Good evening readers, this morning as Aimee and I left the house our next door neighbor pulls up in her car and says, “I just saw the cutest thing ever”!! She said there is hummingbird in her yard laying on two tiny little eggs in a small yucca bush and that we just had to [...]
Good morning friends, here’s another flower from the same cotton plant, Gossypium hirsutum that I sent you a few weeks ago, except this one is light yellow. These are growing wild and out of control behind the Curacao Sea Aquarium. Gossypium hirsutum is a soft, fluffy, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the [...]
Good morning friends, is it me or did that particular weekend go by way to fast?? I burned my Saturday up by working and diving at the Substation www.substation-curacao.com And while I am on that subject, for those of you asking, our underwater “live feed” is currently not working, it was in need of maintenance [...]
Hi friends, Here is one of the coolest most over-looked corals on the reef, it’s called an Artichoke Coral or Scolymia cubensis. This animal is also known as a Solitary Disk coral, Smooth Disk coral, Doughnut coral, Flat Brain coral, Modern Meat coral, or just Meat coral, Atlantic Mushroom coral, and Tooth coral, talk about [...]
Good evening Amigo’s!! I found this big, beautiful Green Iguana, Iguana iguana on the way to work this morning laying in the sun on top of a big rock, overlooking the ocean. From my view point I could only see his head and front legs so I was a bit limited on the composition. Even with my [...]
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.