{"id":8854,"date":"2011-05-25T07:59:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T11:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=8854"},"modified":"2011-05-25T08:41:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T12:41:41","slug":"living-oceans-studies-coral-reefs-in-the-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2011\/05\/living-oceans-studies-coral-reefs-in-the-bahamas","title":{"rendered":"Living Oceans Studies Coral Reefs In The Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Dr. Andy Bruckner, Living Oceans Chief Scientist, discovers a whole new world under the ocean surface as he examines a coral reef in the Cay Sal Bank. (BIS Photo \/ Gena Gibbs).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nassau, The Bahamas \u2013 Energy behaviour in virgin coral reef communities taught seven Bahamian researchers with the team of Living Oceans Foundation\u2019s scientists how natural law operates in the isolated marine environment of Cay Sal Bank.\u00a0 They spent 20 days at sea with 18 people in their research team and discovered evidence of the island being submerged, possibly by conditions of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose The Bahamas to be the first research site of the Global Reef Expedition and the particular area we have chosen to study on this first project is called Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas.\u00a0 It\u2019s very close to Cuba and it\u2019s about 130 miles due South of Miami on its own bank.\u00a0 For the last three weeks, we found this is really an amazing ecosystem, quite unique in a lot of respects,\u201d said Phillip Renaud, executive director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve discovered this is quite a shallow, submerged platform and nearly 99 percent of the bank is submerged.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Foundation’s director, about 15,000 years ago geologically, Cay Sal Bank was a large island, at least three times the size of New Providence.\u00a0 It covered 6,000 square kilometres or 70 miles on each side of a large triangular patch of calcium carbonate land mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen other articles that describe this as a drowned carbonate platform, and so it\u2019s ancient coral reefs that have created the base of this bank.\u00a0 As sea level has risen over the last 14,000 years, and it came up to its present level, it basically submerged the whole thing,\u201d said Captain Renaud.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine there were trees, and birds, and bats, and animals, and probably humans that existed on this island for a long period of time.\u00a0 Then sea levels rose and it basically drowned the whole bank.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fascinating place to study.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research group used a new satellite system called World View II and the company that launched the satellite is called Digital Globe out of Colorado in the United States.\u00a0 The Living Oceans Foundation is the first to use its technology of multi-spectral satellite imagery to do marine research.\u00a0 The familiar theory of relativity unfolded into reality for the scientific team, as ocean energy showed them how it governed its submerged systems of bodies to multiply its sustainability, beyond what was visible to both their naked and mechanical eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mostly used for the military and government agencies and terrestrial based activities.\u00a0 But we are applying this imagery to the marine environment, and Cay Sal Bank will be the first area ever mapped by this high-resolution imagery,\u201d said Captain Renaud.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs scientists, looking at this imagery, we\u2019re opening up almost a lost world.\u00a0 And it\u2019s absolutely astounding to look at this imagery.\u00a0 There are literally hundreds of sinkholes, all across the Cay Sal Bank, and every one of those is a marvellous environment all in itself.\u00a0 We went diving on a couple of these and the whim of these sinkholes is full of fish activity, beautiful corals and then you drop down into these holes and there\u2019s a whole other world. \u201d<\/p>\n

The Foundation was founded in the United States by a Saudi royal benefactor, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, who is also the chairman.\u00a0 His Global Reef Expedition began in The Bahamas on April 27 and ended on the May 17 in Cay Sal Bank.\u00a0 They will now explore other Caribbean islands before returning to The Bahamas later this summer.<\/p>\n

By Gena Gibbs
\nBAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy behaviour in virgin coral reef communities taught seven Bahamian researchers with the team of Living Oceans Foundation\u2019s scientists how natural law operates in the isolated marine environment of Cay Sal Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,76,59,79,70],"class_list":["post-8854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-educational","tag-environment-2","tag-islands","tag-marine","tag-ocean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}