Protecting the Natural Areas of St. Maarten
The Nature Foundation St Maarten has recently established the presence of ‘Tissue Loss Disease’ on several local coral reefs. The disease is a relatively new issue that has been plaguing coral reefs in the Atlantic Basin for the last few months.
Two years ago the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) organized the first of its kind shark tagging expedition to the Saba Bank and St Maarten as part of the Dutch Postcode Lottery funded “Save our Sharks” project. Eight shark researchers with a support crew and two camera teams captured and tagged tiger sharks on St … Continue reading Two Dutch Caribbean Tagged Tiger Sharks Follow Similar Migration Patterns in the Caribbean
Cole Bay – The Sint Maarten Nature Foundation has started a new research project under the lead of Master student Joey de Hamer, who is studying Development and Rural Innovation at the Wageningen University located in the Netherlands, concentrated on disaster studies and in particular disaster governance. His research is focused on disaster governance on … Continue reading Nature Foundation Facilitating Research on Post Irma Response and Recovery Processes
During its annual Coral Reef Monitoring activities the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation has recorded incidents of coral bleaching both inside and outside of the Man of War Shoal Marine Protected Area. The Foundation started it's monitoring dives on Tuesday and discovered numerous coral colonies showing signs of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that live … Continue reading Sint Maarten Nature Foundation Records Coral Bleaching During Annual Coral Reef Surveys
Hurricanes Irma and Maria have done considerable damage to buildings and infrastructure, but also St. Maarten’s nature has suffered a dramatic blow, researchers Wendy Jesse and Rotem Zilber recently discovered.
General Coral Cover is Reduced, Man of War Shoal Marine Protected Area Shows Greater Resilience than Reefs Outside of the Protected Area. Support more research like this Reef monitoring data has been scientifically analyzed to assess the impacts of hurricane Irma and Maria on Sint Maarten Coral Reefs following the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network … Continue reading Nature Foundation Scientifically Analyzes the Impacts of Hurricane Irma on St Maarten Coral Reefs Using Global Coral Reef Monitoring Guidelines