Category: Marine

The Bertarelli Foundation attends the 2015 Our Ocean Conference

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The second Our Ocean conference has just started in Valparaiso, Chile and will hopefully be the the venue for many important ocean-saving announcements.  Like the first conference which was held last year in Washington DC, this conference will play host to world leaders, NGOs and philanthropists all with the commitment and vision to help secure a future for the ocean.

Dona Bertarelli will be speaking about her support for the Rapa Nui of Easter Island and their campaign to protect the waters around their home.  The Bertarelli Foundation has been working with local communities and with the Pew Charitable Trusts to advance their desire to declare a no-take Marine Protected Area around the island – a declaration that would create the largest MPA in the world.

 

The 2014, Bertarelli Foundation science expedition to the Chagos Archipelago

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March 2014 sees researchers from Stanford University, the University of Western Australia (UWA), University College London (UCL) and the Zoological Society London (ZSL), supported by the Bertarelli Foundation, preparing to revisit the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

The research team are heading back to BIOT to service the 30 acoustic listening stations deployed in 2013, which since then have been monitoring shark movements amongst the atolls of the marine reserve. The current expedition will download all the data that has been collected over the last 12 months, as well as perform essential maintenance such as cleaning, reinforcing their moorings and installing fresh batteries.

Additionally, the researchers will be deploying several types of brand new tags on sharks and manta rays to gather even more data. One of the tags we’re hoping to use is a newly developed camera tag that is able to combine video footage with acceleration and movement data – telling us not only where and how the sharks are moving, but more detailed information about their behaviour. This will be the first time these cutting edge tags have been used in BIOT, and the scientists are all very excited to see what they will show us.

The Bertarelli Foundation uses satellite technology to detect illegal fishing

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An analysis commissioned by the Bertarelli Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts found that Easter Island’s marine environment to be one of the most unique in the world. Due in part to its remote location and vast size, Easter Island’s waters are potentially vulnerable to illegal fishing—a criminal activity dependent on the perception that “no one is watching.”

The Rapa Nui community has long claimed that foreign vessels are fishing illegally in their waters and local fishermen have reported seeing, what they believe to be, fishing vessel lights in their waters at night; buoys and long line nets, which they don’t use, have often been found washed ashore.

The Bertarelli Foundation enlisted the help of SkyTruth, a U.S.-based non-profit organisation specializing in satellite-based remote sensing technologies, to monitor via satellite Easter Island’s waters. Using two different satellite technologies—Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)—the information collected enabled suspected illegal fishing occurring far out at sea and over a vast area of water to be pinpointed with incredible accuracy.

From January to December 2013, they collected information about most of the commercial maritime traffic, including numerous commercial-scale fishing vessels, passing through the more than 700,000 square kilometer marine area that surrounds Easter Island Province. It is believed that this is the first time that these satellite technologies have been combined in this way and used to monitor a country’s waters for illegal fishing activity.

With data collected through October 2013, including 163 satellite images, 73 vessels were detected in and around Easter Island’s waters. Of these, 31 were identified using AIS (22 cargo ships, 5 fishing vessels, 1 cruise ship, and 3 undefined). More than half (the remaining 42 vessels) did not identify themselves using AIS, and – based on their size and location – were determined by SkyTruth to be commercial fishing vessels. Twenty-five of these vessels were detected within Easter Island’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

The evidence collected so far suggests that unidentified commercial fishing vessels are operating in Easter Island waters, possibly engaged in illegal fishing activity. There is more work to be done to determine the extent of the problem and so the Bertarelli Foundation has committed to a further six months of monitoring in order to further pinpoint when and where possible illegal fishing is occurring in Easter Island’s waters.

Marine conservation and science workshop is held in Geneva’s Campus Biotech

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In partnership with the Zoological Society of London, The Bertarelli Foundation convened a three-day workshop in Geneva to develop a coordinated approach to marine science – particularly megafauna science – in the British Indian Ocean Territory’s Marine Protected Area (MPA).

An international team of 25 scientists and conservationists from 18 organisations and six countries met at the Campus Biotech building for over three days of presentations and discussions.  The participants agreed a vision, mission and values for science in the MPA as well as nine key objectives which will help scientists to answer important questions about the territory’s important biodiversity. On the basis of this workshop, the participants developed an outline five-year science plan.

It was agreed the best way to address the knowledge gap in the Chagos Archipelago would be through a collaborative and coordinated approach and the creation of a scientific consortium – an exciting idea which the Foundation will develop in the months ahead.

Chagos has huge potential to teach us more about large marine reserves, about the species that inhabit them, and their role in the context of the Indian Ocean and beyond. The research planned has huge potential to inform how reserves can be more effectively managed and, therefore, to drive conservation globally.

We’ll bring you Mmre on these plans shortly.

Research shows that Easter Island is a regional biodiversity hotspot

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Like many isolated oceanic island, the waters around Easter Island are particularly vulnerable to the onslaught of illegal fishing activity. Local fishermen have long reported seeing, what they believe to be, fishing vessel lights in their waters at night; buoys and long line nets, not used by Rapa Nui fishermen frequently wash ashore.  Keen to help the Rapa Nui protect their waters, the Bertarelli Foundation has partnered with the Pew Charitable Trusts to support a local grass-roots campaign on the island.

An analysis commissioned by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation found Easter Island’s waters to be one of the most unique marine environments in the world. One hundred forty-nine species found here are found nowhere else on earth — that’s more than on the Galapagos Islands. And 27 species listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List are found there, including the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna.

A supporting economic study found that the ocean, and fishing specifically, is an important component of the island’s economy and is a key supporting factor for tourism.  fishing data also suggests that recent decades have seen a drop in catch rates, particularly among key local species such as yellowfin tuna and the Easter Island spiny lobster.

Dona Bertarelli, Co-Chair of the Bertarelli Foundation said:

“I have seen for myself how the world’s oceans are under threat and how important it is that we all do what we can to protect them.  Having met the Rapa Nui and seen the beauty of Easter Island I am so delighted that the dream of a reserve has come true. This is a vital moment in global marine conservation. Not only does it significantly increase the extent of our protected oceans, but it is also an example to the world of what we can achieve with ambition, with cooperation, and with hard work.”

Tagging expedition to Chagos

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In February and March 2013, a research expedition was undertaken in the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) sponsored by the Bertarelli Foundation, in partnership with Stanford University and the University of Western Australia. The expedition piloted electronic tagging to examine the feasibility of using remote technologies to monitor the movement of important pelagic species in the region. It was a great success, both in terms of results and also important lessons learned for future tagging projects.

Five different types of electronic tags were deployed in this study, with a total of 99 electronic tags placed on 95 animals, along with the installation of an acoustic receiver array around two northern atolls to detect animal movements. The Foundation believes tagging is one of the keys to answering the questions of how large pelagics such as sharks and tuna are utilising the MPA, and how much protection the no-take MPA is providing. It is the Foundation’s hope that the findings of this expedition will help to inform work by marine biologists around the world.

Read a report of the expedition here

The Bertarelli Foundation helps to protect the Belize Barrier Reef

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The government of Belize recently announced the establishment of a marine reserve around the Turneffe Atoll, a remarkable and diverse coral reef system of 1,365km². The designation of this new protected area has been made possible by funding from the Bertarelli Foundation, which has committed itself to preserve the atoll fauna and flora in the future.

Some 300km long, the Belize Barrier Reef is a true marine treasure. Part of the 900km-long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), it is home to an incredible number of plants and animals and is considered to be one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Hard and soft coral species and more than 500 species of fish have been found in its turquoise waters.

Establishing a Turneffe Atoll marine reserve represents the missing link in a chain of protected areas that currently extend across 3,866km² of Belize’s territorial waters.  In 1996, seven areas of the MBRS received UNESCO World Heritage Site protected status, but the Turneffe Atoll was excluded.

The Bertarelli Foundation has been working with local stakeholders, such as the Turneffe Atoll Trust and the fishing community as well as international partners such as the Oak Foundation.

A spokesperson for the Bertarelli Foundation said:

“Last time we helped create the largest marine reserve in the world in the Chagos Archipelago, in the middle of the British Indian Ocean Territory. With this intervention we are helping to protect one of the world’s most magical reefs much closer to areas in which people live. The Turneffe Atoll and its rare creatures are of huge value to Belize in themselves, but also for the ecosystems services and tourism potential they provide, which are literally world-class”.