Coral reefs in the South Pacific: Outlook from the Global Reef Expedition

The Pacific is home to around 27% of the world’s corals, spread out over vast areas. The remoteness of reefs and capacity constraints present unique challenges for the Pacific States to gather scientific information.

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation completed one of the largest coral reef studies in history: the Global Reef Expedition. Over the course of 10 years, the Expedition circumnavigated the globe aboard the M/Y Golden Shadow surveying some of the most remote reefs on the planet.

Between 2012 and 2015 the Golden Shadow carried scientists and crew to the Pacific Islands Region where they were joined by researchers from the region to conduct extensive coral, benthic and fish surveys. The results of this work represent a huge contribution to the understanding of coral reefs in the region.

Open to all but aimed at a Pacific audience, this webinar will share the findings of this voyage in the Pacific Region, both wonderful and disturbing.

Both SPREP and KSLOF have endorsed Actions under the IOC Decade for Ocean Science. This webinar will provide a platform to explore science needs for the Pacific and to form future collaborations.