Staff at the WIOMSA Secretariat commemorated the 50th birthdays of Margareth Kyewalyanga- WIOMSA Board Member and Tim Andrew, the Director of Outreach and Resource Mobilisation-WIOMSA, by hosting a small dinner celebration at Al Johari Restaurant in Zanzibar on Saturday, the 15th of June 2013.
Maggie and Tim both turned 50 in May 2013.
We wish them every happiness in their lives!
In conjunction with the 8th Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) Scientific Symposium, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and WIOMSA will jointly host a one-day workshop on getting into print on October 27, 2013. This workshop will be directed at scientists interested in learning how to navigate the publication process.
Download the full announcement
As part of the activities planned for the Eighth WIOMSA Symposium to be held in Maputo, Mozambique from the 28 October – 3 November 2013, WIOMSA and Eduardo Mondlane University are delighted to launch the Symposium Photo Contest based on the theme of the Symposium: “Science and Society – building partnerships for action”.
The contest will harness photo talent to illustrate and convey the many linkages between Science and Society in the Western Indian Ocean. Photo contest entries should demonstrate interesting and innovative interactions between science and society in for instance, research, management and in day to day activities of coastal communities. The photos can depict any kind of scene from marine and coastal environment in the region, both above and as well as under the ocean surface.
Download the announcement
“Healthy oceans are imperative for the well-being of humankind,” explains Doreen Robinson, USAID’s Environment Team Leader for the Southern Africa. “While nearly one billion people rely on fish as their only source of protein, oceans regulate the global climate (including the rise and fall in both sea levels and temperature) and provide an economic backbone for millions of people.”
In honor of the upcoming World Oceans Day (June 8, 2013), the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) highlights the effective biodiversity conversation and livelihoods support occurring in the Indian Ocean surrounding the Seychelles Islands.
Coral reefs are among the ocean’s most biologically diverse habitats. While they are vital to survival of many marine species, they are threatened by pollution, global climate change, overfishing, and natural disasters. In October 2010, Nature Seychelles—a Seychelles based non-governmental organization (NGO)—began a project to improve the health of coral reefs in the region using a $560,000 grant from USAID. The four-year coral restoration project enables a team of marine scientists to establish more than ten nurseries where ecologically important species of coral are nurtured prior to being planted in selected areas surrounding Seychelles. With a stock of healthy coral growing in these underwater nurseries, Nature Seychelles has begun the process of replanting coral colonies into their natural habitat. In the first quarter of 2013, roughly 11,000 colonies were transplanted onto the floor of the Indian Ocean, covering more than 4,800 square meters with healthy, habitable coral. Maintaining healthy coral nurseries and colonies is an ongoing process. Nature Seychelles has overcome several challenges along the way, the most severe of which was cyclone Dumile that damaged two of the nurseries.
Read the full article from http://southafrica.usembassy.gov/world-oceans-day-sink-or-swim.html
Yemen based Tamimi Fisheries Company has through its representatives expressed disappointment with the low exploit of fisheries resources in Tanzania, especially on the Indian Ocean.
Tamimi Ally, the advisor to Tamimi Fisheries Company revealed the discontent at the just-ended 17th East Africa International Trade Fair exhibition held in Dar es Salaam over the weekend.
“We are well aware of the richness of the Indian Ocean and that is why we are interested in doing business with Tanzania,” said the Yemenis trade advisor.
He went on to state that his company is disappointed at the low amount of fish exploitation and related marine resources which he said is not enough for a processing plant, such as the one his company is looking to establish in the country.
Read the full article from http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=55728
The United Nations – The Nippon Foundation of Japan Fellowship Programme is a fully funded research Fellowship for developing State ocean professionals. The main objective of the Fellowship is to provide advanced research and training in the field of ocean affairs and the law of the sea, and related disciplines, to government officials and other professionals from developing States.
Successful candidates will undertake their research/studies in two back-to-back phases: the first, lasting three months, with the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), UN Office of Legal Affairs; and the second, lasting six months, with a participating academic host institution. Fellowship application deadline is 15 September, and candidates should forward
their applications directly to DOALOS.
Additional information, including the application package, detailed application instructions, and a list of participating host institutions, is available on the Fellowship website:
www.un.org/depts/los/nippon and www.unfalumni.org
Conservation projects to reverse current deforestation could also benefit coastal coral reef ecosystems. This new finding could potentially extend the impacts of limited conservation resources, as reported in Nature Communications this week.
Led by researchers at Macquarie University, the work suggests that in order to reduce coral reef sedimentation, regional land-use management is more important than mediating climate change.
Forest cover up-river is known to affects the sediments that are washed down to the coast. Near-shore coral reef systems, such as those in Madagascar and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are experiencing increased sediment supply due to the conversion of forests to other land uses. However, translating land use into the actual amount of sediments reaching reefs, and understanding how these amounts are influenced by climate change, has until now been lacking.
“Efforts to set conservation goals have been hampered, because managers have no data on how reforestation will benefit reefs,” explains lead author, Joseph Maina. “Our study not only captures this important relationship, but also demonstrates that watersheds can behave very differently to one another, and so conservation goals should be tailored accordingly.”
Maina and colleagues simulated river flow and sediment supply in four watersheds that are linked to Madagascar’s major coral reef ecosystems for a range of future climate change projections and land-use change scenarios. They find that the adverse effects of climate-change, such altered temperature and rainfall, are outweighed by the impact of deforestation up river.
“We initially expected climate change to aggravate the sedimentation problems,” Maina says. “However, climate projections suggest overall decreases in rainfall and increases in temperature, which creates a negative water balance. This places far more emphasis on land use.”
The study’s authors suggest that resources spent tackling the environmental issue of deforestation may therefore also aid in preserving the coral reef ecosystems at the coast.
Nature Seychelles requires a Scientific Diver for a period of 3 months based on Praslin Island. The post holder will participate in coral collection, nursery construction and filling, scientific monitoring (donor colonies recovery, coral fragments survival and growth rate in nurseries, baseline monitoring of transplantation site, etc.), macroalgae removal and other transplantation-related experiments, transplantation of nursery-grown colonies onto selected degraded reef. He or she will conduct up to two dives a day, work long hours both on a boat (fragmenting corals and filling ropes, and underwater maintaining nurseries and transplanting nursery-grown colonies, and also help the permanent project staff with data analysis, report writing, and other project-related tasks (tanks filling, boat and dive equipment preparation and maintenance, communication, etc.).
Read the full advertisement from: http://www.natureseychelles.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=503%3Ascientific-diver-&catid=71%3Ajob-adverts&Itemid=167
The German research vessel SONNE will be used to carry out a Training and Capacity Building Cruise in the framework of SPACES in the waters around Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean during 22. June – 21. July 2014, from Walvis Bay (Namibia) to Port Louis
(Mauritius). The co-ordinators of this project, at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean
Research Kiel and Namibia, invite up to 26 young scientists and students from Germany, Namibia and other countries in southern Africa to take part in one of the two legs of this cruise. Students and researchers who want to participate are requested to provide the information listed below to Project Management Jülich by 15 November 2013: Dr. Barbara Tanner
(b.tanner@fz-juelich.de).”
For more details see the following web side: http://www.ptj.de/wtz-suedliches-afrika
The eleventh issue of the Europe-Africa Marine EO Network EAMNet Newsletter is out and contains the following articles:
Download the full issue