Living Oceans Foundation Completing Largest High-Resolution Multispectral Marine Ecosystem Survey in History - Live" Science Updates Available to the Public on the Web

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is in the final week of a three-week scientific research expedition in the southern islands of the Republic of the Seychelles.

(PRWEB) January 27, 2005 -- The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is in the final week of a three-week scientific research expedition aboard the Golden Shadow, a 219 ft logistics support vessel, in the southern islands of the Republic of the Seychelles. Live education updates are being provided via the Living Oceans website (www.livingoceansfoundation.org). The expedition is a partnership between the Living Oceans Foundation, Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (University of Cambridge, UK) and the Republic of the Seychelles Center for Marine Research and Technology.

A seaplane embarked on the Golden Shadow has been collecting digital data using a state-of-the-art Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI). Indian Ocean coral reefs were seriously degraded by a severe global warming event in 1997-1998. This survey will evaluate the rate of coral recovery following that devastating coral bleaching" event. Detailed habitat maps will be produced from this multispectral data which will be invaluable for future marine resource management. The survey team is also staying vigilant for any signs of coral reef ecosystem damage possibly caused by the recent Tsunami.

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