You will be working with the Conservation and Fisheries Team to deliver the objectives of the Ascension Island Marine Protected Area.
It is essential that you have a BSc (Hons) in marine biology or a related subject, or significant relevant experience in this field. In addition, you should be a qualified scuba diver with a minimum of 200+ logged dives and hold an advanced SCUBA qualification (PADI Advanced Open Water or equivalent).
Mediterranean species such as red coral, with a hard and striking red skeleton, is key for formations of encrusting corals and algae, as it gives it physical structure, increases its complexity and serves as protection for several species, which feed on the coralligenous habitat.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) discovered that some fish have learnt to stay within marine reserves where they are safe from fishing, demonstrating the importance of such facilities. They made the discovery after modelling the movements of skipjack and bluefin tuna and great white sharks in the ocean.
Current research has shown that waters off Florida and the Bahamas are important pupping and feeding grounds for several sharks, providing them with the critical habitat required for the conservation of these slow-to-mature ocean animals.
Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science studied the core home range of 86 bull, great hammerhead and tiger sharks tagged in waters off south Florida and the northern Bahamas.
The tiny Pacific nation of Palau has approved the establishment of a marine sanctuary twice the size of Mexico. Conservationists said the 500,000 sq. km sanctuary would be the worldâs sixth-largest fully protected area. The move follows a series of announcements on new marine parks, by Chile, New Zealand and the UK, to protect vast swaths of oceans from overfishing.
Are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) meeting their ecological goals? Marine scientists from the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) monitoring the rocky reef and kelp forest communities in California state waters around the northern Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara finds positive results. Their study represents one of the first opportunities marine biologists have had to examine a network of MPAs, rather than a single location.
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The British government has created the world's largest marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands, one of the world's most remote locations. Offering unprecedented protection to more than 1,200 species of marine mammals, fish and sea birds in the South Pacific, the 322,138-square-mile reserve is located is approximately three-and-half times the size of the United Kingdom.
The Madagascar government has established its first shark sanctuary in an area celebrated for marine biodiversity. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the new marine protections apply to Antongil Bay, located in northwestern Madagascar and renowned for its coral reefs and seasonal humpback whale population.
The new Gabon marine protected area network complements an existing terrestrial protected area system anchored by 13 national parks created in 2002.
When Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba declared that the African nation was protecting almost one-quarter of its Atlantic Ocean territorial waters, home to dozens of species of threatened whales, dolphins, sharks and turtles, the worldwide reaction was positive and instantaneous.