Oceans and seas are among the most ecologically vital and socio-economically important systems on the planet. Despite the acknowledged pristine nature of the marine environment, there is a growing interest in exploring the sea for human use such as offshore wind production, extraction of sand, oil and gas, deep sea mining, gene mining and aquacultu...
The Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Saba, St.Eustatius, Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands have a rich biological diversity and a variety of globally threatened ecosystems. These ecosystems are important for their services such as the production of food, coastal protection, tourism attraction, erosi...
On Bonaire visual surveys were conducted at 17 different sites between 7 and 16 March 2015. The selection of sites was largely based on the water quality study of Slijkerman et al. (2014), resulting in a selection of sites known to vary in water quality (e.g. City-Salt locations versus northern locations). Some sites were added to the ‘quick scan’ ...
This deskstudy gives a review of small pelagic fish species and fisheries in the Dutch Caribbean, specifically species which distributions exceed the national boundaries and where international cooperation in research and management is required.
Recent inventories have documented no less than 211 exotic alien species in the wild for the Dutch Caribbean. These amount to no less than 27 introduced marine species, 65 introduced terrestrial plants, 72 introduced terrestrial and freshwater animals and 47 introduced agricultural pests and diseases. A list of these species, pests and diseases are...
Queen conch (Lobatus gigas (Strombidae; Gastropoda) is a large, long-lived marine gastropod that is widely distributed throughout the coastal zones of the Wider Caribbean region. Because of concern for its future the species was listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1...
The Bonaire National Marine Park is an outstanding example of a fringing coral reef that has evolved to one of the most diverse reef in the Caribbean. The Bonaire Marine Park, protected since 1979 and declared a National Park in 1999, includes one of the healthiest coral reef in the Caribbean and two Ramsar sites which include mangrove forests and ...
In November 2013 aerial surveys were conducted for the first time in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire to evaluate aerial surveys as a tool for marine mammal surveys in these waters, and to assess the distribution and abundance of marine mammals. A secondary aim of these surveys was to collect data on the occurrence of other...
