This month’s issue is all about migration. An exciting discovery in Venezuela of bats originally tagged on Aruba and Bonaire, confirms their long distance travel between our islands and the South American continent. In St. Maarten waters, Humpback Whales were tagged to gain insight in their migratory routes as a way to improve conservation strategies for these majestic marine mammals. Several Humpback Whales were fitted with satellite transmitters that provide a ‘live feed’ of the animal’s location. On St. Eustatius research efforts are beginning to shed more light on a very elusive bird species: The Bridled Quail-dove.

Content:

• Bats Recaptured in Venezuela
• Whale Tracking on St. Maarten
• Bridled Quail-dove Research on St. Eustatius
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses on marine monitoring. The results of the 2013 lobster fisheries monitoring project on the Saba Bank are in and on Curaçao a sea turtle monitoring programme is developing in line with regional efforts. Monitoring with standardised protocols, using appropriate methods, guarantees the collection of comparable data and provides added value to our islands and the region as a whole.

Content:

• Sea Turtle Conservation On Curaçao
• Lobster Research On The Saba Bank
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue profiles several scientific discoveries with new implications for conservation in the Dutch Caribbean. On St. Eustatius, the first evidence of a rat stealing a seabird egg from a nest was captured with the use of camera traps – a component of STENAPA’s Red-billed Tropicbird conservation work. On Curaçao, a research team from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands carried out dedicated surveys on crabs, shrimps and molluscs living in association with corals and other invertebrate hosts. The study yields several new species records for Curaçao, new symbiotic associations and possibly even species new to science.

Caribbean-wide, lionfish removal efforts have been a major component of conservation action in regards to this invasive predator. New evidence suggests this could be a permanent, but successful solution in controlling and limiting the impacts of the Lionfish. Additionally, the lionfish control website (www. lionfishcontrol.org), originally set up by STINAPA Bonaire and DCNA to support and monitor lionfish control efforts has been expanded to include Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten.

Content:

• ‘Breaking News’: Rats confirmed stealing eggs on St. Eustatius!
• New Biodiversity Records for Curaçao
• Lionfish Control Efforts Show Success
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

Very exciting news this month from St. Eustatius where the ongoing study of the island’s flora led to the discovery of a plant species new to science. On St. Maarten, the survey team of Catlin Seaview Survey visited the island to end their ‘Caribbean year’ in which they recorded the status of the coral reefs with an innovative technique: high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic underwater cameras.

On land on St. Maarten, the mangrove reforestation project, which aims to mitigate construction impacts of the Simpson Bay Lagoon Causeway, proved successful. The 8,000 juvenile mangroves trees that had been relocated to other areas of the bay and around the island are now thriving.

Content:

• ‘Breaking News’: New plant species discovered on St. Eustatius!
• Mangrove reforestation project successful on St. Maarten
• Catlin Seaview Survey on St. Maarten
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses on the Audubon’s Shearwater. Despite its resounding and unique call, this threatened bird often goes unnoticed on our islands, coming to shore at night to nest in remote locations. On Saba and St. Eustatius efforts are underway to confirm the presence of breeding shearwaters and locate their nests utilising predictive GIS modelling.

In the surrounding waters of the ABC islands an aerial survey took place last month to monitor the presence, density and distribution of marine mammals. An observation team from IMARES covered almost the entire Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the three islands, recording a number of marine mammal species as well as other megafauna.

Other content:

• ‘Breaking News’: Lionfish Control Efforts are Working on Bonaire and Curaçao!
• ‘Research of the Month‘: Aerial Marine Mammal Survey Around The Leeward Islands
• Audubon’s Shearwater: “Things That Go Bump In The Night”
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue highlights the Saba Bank Expedition that took place from 19 to 27 October. As a follow up to the Saba Bank survey in 2011, an international team of experts investigated the ecological functionality of the Bank, focussing on corals, fish, genetics, nutrients and dissolved organic carbon. The first glance at the results appears promising with coral cover increasing and algae cover decreasing, but final results will be published by next year.

The publication of a study on the island of Saba shows that invasive predators, such as feral cats, can have a large impact on breeding colonies of Red-billed Tropicbirds. Cat densities were investigated and varied largely between elevation levels. In some parts of the island, overall cat health turned out to be very poor. This already influenced the decision to stop releasing spayed/neutered cats back into the wild. Hopefully this will aid in decreasing the overall feral cat population and save the beautiful Red- billed Tropicbird, which has become an iconic symbol for the island of Saba.

Other content:

• ‘Breaking News’: New Spider Species During ‘Sea & Learn’ On Saba.
• ‘Research of the Month‘: Saba Bank Expedition 2013
• Invasive Predator Research On Saba: The Case of the Red-billed Tropicbird
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses attention on a very important species group – butterflies. Due to their sensitivity to environmental conditions, butterflies may serve as bioindicators for local and global environmental change. In addition to butterfly inventories and research across our islands, five years of butterfly monitoring on St. Eustatius is beginning to produce clear trends that indicate broader ecosystem change.

Also in this issue, on Saba the seafloor of the well-known site ‘The Pinnacles’ has been surveyed for the third time since 1991, resulting in the most detailed map of the seabed to date, demonstrating the benefit of improving technology for nature conservation(ists).

• ‘Research of the Month‘: Butterflies of the Windward Islands
• Butterflies as Beautiful Bio-indicators
• Butterfly Monitoring Programme on Statia
• Underwater Mapping on Saba
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses attention on the conservation efforts on the Windward side of the Dutch Caribbean. On St. Maarten, these days sharks are protected by law, largely due to the determination of the Nature Foundation. Their Shark Research Project is aimed at determining whether these protective measures have the desired effect and shark numbers are indeed rising again. On Saba and St. Eustatius James Ackerman and Raymond Tremblay of the University of Puerto Rico have continued their long-term population viability study of two beautiful and rare orchid species in order to produce management recommendations to save these species from local extinction.

• ‘Research of the Month‘: Shark Research on St. Maarten (Nature Foundation)
• Orchid Research on Saba and St. Eustatius
• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses attention on three successful conservation efforts of local NGOs, which are using monitoring to guide their field-based conservation efforts, safeguarding nature in the Dutch Caribbean.

The three profiled success stories are:

• ‘Research of the Month‘: The Human/Parrot Conflict on Bonaire (by Michaela Roberts - Echo)
• Reforestation Projects on Klein Bonaire and Klein Curaçao (by Dolfi Debrot - IMARES)
• Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring on Bonaire in 2012 (by Sue Willis - Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire)

As always, you will also find in this seventh issue:

• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops

This month’s issue focuses on the development of the Dutch Caribbean Biodiversity Database, which addresses one of the biggest gaps for nature conservation on our islands – lack of access to relevant and reliable biodiversity information. The database, which was recently relaunched at www.dcbd.nl is the central repository for all biodiversity-related research and monitoring data, maps and literature for the six islands.

Amongst others, you will find in this sixth issue:

• Overview of Research and Monitoring Efforts
• Mangrove Management for Conservation of the Queen Conch (by Sabine Engel)
• Invasive Seagrass in Lac Bay, Bonaire (by Sabine Engel)
• ‘Research of the Month‘: Dutch Caribbean Biodiversity Database (by Peter Verweij)
• Maritime Incident Response Workshop on St. Maarten
• Calendar of Upcoming Events, Meetings and Workshops