Saba Bank expedition

A dedicated Saba Bank Symposium was organised by the University of Wageningen in December 2016. The Symposium was held in Den Helder and brought together researchers and conservationists from throughout the Kingdom to share their knowledge and to provide an overview of the current state of scientific knowledge about the Netherland’s largest and most remote National Park.

Among others, presentations were given on the following topics:

• Where does our interest in Saba Bank come from? by Paul Hoetjes
• State of the reefs: 3 expeditions to Saba Bank by Erik Meesters
• Fish and fisheries at Saba Bank by Martin de Graaf
• Importance of Saba Bank for local communities, by Kai Wulf
• Research by NIOZ on the Saba Bank, by Fleur van Duyl
• Coral diversity and historical collections of Saba Bank, by Bert Hoeksema
• Shark habitat use, by Erwin Winter
• Listening to the Bank: whales and dolphins, by Dick de Haan

The Symposium ended with a panel discussion on the sustainable use of the Saba Bank and what is needed to protect the Saba Bank for the future.

We have done our best to capture the wealth of information presented at the symposium for you in our BioNews letter and hope, that like us, you are impressed by the depth and diversity of the work that has been done to explore and document our largest National Park: The Saba Bank.

To read this interactive Pdf, please make sure to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. We recommend you to open BioNews in full screen.  In case you do not have this program, please click here to download. Feel free to email research@DCNAnature.org in case you experience any issues downloading the program so we can assist you.

BioNews is produced by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

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