URGENT CALL TO ACTION TO CONSERVE AND RESTORE SHALLOW-WATER CORAL REEFS 24Jun2025
Boergesenia forbesii, a recent immigrant to Barbados? 26Mar2025
IN SHORT…
To date, photos of a green alga from Barbados uploaded to iNaturalist that appear to be Boergesenia forbesii have commonly been identified as Valonia utricularis (some gaining Research Grade status), or a species of Ulva or Caulerpa. A suggestion that a specimen I had identified as Valonia sp. was in fact a species of Boergesenia prompted my investigation of this topic.
The Conclusion: Overall, reports in the literature and iNaturalist records suggest that the earliest occurrence of Boergesenia forbesii in the Caribbean was in Puerto Rico (2008 reported collection date), and that it has spread southward reaching Barbados sometime between 2008 and 2016.
Of Indo-Pacific origin, Boergesenia forbesii is clearly a recent immigrant to Barbados.
Read more in iNaturalist Journal
Pelagic Sargassum blooms may be associated primarily with atmospheric phenomena 24Mar2025
Sargassum at Bath, Barbados Apr 6, 2015
So argue Julien Jouanno et al., in An extreme North Atlantic Oscillation event drove the pelagic Sargassum tipping point, published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment published Feb 8, 2025.
Abstract (Bolding inserted)
The proliferation of pelagic Sargassum in the tropical Atlantic since 2011 is causing considerable health and economic concerns as large amounts of this brown alga arrive and accumulate in coastal ecosystems of western Africa and of the greater Caribbean Sea every year.
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“No El Niño, no relief: January sets another heat record” 9Feb2025
Impact of extreme warming in the fall of 2023 on a Barbados coral. Above: Healthy A prolifera in the “Mother Colony” on Vauxhall Reff on April 3, 2023. Below the same A prolifera dead and covered with algae on Jan 12, 2024. No recovery evident in early 2025. The yellow zooanthid at left remains healthy, however.
So reads the headline for a Feb 7 post by Chris Hatch in the National Observer (Canada) Zero Carbon Newsletter.
…despite conditions that should have cooled things down, Earth hit its hottest January in recorded history.
We’ve been on a run of record-setting temperatures ever since June 2023 when global heating suddenly kicked up a gear. Scientists are still trying to figure out what’s happening — why the last two years were so inexplicably hot and 2024 broke through the symbolic figure of 1.5 degrees above temperatures before the industrial revolution. The worry is that all this fossil fuel burning has unleashed an unexpected step change in the climate system.
“Transplanting healthy reef ecosystems to damaged reefs can improve coral health” 2Jan2025
So reads the title for an article by by Bar-Ilan University in phys.org, Nov 26, 2024. It offers some hopeful news going forward at the beginning of 2025 for Barbados where there are both healthy and degraded reefs and a lot of practical experience involving both volunteers and researchers with growing and transplanting corals.
The article continues …”The study, just published in the journal Nature Communications, was led by Dr. Natalie Levy and Prof. Oren Levy from Bar-Ilan University’s Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Ezri Tarazi of the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, and Prof. David Bourne of James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Continue reading
Loss of fishing boats to Hurricane Beryl affecting demand for chicken in Barbados 11Oct2024
In Barbados Today, today: Officials say fish shortage driving increased demand for chicken. Some extracts:
On Thursday, BEPPA board director Amir Juman said there were two main factors impacting the industry, which resulted in consumers being unable to source the quantity of fresh chicken they usually would at supermarkets and other outlets. He explained that there had been a significant increase in demand for chicken over the past weeks as hundreds of protein lovers sought alternatives to fish which has been scarce since Hurricane Beryl affected the island’s fishing fleet…
In July, Hurricane Beryl destroyed 220 of the 312 active boats at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex, the island’s largest fish landing site. This has left Barbados reliant on limited cold-stored fish and the small number of boats still able to venture out for fresh catches.
Barbados unveils “the world’s first vehicle powered by renewable natural gas (RNG) from Sargassum seaweed, rum distillery wastewater and Blackbelly sheep manure” 18Sep2024
This story has been brewing for a while, perhaps since the first waves of Sargassum hit the coast of Barbados!
Yesterday (Sep 17), in a post on its Facebook Page, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus posted this, with an accompanying video:
Barbados on Tuesday unveiled the world’s first vehicle powered by renewable natural gas (RNG) from Sargassum seaweed, rum distillery wastewater and Blackbelly sheep manure, and The UWI Cave Hill Campus came in for high praise for its pioneering role in this renewable energy project.
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Sargassum Outlook 1Aug to 31Oct 2024 Severe
“Middle islands: Severe influxes and heavy coastal accumulations are expected over the next three months.”
Read more in the Sargassum Sub-regional Outlook Bulletin by the Sargassum Team at The Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies, Barbados.
“Extremely Dangerous Hurricane Beryl in the Southern Caribbean” 1Jul2024
“Extremely Dangerous” Hurricane Beryl in the Southern Caribbean
In www.caribjournal.com, by Caribbean Journal Staff – June 30, 2024
“A “major” hurricane is at the edge of the Southern Caribbean right now: Hurricane Beryl. The storm was an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane when it reached the southeastern Caribbean Monday morning {July 1] , according to the NOAA…
“Right now, a Hurricane Warning is in effect for Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago.”
View List of Barbados hurricanes (1950 to present), on Wikipedia
Update, re Barbados: Ministerial Statement on the passage of Hurricane Beryl July 10, 2024. Some extracts.
” I thank yet again all the essential personnel for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make in the name of national service. Between the night of 30th June and the first 12 hours of 01st July, Barbadians watched and felt the passage of Hurricane Beryl as it tracked towards Barbados from an area to the southeast of the island. As was noted at the time, Beryl was the first hurricane to form in the Atlantic this early in the hurricane season. Clearly our adage of “June too soon, July stand by…” no longer reflects our reality. Not only that, but the fact that Beryl intensified rapidly to a Category 3 by the time the eye passed to the south of Barbados before strengthening to a Category 4 hours after, and then to a Category 5 hurricane on 2nd July 2024, was also a new phenomenon, This clearly highlights the deleterious effects of the climate crisis. Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on record and only the second Category 5 hurricane to occur in July after Hurricane Emily in 2005, this according to the National Hurricane Center — and Beryl beat Emily’s record by more than two weeks….
I must say one final thing in relation to the record-breaking Hurricane Beryl. In speaking to fisherfolk and those who make their living from the sea or along the coast, never in living memory has anyone seen sea swells like those which pounded the south coast and decimated much of the west coast. Even infrastructure designed decades ago to withstand severe weather systems proved little match for the destructive swells of Hurricane Beryl. One only need consider the reports of damage to the Bridgetown Port, Bridgetown Fisheries Complex and the boats sheltering there and the damage seen on the south and west coasts to understand the scale of the impact on Barbados and our economy… and with all of this it must be borne in mind that Barbados did not experience the actual hurricane-force winds associated with Beryl…With the hurricane passing to the south of Barbados it meant that the South Coast was particularly exposed. And indeed, in our original assessments, we noted that the coastal area along part of Highway 7 suffered extreme effects of storm surges that left at least two areas impassable. Other areas of the coastline, in the northwest such as Speightstown, also recorded damage from the storm surge… As of July 5th, 2024, a total of 209 boats were affected, directly impacting 560 persons associated with these vessels. At the time of this report 200 boats were recorded as receiving some form of damage to their structure, and 9 boats were confirmed by
surveyors as total losses in the BFC. Prior to the passing of Hurricane Beryl approximately 312 registered boats were active across the island for 2024, based on information from the data collectors, with the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex accounting for 175 of these vessels and Oistins 21. “
Update, Aug 11, 2024:
From www.reliefweb.int July 6, 2024:
On 25 June, the National Hurricane Centre began monitoring a tropical wave with the potential for development that was moving westward. By 28 June, already transformed into Tropical Depression 2 (system AL95), it began to intensify due to atmospheric conditions and officially became Tropical Storm Beryl.
The final conditions for it to become a hurricane occurred on 29 June, making it the first major hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and the earliest Category 4 hurricane to form in recorded history, on 30 June. By 1 July, it became a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 270 km/h.
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