Wild Tobago

The Buccoo Reef system has been studied by scientists and civilians long before climate change became by-words. Is it now too late to save the reef, Dr Anjani Ganase talks with Kevin Kenny, founder and first president of the Crusoe Reef Society.   The waters around Tobago from May to November last year felt like tepid bath water. Visitors were able to dip in and out with gleeful enjoyment at beaches and off boats, and divers required no wetsuits for warmth.   However, diving for more than an hour felt like you were sweating underwater and required cooling off on the boat. For the marine life there is no escape, the reefs are slowly cooking. We talk about climate change in the future tense, but we have been living the impacts of a warming ocean for at least the last five years, with coral bleaching being observed even during the previous cooler years prior to 2023. Marine heat waves are getting more common and severe as we push global temperatures beyond the livin

As we enter 2024, Dr Anjani Ganase presents some of recent findings from ocean studies.   A school of hammerhead sharks, Mikimoto, Japan. Credit:  Masayuki Agawa / Ocean Image Ban k Shark mortality rises even with legislative measures   A recent study highlighted the continued increase in shark mortality from fishing, up from 76 million to 80 million between 2012 and 2019, despite widespread regulation changes. About 25 million of those catches are threatened shark species. In this time, there was a ten-fold increase in international regulations on shark fishing across 29 countries and overseas territories. Unfortunately, the majority of the measures focused on the banning of shark finning rather than policies that focused on reducing shark mortality. The ban on shark finning created a broader incentive in the shark fishing industry for the fishing and marketing of the whole shark for different purposes.   Shark fishing continues to increase in coastal

Caroline Mair-Toby talks about COP 28 and the discussions to avert the global climate crisis.  Photos courtesy Caroline Mair-Toby   Caroline Mair-Toby first attended the COP (the UN Climate Change Conference held annually since 1995) as part of the London-based Legal Response International team in 2011 on behalf of Small Island Developing States. She has been part of the Trinidad and Tobago delegation as legal advisor and negotiator; and expresses relief that the Loss and Damage negotiations were finally operationalized and funded at the recent COP 28. She chose to visit civil society and indigenous peoples’ gatherings in the 2023 meetings. It was, she reports, the most organized COP ever, on a beautifully laid out site extending over many acres, requiring “Carnival level walking.” COP 28 was staged in Dubai from November 30 to December 13, 2023.   Mair-Toby is a lawyer for over 14 years, and has more than a decade of experience and research in climate diplomacy at the UNFCC cl

Dr Anjani Ganase looks at leadership for changing the world and our relationship with nature.  As we head to Port Lockroy, a natural harbour where a British outpost station sits on the tiny Goudier Island, we see collective leadership being displayed in nature. We cruise to the island that is not more than 200 m in diameter and observe that half the island is shared by several colonies Gentoo penguins, some with over 200 breeding pairs and the remainder is managed by the UK Heritage Trust who arrive every summer to safeguard the site for visitors and the penguins. As we climb onto the island along the designated path shovelled out by the station team, the penguins also march up the side of the island in a very orderly fashion walking along their penguin paths patted down by their feet. The penguins move together in small clusters and always with a leader to follow. If an obstacle arises the leader may change to another path based on their positioning in the group.