Wild Tobago

Dr Shivonne Peters- McPherson proposes Marine Spatial Planning techniques and programmes for all coastal and oceanic areas around Trinidad and Tobago   Our twin-island nation Trinidad and Tobago is considered a small island developing state (SIDS) whose future will surely rest heavily on development of its blue economy. Trinidad’s aspiration is supported by a long history in the oil and gas industry, while Tobago’s economy has been tourism-based. Scientific advancements in the blue economy sectors, such as blue biotechnology and ocean energy are making changes across the globe, but to date have to be fully understood and explored in Trinidad and Tobago whose ocean territory is about 15 times its land. The potential for development and the benefits can be tremendous, even as we struggle to manage land-based pollution, unsustainable harvesting, habitat destruction and climate change. The development of the blue economy should facilitate the transition to renewa

Dr Anjani Ganase, coral reef ecologist, reviews current research and activities for coral reef conservation Extremely warm waters have hit the Caribbean, the second year in a row. In 2023, mass bleaching was observed throughout the Caribbean then the rest of the world. At the beginning of this year the fourth global coral bleaching event was declared, the second within the last decade. We seem to be well on our way to 99 % loss in coral populations by 2050 with the current trajectory of global emissions. Since I returned to Trinidad and Tobago to study reefs here, I have been reporting on coral bleaching every year. The severe coral bleaching last year decimated reefs throughout the Caribbean including the Meso-American Barrier Reef (Mexico and Belize), Jamaica, and Bahamas. In Tobago, many brain corals bleached and died last year, and in 2024, many colonies started to pale and bleach as early as July. The reefs have little time to recover between the hot summer