Wild Tobago

Anjani Ganase brings the latest biodiversity news: warning that systems are collapsing from the poles to the tropics; and that human intervention can make a difference.   The Maldives is an archipelagic state in the Indian Ocean. At the projected rate of sea level rise, these islands could disappear in the next 100 years.  Aerial view of the Maldives. Credit:  Ishan Hassan / Ocean Image Bank   The tale of vanishing snow crabs   In Alaska, the snow crab harvest in October was cancelled suddenly over fears of a crash in the snow crab population in the Bering Strait. The sudden drop in population came as a surprise to both fisherfolk and scientists alike after the booming population of over 11 billion crabs surveyed in 2018 as part of the annual shellfish assessment program me done by the Alaska Fisheries Science Centre, NOAA.   The snow crab population in 2018 - was this the first warning? - was way above average but by 2019, th...

Anjani Ganase, marine biologist, discusses the response of small island states to extreme events like hurricane Irma. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday, September 14, 2017 In the wake of hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin closely followed by hurricane Jose, the question of whether climate change is affecting the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Caribbean has once again come into question. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no certainty of whether the intense and frequent hurricanes of a single year are a result of human induced trends. Only future observations over multiple years and a better historical cyclone record will allow us to determine whether these trends are part of a long-term natural cycle or the result of a warming planet. What we do know, based on the climate assessment reports provided by the intergovernmental panel on climate change, (IPCC) is that cyclone activity in the Atlant...