Across the globe, coral reefs are in peril—this is already old news. Man-made stresses—overfishing, pollution and climate change—has sent even pristine coral reefs around the world into a drastic decline causing major changes in ecosystem structure. The resilience and regenerative capacity of reef ecosystems—that is, their ability to absorb shocks, resist phase shifts and regenerate after natural and human-induced disturbances—are being overwhelmed by these stresses causing dramatic shifts in species composition, often incurring huge economic losses too.

What? Animals in the sea armed with missiles? And thousands of them? Yes, you’ve read correctly. No, sea lions or dolphins have not been stealing Tomahawk missiles from any of the American navy bases. But did you know that jellyfishes, sea anemones and corals contain thousands of “miniature missiles” to kill prey and sting intruders? We will look at bit closer at this missile battery mechanism here.

Ecofieldtrips Pte Ltd is a Singapore based company which employs specialist biologists to cover the biology of rainforests, mangroves, seashores and coral reefs in the unspoilt ecosystems

Coral reef fishes have a life cycle that is divided in two. They begin their life after hatching with a pelagic larval phase, lasting from a week up to two months depending on the species, and ends with a benthic phase, when the fish larvae settles to the coral reef one night. For decades the pelagic phase has been a black box to researchers. Only recently has the lid to this black box been opened.

Probably about 90 percent of deep-sea animals are bioluminescent. Some jellies use bioluminescence as a defense, i.e. they glow when disturbed in order to light up their predators, making their attackers vulnerable to even larger animals. A few deep-sea fishes and squids have glowing organs that look like lures, but even these animals have never been observed actually using their glowing organs to capture prey.

Utila is the smallest of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras, where divers go in search of whalesharks, but find much more. Being the Executive Director of The Manta Network, a global conservation organization, I was very interested in the local efforts to protect whalesharks. Patric Douglas, Director of SharkDiver.com, invited us to stay in Utila and write about his dive group’s whaleshark experiences.