Professor Charles Sheppard returned in March from his annual visit to the Chagos Archipelago where, in addition to his usual monitoring duties in Diego Garcia, he visited all the other atolls.  The main achievements there were twofold.

1.  Nineteen of the 20 data loggers deployed in the 2006 research expedition were recovered.  This very high recovery rate was thanks to the clever way of deploying them devised by several other members of that expedition – usually most become lost.  These little instruments recorded water temperature at several depths in most of the atolls, at intervals of 2 hours for up to 3 years.  The data is remarkable, showing substantial cool water influxes, including during the time when warming water rises to temperatures which can become critical to coral survival.  This may contribute to the good coral recovery in Chagos following warming events in the Indian Ocean.  Oceanographers are now helping to make better sense of the data.

2.  Numerous stakes were placed at strategic points on shorelines of  several islands, together with accurate GPS fixes.  This was accompanied by many photographs of those shorelines.  This is a preliminary work to what we hope will be a larger project planned for 2010, concerned with monitoring, mapping and assessing rates of shoreline erosion of these islands.  Attrition of the shoreline is taking place in many places now, possibly due to climate change related sea level rise.  The main project next year, if it takes place, would be a more detailed assessment of this in the northern atolls. 

This project, like others planned, requires some modest funding from the OTEP fund, to cover some basic costs and air fares, etc.  We already have earmarked sums in cash and kind from several potential participants which total a good six-figure number, but the priming from OTEP still remains a key requirement.