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The open high sea is both the largest and the least familiar habitat on earth. Together with the deep-sea floor, the mid-ocean ridge and neritic areas far out to sea, the high seas make up more than 70 % of the seas and oceans. The impact of human activity is not as strongly felt here as on sea coasts, but human actions have often been the primary factor in the visible changes over the past few years and decades. Intensive deep-sea fishing, crude oil explorations and whale hunting in particular have already entered the public awareness, and the use of the high seas as a CO2 dump or raw material storage is being heatedly discussed.
The Saya de Malha Bank is a unique geological formation comprising a large neritic area in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In some places, the water depth is less than 10 metres. Due to the special topography and its position on the equator, this is an exceptionally productive area with a rich fauna and flora, about which we know very little, however, due to its remote location.
Its isolated position outside national territorial waters, considerable geological age and its climatic stability on the equator makes this area comparable to the Venezuelan table mountains which are especially dynamic centres of evolution in the South American rainforest. This makes the Saya de Malha Bank a marine area of great ecological significance.
The aim of a research trip by the Sun & Sea Association was to conduct a scientific/environmental inventory of the Saya de Malha Bank and to classify the area in more detail with regard to the degree of endangerment and the international protection status required.
In addition, a “coral ark” is being installed as part of a pilot project. The goal behind this ark is to improve the future prospects for the coral polyps in a special habitat, thus forming a further re-population centre for the Indian Ocean coral life which has been severely damaged by coral death.
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