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SHARING SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS | 83

The Saya de Malha Bank supports one of the ■ A biodiversity inventory of 2,500 samples
world’s largest seagrass meadows, spanning some indicating a wealth of benthic life, much of it
40,000 square kilometers. It is home to little-known endemic, and the promise of discovering new
ecosystems which, despite being remote and species.
difficult to access, have been weakened by intense
fishing. As a fully submerged, shallow-water bank, ■ 18 drifting buoys have enabled scientists to model
Saya de Malha is described as an ‘invisible island’. the ocean currents active in the area and their
Its location beyond national jurisdiction means that influence on biological connectivity between larval
it is only partly protected by the United Nations production sites in the region and the areas where
Convention on the Law of the Sea, as an extension of species mature.
the continental plateau jointly governed by Mauritius
and the Seychelles, and limited to the resources on ■ 29 BGC Argo floats have been deployed in a
and in the seabed. The knowledge gathered during little-studied area and are sending data about
this expedition could help determine a protective profiles recorded at depths of between 0 and 2,000
status for the area and identify what management meters every 10 days. These physical, chemical and
measures are possible under the High Seas Treaty, biological variables provide a vital window into the
adopted in 2023 and known as the BBNJ Agreement. evolving health of the ocean and its response to
climate change. They can be accessed in real time
© Mathys-Zeppelin-MonacoExplorations by the entire scientific community.

© Bender Autentic-MonacoExplorations

Examples of crustaceans, molluscs and nudibranchs collected on Malha's Saya Bank
© GrégoireMoutardier-MNHN-MonacoExploration