From The Scientist Andrew Chin 22-28/03/06

25/03/06 Boys snorkel - Feather Reef

25/03/06 Johnston and Ewan, working with slates to make observations and describe the benthic communities (ie. what is growing on the seabed - Feather Reef

25/03/06 Lwayne finds a Painted Crayfish - Feather Reef

25/03/06 Overturned plate - Feather Reef

25/03/06 Starfish - Feather Reef

Wednesday 22 March
We’re leaving tonight so it’s been the normal frantic activity of organising, checking and rechecking dive gear and equipment, AND trying to make sure that other projects will be run while I’m ‘in the field’. We’re leaving at 10.00pm tonight, I’ve already been down to check out the boat and meet the crew. The Pelican is an interesting vessel with very distinctive “lines”, it sure looks pretty. The weather forecast is not looking good, Cyclone Wati is still wandering about to the south and the winds and waves will make it interesting, especially since we’ll be punching our way out to John Brewer Reef tonight. It’ll be interesting to see how she handles with seas on the beam. I’m all packed and ready to go, and I’m just waiting for “go time”.

Thursday 23March
As predicted (yesterday), the weather during our transit last night was interesting. Johnston (another GBRMPA scientist) educated us in the correct technique for eating breakfast –you find some shelter to pour the milk, otherwise the wind picks the ‘milk stream’ up and blows it all over anyone down wind. Once you have some milk in the bowl, you pour the cereal in. The milk ‘glues’ the cereal into the bowl and if you don’t pour the milk in first, the wind simple blows the cereal out of your bowl and all over the deck. Very amusing!

First dive today was at John Brewer Reef. I actually didn’t see very much as I was doing video transects which requires the diver to be totally focused on watching the screen while maintaining buoyancy and depth to make sure you get a proper transect. We did two sites, a deep site at about 12 meters, and a shallow site at about 5meters. Both sites were on the NE flank that is also monitoring by the Australian Institute of Marine Science Long-term Monitoring Programme (LTMP). Johnston was my dive buddy and was doing a rapid assessment of the coral and any bleaching. Visibility was pretty poor but we did a good job of sticking together.

Rib Reef: Johnston and Guillermo went in for the afternoon dive on Rib Reef. Same story as the dive I did this morning, Guillermo was doing video transects this time while Johnston continued with the rapid assessment. I was the “Dive Coordinator” so I stayed topside to supervise the dive, keep watch and make sure the divers were operating safely. Visibility was still pretty bad compared to what it usually was but there were no real problems. Back on board, I also got to sit down with the trainees to go through some fish biology. We learnt all about form and function, that is, being able to predict what a fish eats and how it lives by looking at the way the fish is designed.

Friday 24th March
We surveyed two reefs today, Reef 18-022 (this reef doesn’t have a name, just a number) and Taylor Reef. Conditions are still poor but hopefully they’ll improve. We tried and tested the “manta tow’ technique today. This survey technique uses a snorkeller that is towed behind a Zodiac at about 3 knots. This allows the scientists to cover large areas of the reef but the downside is that you can’t collect detailed information or take photos during the two. You can of course, do duck-dives and take photos in-between the tows, which is what we did. Johnston has a lot of manta-tow experience so he did the tows today at both 18-022 and Taylor Reef. That meant that got to sit in the Zodiac with Colin on watch.

Saturday 25th March
Another two reefs today, Ellison Reef in the morning followed by Feather Reef in the afternoon, but we also got to do a snorkel at the sheltered back reef of Taylor Reef where we anchored last night. There was a small sand cay there where I counted about 100 or so crested and sooty terns, with a couple of brown boobies present as well. At Feather and Ellison we did more manta tows, conditions were okay but visibility still isn’t great. We also went for a snorkel with the trainees after we’d finished working at Feather Reef. Everyone got an underwater slate with the idea that everyone would get used to using slates to record their observations. We also ran through exercises for describing benthic communities by identifying the proportion of the seabed covered by different substrate and organisms.  Lwayne found a big painted crayfish under a rock which was a neat find. After dinner, I went through a session on the biology and ecology of sharks and rays with lots of questions from the guys. All in all, a pretty good day.

Sunday 26th March
The routine is pretty established now. We get to the reef, have a look at the conditions from the Pelican and then get to a spot where we can safely launch the Zodiac. Johnston is the designated manta-board snorkeller so as soon as we’re on site, he gives us the thumbs up and we’re away. Given the less than ideal conditions we do as much as we can, where we can. However, conditions were much better today with easing winds and some sunshine. By all accounts Hedley Reef was very nice, certainly looked good from the boat with decent visibility and lots of healthy growing plate corals. Colin and I also saw lots of bait-fish and Colin was itching to get in the water. After lunch we pulled anchor to head for the Frankland Islands. I did a session with the boys on seagrasses and turtles until it became too wet to work. We arrived at a lovely anchorage north of Russell Island in the evening.

Monday 27th March
We started off the morning with a quick breakfast and then a walk around Russell Island to have a look at the cyclone damage. Most of the vegetation was intact but there were many fallen trees and broken branches. Pedar helped take photos while I took notes and shot video footage. Ewan found a beautiful 3m long reticulated python in a pile of driftwood, there’s no way of knowing whether it was a long time resident or a new arrival to the island, washed from the mainland on a raft of cyclone debris. We did a quick bird count and found about 100 lesser crested terns.

 Back to the boat and ready for a dive. The visibility was too poor to try manta-tow so Johnston and Guillermo dived at the survey site instead. Garry and I hung about in the Zodiac on “bubble watch”. After the dive, we headed back to the Pelican getting a freshwater rinse from heavy rain-squalls. Then it was up anchor and off up the coast to Cairns. Arrived in Cairns but Johnston and I spent the rest of the evening, and night, and early morning, entering data and getting the reports ready.

Tuesday 28th March
A 4:00pm flight back to Townsville and the office with a bag full of wet (and heavy) gear, and a laptop full of data and pictures. All in all, one of the most interesting field trips I’ve done, good work, good people . . . and great food (thanks Jane)! Thanks Pelican!