From the Trainee Pedar Lawrence 24/03/06

In Townsville Sunday 19 we had arrived in the marina it was a bit of a worry because we heard that there was a cyclone coming our way but it never stopped us from going to one of the biggest aquariums in Queensland. It was a big experience for me because I never been to a big aquarium before it's a big difference from seeing fish under water and then seeing them up close in a big tank. I had made many trips back to the marina in the few days that we were there I had just was amazed with a lot of the very deep sea marine life that they had there.

We had explored the Townsville city but there is not much to look at its basically a ghost town the first night that we were in Townsville we were expecting very hostile winds so we were moved to a hotel and it was the best feeling to have a double bed to my self and have air-conditioning as well.

The next morning I had gone to the aquarium and one of the high ranking officers had asked me to translate most of the main attractions in the aquarium in my traditional language. I think that it's a good idea to have a marine species name translated that is actually from the area of my sea country.

We had set sail to another voyage out to sea and followed a trail to different reefs and were seeing a lot of damage on the reef from the actual cyclone that hit the reefs out here. It's a shame to see reefs destroyed but its part of the cycle that is in the process of happening. In a couple of dives at one of the reefs the scientists had got us trainees more involved in their type of work and taught us how to dive with charts, diagrams and pictures of 100 different types of corals and that's how we identify the different types of coral and the percentage of corals that is damaged. I had filled forms out and used the camera underwater. I have definitely have achieved something with my diving and I have received my open water licence and passed my theory. I got around 89-90 percent correct in my big test before getting my licence.