Day 77 - 21st April 2010

Marine Resouce Management - Final Day

An early start today as we were out on the 7.30am boat for a couple of observatory dives at 'White Rock' and 'Twins'  Both dives were good, looking at coral types, formations, diffences of depth and shallow waters, bleaching etc   At the end of both dives we all did some 'Coral Watch' basically noting the darkest & lightest parts of a coral against a colour chart which Nathan was going to log later.

Back on dry land Simon and I had a quick snorkel at the front of Crystal to look for a spot to place our coral nursery.  Only meters away was a cordened off snorkel area and just infront of that,  found a sandy area which would be ideal.

After lunch at 'Safety Stop' we gathered in the Crystal bar area just as the concrete pilars arrived.  How perfectly timed was that?!  So that meant we could now deploy our nursery.

The concrete pillars were really heavy and I struggled with mine but with them all in the water and coral nursary tied on top, we started to gather broken bits of coral.  Our first study will be of Foliose coral.  We collected 21 pieces which were put in order of size in 3 rows and then placed gently on the netting, which was cut to accomodate each piece to keep it in place.

It'll be really interesting to see how/if the broken bits of coral take.  Nathan's taken some photo's so we'll post these soon.

Courses like 'Reef Check' and  Marine Resource Management  ..have enlightened us both, we look at the coral reef in a totally different light.  as to how complex and  important they are to us to the world, and our survival...