Can it get Better than this? - Oh yes it can!

Well Wednesday 4th December was Brilliant!

4 dives in the day, with the final one being a night time dive.  Sadly no pictures of the night dive for very valid reasons.  

Much of the reef ecology is regenerating overnight, so species such as parrot fish and octopus are highly sensitive to light and the effects of light interruptions can be extremely detrimental to their living cycles and the use of a camera flash at this time is not recommended.

It has to be said that Wednesdays dives were effected by slightly reduced visibility, but that didn't stop us doing the work we had come out to do including a coral watch and documentation report.  

We also experienced increased surge and this did effect the enjoyment of the less experienced divers. 

Nevertheless we were treated to some amazing sights again and whilst I post the photos I recognise that the photos are not the best due to the suspended silts in the water. You can complain - BUT I Can't Hear you! *snigger*

We did go deeper to both improve the Viz and to allow Paul and Tom to complete their Advanced Open Water Certification Qualification in Dive 1.  And the bottom 10 meters of the dive plan allowed some clear photographs. But dives 2 and 3 were effected as you will see in follow on posts. 

Nature will be nature! :-)

But wait til you see some of the pictures in this post to see what we were treated to both during the dive an do again on our safety stops.


Before Dive 1 - Today was destined to be a good one!

A sunrise to be amazed at - over the deserted Island

 On Dive 1

A matching Pair of Spotfin Butterflyfish - It's love!

You can't see me said the Nassau Grouper - (so how do I know what it is?)

A very European looking French Grunt!

Red Barrell Sponge

A very inquisitive Grey Angelfish

And on a our safety stop!  I promise you that the photo below is of a 1.5 m "wing" span Spotted Eagle Ray.  It was so interested in our safety stop it looped right around us.  (So sorry for the impact of the viz on the photo)

I Promise this is a spotted eagle ray!  Look really hard!

And as my fellow divers can testify it was a magical way to end Dive 1 of the day.

Conch, commercial fish surveying and some lovely discoveries

A really jam packed day on Tuesday 3rd December.

Jason has taught us commercial fish surveying, and as part of this we have had to learn to spot and distinguish between some 30 different fish, ranging through the individual species in the groupers, mackerels, snappers etc.

But first our first dive at 730am was another conch survey. 

Jason showing the difference between a Milk (back) and Queen (front) Conch

Paul Measuring a Queen Conch

We encountered one Queen Conch  that had been tagged and another that we could not move as the Conch was obviously carrying eggs.  This was unusual outside of the traditional closed season for Conch reproduction.

The Conch eggs can be seen under the shell on the LHS

Whilst we were doing our first dive, Ruby, mastered removing and replacing her mask underwater and was now firmly back on track, together with our other new starters Ilmera, and Emily.  This means weather permitting, they are on track to complete their open water certification before the end of the week. 

During the commercial fish survey (1130am second dive) I was photographing some of the shoals of fish we saw to assist the count process, and to be sure of the ID of the fish retrospectively.  This can be a very confusing process.  Particularly when some fish have a habit of pretending to be something else. 

A shoal of Lane Snappers - (pretending to look like Grunts)

In some parts of the reef, the use of the camera, no matter how bad the phography, was essential.  This was becausethe fish were, in some shoals, to numerous to even count properly as they swirled around the divers. 

During this dive we came across a Turtle. - A hawksbill - we think a very ladylike one. What do you think? 

Isn't she Beautiful?  We thought she was.

It was great to see the turtle sitting on the reef, and gave me a chance to log the turtle sighting on the ECO mar website.  My very first go at contributing to species protection and monitoring as part of a national collective endeavour. 

The ECO mar website can be found on the link below, if you are interested in finding out more. 

ECO Mar Turtle watch and other species 

We were also very lucky to be able to spot a number of commercial fish as part of our Commercial Fish I.D. survey and count them to allow stocks to be estimated and fishing season dates to be set by the fisheries department.  This to ensure the health of the reef and the industry is as productive as possible.

A Tiger Grouper - A very tasty fish!

If you zoom in on this picture you will understand why photographs help surveys

A whole host of School Master Snapper using the reef as camouflage.  The photo enabled us to verify the fish and the count for the survey- good advice from Jason

On our way out of the water at our Safety Stop, we came across this jelly fish. Now I know it should have a species name, but from the research done on the internet the closest I can come to is a Common Jelly Fish.  Anyone any better ideas?

I think this is a common Jelly Fish (but don't quote me)

As to that T-shirt!  Oh yes - on our third dive for the day we were able to "remove" more lionfish from the reefs around Tom Owens Caye and all were taken home for dissection and a selection were had for tea.

*howterriblybritish*

Earning the Right to Wear the Tee-shirt.

Today (Tues 3rd) I speared two lionfish!  That makes a body count of three for me. 

Me Lining up a Lion Fish - to capture it without damaging any corals

Got It!

I get to do more tomorrow. - Yeahhy

 

Jason our Marine Biologist, and Paul my dive buddy on this dive

Thanks to Polly, Tracy, Simon, and Jason, for the training. 

All in all a full on day with a full body count of 34 #lionfish for everyone's efforts for this week by end of Tuesday

And....... back to Tom Owens Caye

This week we are joined by Jason Guy, the marine biologist for ReefCI.  

Jason trained us in commercial fish stock surveying, and, by using spot the guard dogs coconuts as a target, how to spear fish safely with minimum air consumption.

On the Monday we returned to the island it was clearly a priority to make sure that all the essentials were still functioing properly before we started the actual scuba diving. 

Ruby and Paul - making sure the hammocks were still fully functional

Then later during the Monday afternoon we had an absolutely amazing dive. 

As you can see below I have now moved on to being able to confidently photograph moving fish, without chopping off their tails or heads in the shot. 

During Monday afternoons dive I was just plain lucky to be center stage, when a shoal of Atlantic Spade fish navigated around us.  I think they were genuinely inquisitive as to who or what were we. 

A shoal of Atlantic Spadefish - not seen often

I also managed to capture a moving Pork Fish. Now this did surprise me.  I thought I had only captured the back half. 

And then during the same dive we came across this sleepy head. This nurse shark, continued sleeping like a baby on the sandy bottom even though it was surrounded by 5 divers at one point. 

One very sleepy Nurse Shark

Spotted Trunk Fish - A little shy

How to properly spear a lionfish

As to our divers, clearly their confidence had increased as can be seen from this photo of Paul managing to pull off a dance move or two underwater. :-)

This was obviously counterbalanced by the cool dude approach of Simon who plainly  looked calmly pleased to be back in the water. 

Simon looking for pleased to be being back below SWL

And then when we got back to the island before the evening meal I was treated to the best sunset ever.  

Good for the Soul.

A Restful Shore Leave - Not!

The trip back from the Island of. Tom Owens Caye, was exceedingly bumpy.  Crossing a heavy ocean over 90 minutes in a dive boat is another new experience for me. 

I will never need to go on a roller coaster again. 

The Captain of the Boat was Brilliant.  Without his skill we would not have made it back for a Friday night beer. 

On Saturday, Paul, Rubt and I visited the ruins of Labantum.  Santiago and our tour guide Wilfred lived and breathed the heritage of the Myans, and it was clear to us that Santiago's genetic heritage prompted his skill and historical association with the ruins. 

In the afternoon we visited the National Park and saw some beautiful waterfalls.  I was the only one brave enough to swim in the whirl pool of the falls.  

On Sunday afternoon, after a morning lie in, I went to a Mayan Chocolate producing family, who manage to produce, grow and refine 95% chocolate from the to deck of their traditional Mayan house. 

It tastes fantastic, and I got the chance to make some too.... It no longer exists - I ate it. 

Photos, to follow. 

Why are we catching Lionfish with Reef CI?

The Lionfish are not indigenous to the Caribbean sea.  They are new to the Caribbean sea and consequentially have no local predators.  So they are able to roam the reefs of the Carribean, effectively eating their way through the juvenile fish stocks of the reef and as a consequence the reefs are becoming unhealthy as they cannot progress their normal detoxification and living cycles, without a balanced population of fish and associated life.

So when the Reef CI team are out there catching Lionfish they return to base and do a dissection survey, record the results and provide the data to marine biologists so allowing work to continue to try to track the status of Lionfish populations and see if there is someway in which work can be done to restrict the population explosion.  

Nothing is wasted in the dissection survey.  

The meat is taken as fillets for selling to local traders to sell in the local restaurants in PG. 

The venomous spines are culled and once dried and baked so making them safe they are taken to a local women's craft co-operative who are working out how to make jewellery using the spines.  

The aim is to try to derive a value chain for the fish and so prompt local fishing market and value chain in an effort to reduce the effect of the fish on the reef or the indigenous species will collapse.

Ruby, Tracy, and Abby Preparing our Dissection Survey "production line"

Ruby took down the results, Tracy dissected, and Abby photographed each of our fishy subjects.

Me measuring the Lionfish nose to end of tail, and body length

Tracy dissecting as chief biologist and this was to determine the gender

Tracy was able to determine that this Lionfish was female, albeit not mature enough to have fully developed egg sacks. 

One of two fully developed egg sacks in a female lionfish (up to 10,000 eggs per release)

Stomach Contents were predominantly juvenile fish and in this case crabs

Libby cutting the tail and dorsal fin spines for use in local jewellery craft manufacture

All in all 20 fish out of the 24 fish haul were surveyed and the results tabulated and recorded in a master spread sheet for use by local fishery scientists
 

Really Eventful Day - Part 2 - I speared my first Lionfish

Following a really lovely dive in the morning we went out for Dive 2 in a heightened state of expectation with Abby and Tracy to complete a commercial fish survey of the reef we were diving on for 11am. 

This dive was amazing for 2 reasons. 

Check out the photos below for some of the stuff.  But also one of our team lost one side of her weights and managed to complete a controlled assent by following all the rules. 

Amazing. 

The fish survey though had a great session.

That's a lot of Bar Jacks and there were Horse Eyes in there too

Green Moray - Isn't he a Beauty?

Amongst all the good stuff, one or two of these were in evidence and leaving them there would have left the health of the reef at risk. 

A LionFish - Scourge of the Caribbean Sea

So Polly taught me how to spear a lionfish on dry land.  Of course on dry land is a lot easier than doing it under water.  But I had a go and yes I did it.  I carefully aimed and followed the instructions.  I got one on the first go.  I was actually so pleased I nearly speared Polly with the Lionfish.  

Sorry Polly.  

Won't do that again sooooo -  can I have another go?

Polly demonstrating how to do it properly