ON THE "FERRY"

Happy Faces..look at the amount of bags


2 minutes later,


Daniel Happy..Buoyantvenus Sleepy


Lady boss bosses people around..

After everybody has settled in, peter briefed us on the workaround of the dive center(where to put ur equipment, no tank purging, and whatnots) and the dive sites that we'll be surveying for the weekend..jeng jeng jeng

Before we went for our dive, we ordered for our lunch first..hehehe..so that, when we come back from our dive, everything will be ready..

Dive 1 : Batu Layar

This is a checkout and mock survey refresher dive..a 50 meter transect is laid and ecodivers will perform alternate surveys each 25 meters

In the middle of the dive, 5-6 bumphead parrotfish came from the blue to have their lunch..what a sight....yellow tail snappers and juvenile barracudas were also sighted..

oh..Ecodiver to ecodiver advise: if u're using a normal wood pencil to note ur survey, pls ensure u have an extra pencil..while i was doing the mock survey, when i took out my pencil, the tip broke and i spent the first 5 minutes peeling the pencil..haha..muppet

this was PETER's 500th Dive! congrats peter! sorry..there were no pictures of him being thrown into the icebox..hehe

Dive 2 : DUMPSTER Dive
 
The infectants: Peter, RoCKET and shafi

RoCKET wanted to get footage of rubbish on the seabed, so on the way back from Batu Layar, Peter, RoCKET and shafi went down NEARBY the garbash pontoon..they found rubbish alright, and a wheel barrow as well..hehe..peter said he saw a coral cat shark down there..

YUCK!

Right enough, our lunch were already waiting for us when we got back..yum yum..tuna/cheese/egg sandwich with fries....

Dive 3, Survey 1 : Tukas Laut(shallow)

First survey for the trip..Tukas Laut

Bottom time   : 60 minutes
max depth     : 8.8 meters
average depth: 5.1 meters

Fish Survey       : Daniel lim, buoyantvenus
Invert Survey    : Trigger_fish, bajaulaut
Substrate Survey: Shafi, bijan

somehow, the site reminds me of teluk kador at tioman..NIA's were spotted regularly when i did substrate..pollution?

Good report bijan 

Waiting for the rest of the story 

reserved

Dey Lady BOSS, are you back in town or are you still running around counting oil palm trees??? Plus where got such thing as "RESERVED" - The FULL details please all..

Yes yes SD.. I just got back from T'ganu a few hours, presenting on gender issues to 750 men who were only interested in cattle. 

I now need to pack for 3 days in Tawau - my taxi coming at 0500hrs 

That is why dear Bijan is doing the reporting    Thanks BIJAN!!!!!!!

DAY 2

7.30 AM

RoCKET, shafi, peter and anke went snorkeling to get footage on green turtles having their breakfast - yummy seagrass..bijan still sleeping soundly in the room despite numerous attempts by the roommate to wake him up..

8.00 AM

Breakfast..had omelette cheese with toast..somebody had pancake with chocolate syrup..looks delicious


Dive 4, Survey 2 - tukas laut(deep)

Peter didnt follow us this time as he had to bring RoCKET to batu nisan for another dumpster dive..whats up with RoCKET and dumpsters??!! hmmm

Bottom time   : 70 minutes
Max depth     : 9.1 meters
Average depth: 8.0 meters


fish survey        : bijan, buoyantvenus
invert survey     : daniel_lim, shafi
substrate Survey: trigger_fish, bajaulaut

MUPPET MOMENT: trigger_fish took out the marker at the other end because he thot shafi forgot to bring it back with her..hehehe

The fishes chose to lepak(hang out) outside the transect line....only documented some of it..A lone batfish accompanied may during the survey

Dive 5, Survey 3 - Batu Tabir(deep)

Bottom time   : 67 minutes
Max depth     : 12.8 meters
Average depth: 10.3 meters

fish survey        : shafi, daniel_lim
invert survey     : bijan, trigger_fish
substrate Survey: buoyantvenus, bajaulaut

MUPPET MOMENT: muppet daniel_lim rubbed off half of wifey'sgirlfriend's slate before we managed to key in the data into the computer..BIG WHOOPS..

Dive 6, Survey 4 - Tokong Laut(deep)

the most anticipated survey site for the trip..

anyway, we didnt manage to survey tokong laut as the survey site that we intended to do doesnt meet the requirement for a reefcheck survey site..first, it was nowhere near 100 meters and second, the profile of the site was disturbing..disturbing as in high lows, high lows.. DARN!

peter was dissappointed that we didnt manage to survey tokong laut..

fun dive then..lots of fishes tho..snappers by the hundreds..box fish, turtle, watever-the-name-small-fishes, anemone shrimps

current was strong to the end of the dive..

Tokong Laut is absolutely amazing... All that fish... and we saw thousands of baby yellow snappers.. so i guess its a thriving site with healthy populations of fish.

I sometimes worry that when we put all of this information up on the forum about where all the fish are, it could be used by the 'hunters'..

Anyway, here are some of Peter's thoughts on our survey attempt at Tokong Laut and why it couldn't be properly reef checked... this is so that we know the reasons behind what happened.

- Too deep: The pinnacle does not have enough corals at the 12 m line. This led to the survey line starting too deep, not keeping a consistent contour and running out of space.
 
- Biased data set: Since Peter was the one having to lay the line, he had to look for corals to lay the line on, which should not be done as it will lead to a biased substrate data-set. It would have also been very difficult to do repeat surveys as it would be impossible to lay the same route. This would have led to each subsequent substrate survey being dramatically different.

- Couldn't do the entire 100m: Then, as he went around the pinnacle, the site ran out of corals after the 75 meter mark.



"We would really like to survey Tokong Laut as it is the most popular dive site on the islands and we want to monitor change and potential diver impacts. Even though the data would not be comparable to other RC data, it would still be really useful!", said Peter.

We cannot disagree, Peter...   

Thanks for everything once again....    

Back from the dive, we had around 2 hours to dry and pack our gears..everybody was on roadrunner mode, washing themselves, washing the gears, packing everything and all..so sad to leave this place....



SIP #3 Official Photographer, Bajaulaut



SIP #3 Ecodivers, Trigger_fish, bijan, Peter, Daniel_lim, buoyantvenus..shafi is in the background finishing her tuna/cheese/egg sandwich..



The whole camaraderie

First row:Buoyantvenus, Labu, RoCKET
Second row:Daniel_lim, bijan, trigger_fish
Third row: Shafi's mummy boss, daddy boss, lady boss herself

Not in picture, Bajaulaut @ photographer



BYE BYE Watercolours..We'll be back indefinitely..Cherios