Day Two – Saturday July 28th Substrate ID was tricky for most of us, especially when it comes to determining ascidians (which comes under the category of ‘Others’) even though they look like sponges and zoanthids (which comes under the category of “soft corals”) even when they look like hard corals.
MUW fellows, Riduan and I, were designated substrate ID ‘experts’. We did this one pretty well together.
We went to Tj Basi and D’Lagoon for the third and fourth dives of the trip. One thing we had to remember was that organ pipe corals, although they are seen to be like soft corals, they are categorized as hard corals because they are reef builders.
We also had to study the condition of the substrate i.e. the impact it has suffered from, be it either from bleaching, disease, damage by Drupella snails, boat or anchor damage, damage by crown-of-thorns (COTs) etc.
An example of an impact on hard coral – RKC (recently-killed coral)
Then there are long-dead corals, which are ‘Rock’. Fused rubble more than 15cm in length are also categorized as ‘rock’.
Day Three – Sunday July 29th That Sunday was the actual reef survey where the results will be submitted to the United Nations’ Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
After the morning briefing, the line-layers laid the 100m transect at around 6m-depth at Tj. Basi. We waited for 10-15 minutes for the situation underwater to normalize before our fish ‘experts’ went in. They look out for butterfly fish, sweetlips, the prized barramundi cod, snappers, humphead wrasse, parrotfish and groupers (having to jot down their sizes as well).
Butterfly fish are indicators included in the survey. Angelfishes are not counted.
As cute as these guys may be, anemone fish are not counted in the survey.
Turtles and bumpheads are counted in the survey, even though they are off-transect, simply because they are considered significant indicators of the ecosystem. This goes for sharks and barras as well.
After the fish guys were done with their survey, it was the invert ‘experts’ turn. This one could be a real headache as these guys have to swim is tight ‘S’ 2.5m away from the transect, along the whole 100m transect. Only do this survey if you are certain you won’t feel nauseated diving inverted for almost an hour.
Tg. Basi and D’ Lagoon had so many of these Tridacna clams of offer. We take into account their sizes as well.
Other inverts we had to look out for were for the COT predators, the Trumpet Triton, long-spined urchins, pencil urchins, collector urchins, lobsters, banded coral shrimp COTs, and sea cucumbers (pinkfish, greenfish and prickly redfish only).
Finally, the substrate guys were the last group to complete the survey. Armed with a plumb line, we trailed every 0.5m and identified the substrate. Tj. Basi is mostly rock and hard corals, with traces of nutrient indicator algae, an obvious sign of pollution.
Mostly hard corals and rock in Tj. Basi.
Halimeda is a nutrient indicator algae.
We were done within one hour and it was quite an accomplishment. All 3 groups, i.e. fish, inverts and substrate, keyed in the data and we could immediately see the results – graphs, trendlines, etc.
The verdict…It was truly an eye-opening experience. You will never dive the same way again…
My message to you – If you are going to be a diver, at least be an EcoDiver.
Some quick shopping at Watercolours dive centre.
Hey ladies… Did you know that Leonardo DiCaprio is a Reef Check Honorary Member? Woo-Hoo!! So he wasn’t just an idiot in “The Beach”.
Reef Check is the world’s largest international coral reef monitoring programme involving recreational divers and marine scientists. They are now active in over 82 countries. If you are interested to find out more about Reef Check, contact
malaysia@reefcheck.org or visit
www.reefcheck.org.
