Reef Watch

After our annual underwater class photo, we dove near the coral nursery to get some practice at a protocol of reef health evaluation called Reef Watch.

We're all gathered behind the banner posing for our annual class photo.  We have a trick to get pictures that aren't marred by lots of bubbles.

After the photo shoot, Josh's team is posing with what appears to be some kind of gang sign.

Two of the girls are posing for Andrew while making a triangle shaped symbol.  Looks like some sort of sorority devil worship sign.

The dive instructors laid out two 10 x 10 meter areas on the sea floor so the students could conduct the Reef Watch protocol. 

You swim a back and forth grid over the area while marking on the plasticized booklets information about coral cover, algae, and other attributes of the reef.  Ultimately, you get a numerical score that gives you an approximation of the health of the reef.

Charlie.

I think Hanna.

Charlie.

Maddie.

Julia might be checking her nails while inspecting the reef.

Wreck dive

This morning we dove the Kled Gaew wreck.  This vessel was decommissioned and deliberately sunk off the coast of Phi Phi Ley in 2014 to attract marine life and serve as an artificial reef.  It is loaded with fish.  The top of the superstructure is at around 14 meters, whereas the hull rests on the sand at 26 meters.  Open water divers are certified for a maximum of 18 meters depth; as such, this is considered a deep dive and our students received special training for it.  They did great and the payoff was even better.  Soooo many fish.  The purpose of diving here was to show the students the value of wrecks as artificial reefs, which can take pressure off the natural reefs.

The vessel was an auxiliary transport ship for the Royal Thai Navy.  It's 49 meters in length (a little more than half a football field for the metrics-challenged).

Loads of snappers all around the wreck

We saw quite a few porcupine fish as well

Here's a scorpionfish. They're cryptically colored and hard to see,  so we have to be careful because they have venomous spines on their dorsal fins.

Cam and Grace.

Cam.

Still more snappers...

A lionfish is trying to be undetectable to smaller prey.

After the dive, we ascended a safety line to the surface.

Coral Nursery

Today we went to the coral nursery platforms to populate the nursery with new coral fragments.  We were met by three marine biologists from the Phuket Marine Biological Center, who are conducting research to determine optimal ways to grow corals for replanting into dead reefs. We have the unique opportunity to be a part of this important research, and have been participating for the past 12 years.  We take freshly-cut coral fragments and place them into tubes, then put the tubes into racks, and place the racks onto an underwater coral nursery where they will grow for a year before being planted into a dead reef.

We divided up the students in to four groups, each with a basin containing coral fragments.  Then we put the fragments into tubes...

This is Alexis with dive instructor Tamara

Sabrina and Charlie are putting the tubes into plastic mesh racks, each containing 60 coral fragments.

Their rack is nearly finished.

Here's Julia holding the first completed rack.

When the racks were completed, we temporarily hung them over the sides of the boat so they would stay hydrated.

The racks were placed on each of two platforms, so 28 racks in all were put into the nursery.  The coral fragments will stay here for a year and next year's class will plant them into a dead reef.

Charlie (center) and Alexis (left) are each bringing a rack to the nursery.

Alexis.

Pretty sure that's Hanna.

Maddie.

Sabrina.

Julia.

Charlie is bringing his rack to the empty nursery platform.

This platform is just about completely populated with coral fragments.  The next task is to zip-tie the racks to each other and to the platform.

The zip-tying required one student above and one below the platform to feed the ties through.  That's Alexis below... I think this girl has gills and fins.

Just about finished securing all the racks to the platform.

After the job was done, the kids had some fun because there was still a lot of air in their tanks.  Julia showing how much she loves diving while a curious longfin batfish swims by.

The students are comfortable enough in the water to remove their regulator temporarily to smile for the camera.  These are educated guesses (L to R): Julia, Cam, Maddie, Sabrina, Charlie, and Grace.

This is Julia and  Cam creating the portal for Charlie to swim through.

This platform still has last year's coral fragments on it.  They've grown very well and will be planted later today.

Close-up of the year-old coral fragments.  A moorish idol is checking out the corals.

On the boat, we took the year-old coral fragments and removed the plastic tubes from them.

Cam.

Ally.

This is Prayoo (spelling is transliterated into what seems phonetically correct).  She's one of the marine biologists.

Julia showing a tiny crab that was on the coral fragments.

Sabrina showing a fragment with one year of growth.

So we got back into the water to plant the fragments onto metal racks that will eventually rust away and leave the corals in place to create a new reef where a previous reef has died.  M - I - Z !

One of the marine biologists is moving urchins away from the metal racks for safety of those planting the coral fragments.

I think this is Alexis (L) and Ally (R).

Liz and Hanna are putting pre-closed zip-ties on the metal pipes so the coral fragments can be attached.

Maddie and Sabrina are each zip-tying a coral fragment into place.

Look at Charlie's buoyancy control!  That's what I'm talking about :-)  It's counterproductive if you can't keep your body off the coral fragments while doing this work.  That's why we put so much emphasis on buoyancy.

Julia is delivering coral fragments to the teams.

More great buoyancy control.  I think Cam is on the right, but I don't know who the other student is.

A checkerboard wrasse was investigating out work.

The year-old corals are planted.  In another year, they'll be about the circumference of a bowling ball.

Z - O - U !