This was my 1st conservation dive. Quite shallow to be honest, probably only 10 meters. We were "Collecting data along a transect line" in Mango Bay. Essentially a 100 m line (or 2 50's) are laid out at long established A & B points. We swam in a zig zag pattern 2.5 m to either side of the line, covering a 5 m width. My job included a clipboard (Yay! A clipboard!), or, as the mostly European scientists working here call it, a slate. I would use hash marks to count certain Invertebrate Indicator Species. (OMG, I sound like a scientist... Or someone who has half a clue about that which I am speaking! Fear not! I have my text book* open on my lap to jog my memory! My degree, after all, included as little science as I could get away with at the time.)
I saw (in general, insert adjectives like: beautiful, amazing, wondrous....):
Flatworms- which are very sensitive to water quality changes & habitat destruction. Seeing a lot is a sign of good reef health & diversity. An absence, the reverse. A reef in trouble. I saw one, and only because they are small, and I still do not know what I am looking for, or where to look. My Divemaster, Ploy, pointed it out to me.
Drupella Snails- (Gastropods... Or as they said in class... A stomach with legs). In small numbers, they are ok. They eat coral, which allows for "diversification" or new corals to move in to the neighborhood. But, in large numbers, they play the role of the villain.
Nudibranchs & Sea Slugs- (more Gastrpods!). "A favorite among divers for their very striking colors & often ornamental bodies." They are sensitive to changes in the reef, including decreased water quality & habitat destruction.
In the Echinoderm Phylum
Marbled Sea Cucumber, Orange Spiked Sea Cucumber, Pinkfish Sea Cucumber- regulators of nutrient levels. Marbled Sea Cukes, the book notes, are cleaners, removing micro algae & improving substrate. So I wonder if all the Cukes do that? I would think they do.
Giant Clams & Boring Clams- VIPs. Filter feeding, contribute to reef structure & host Zooxanthalle so they "seed corals." This is especially important after a bleaching event. Bleaching is what it sounds like. Coral turns white, and dies.
I thought it was an amazing dive. Beautiful. Thrilling. Back on the boat, the folks that know what's what had different emotions. Great sadness. They are seeing more and more bleaching and decline. This reef is ill. They were all a bit quiet on the ride back. Vastly different perspectives.
Meanwhile, my friends who were doing a training dive on a different boat were oohing and ahhing when they saw a sea turtle. But as they approached, it became apparent that it was dead. It was a sad day on the water.**
While this sounds incredibly sad, Dev, the man who runs New Heaven, put it in perspective. "This is why we are doing what we are doing. To make a difference."
*a BIG shout out goes to Chad Scott, who is from Colorado. He wrote the text book we use. I would describe him as a groovy young guy who is WICKED (a word I have taught to my mostly Spanish & German Dive Master & Dive Master Trainee buddies), WICKED, smart. It seems, in addition to being a brilliant young scientist, he speaks fluent Thai. I gather he is a pioneer in the coral reef management field. Instead of studying its decline & death, he's covering a LOT of ecological basis above and below water to preserve what we have and grow new ones.
**an autopsy revealed the turtle was a healthy young female, just turning old enough to lay eggs. She had drowned. They are guessing that she got wrapped in a fishing net and drowned. Again, very sad folks around the New Heaven Dive School.
