Here at TRACC we are sometimes limited by weather
conditions. Strong currents, surge and as a result - poor visibility, can make
our shallower work dives impossible to undertake. Yesterday just so happened to
have the tri-factor. As a result the main activities for the day were as
follows.
Beach clean
Beach clean activity is pretty self-explanatory; we as a
group walk the beach picking up rubbish. The majority of the group picks up lose
fragments of debris – top of the list includes lighters, straws, plastic
bottles, plastic bags and nappies! All of which can be ingested by a range of
sea creatures. As Pompom island has a relatively high density of green and
hawksbills turtles (which are endangered and critically endangered according to
recent IUCN figures), any debris that has the potential to choke them is
obviously a concern of ours.
In addition to picking up human waste we also try and reduce
the amount of wood is on the beach. Even though this may be a natural form of
debris we still remove the majority of it. This is done for two reasons. First and foremost is that Pompom islands
nesting turtle population have issues navigating around the logs. By using the
chainsaw to cut up and move the wood into piles, it increases ease of access
for the turtles to get to their nesting grounds. By increasing ease of access to
the nesting sites we increase the likelihood of turtles nesting on this beach
(very beneficial as many of the neighboring islands have close to 100% egg
poaching rates). The second reason we do
this is…. we do like a nice bonfire every now and again.
Step reef construcction
Step reefs are TRACC own design, made from concrete and
recycled bottles. They are artificial reefs specifically designed to be
deployed on a slope – to our knowledge a world first! For more information on
step reefs click here.
Kit led the entire camp on how to make our new step reefs.
Allowing volunteers to experience the life history of a step reef. Turning
unused glass bottles and cement to permanent artificial reef structures. Now we just need to wait for the weather to
settle down and we can deploy them.
Drift dive survey
‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ a saying that also works
for currents. We have data from 2011 about densities of the following fish species-
titan triggerfish, groupers, black and white snappers, long nosed emperors and
mauri wrasse. Survey methods were as simple as a drift dive in a defined area,
counting each of defined fishes. Initial data has shown an increase in
densities of all of these – which were expecting to finds as fishing activity
has been significantly reduced over the last 2 years. Data collection on this
will continue to further strength our data as well as track any future
progress.
