Diving: Reef Check - July 2002

Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort has long been a Reef Check supporter, hosting several survey teams in previous years. This year we trained resort personnel in survey techniques so that they could conduct regular update surveys, and gain their own knowledge of the reef health in the area. There was a lot of enthusiasm from staff from both the Resort and the Dive Operation. Special thanks must go to Resort Marine Biologist Mike Greenfelder for persistence in setting dates at a busy time, and to Dive Operations Manager Gary Alford for organization of boats and divers.

We spent three days training and carrying out surveys. During this time we re-surveyed two sites that had previously been surveyed, and set up permanent transects on two more sites. It is hoped to develop a guest participation programme for future surveys.

Interested divers should contact laventurefiji@connect.com.fj. Our guinea pig Guest Volunteer, Hamilton Rowan, certainly found it fun and interesting, and we hope he is a future Reef Check volunteer on other programmes.

On-land transects were set up to practice survey techniques before trying it in the water. The beach was surveyed as if it were a reef, with grass standing in for fleshy seaweed, sand and rubble for themselves, and laminated photos of fish and invertebrate life places under and around the line. We found this really helped develop understanding of what was required in the water.

Buddy teams surveyed the lines together then combined their results. We were delighted to find many new hard coral colonies on the sites we surveyed.

Working in teams also allowed consultation on difficult identifications, and allowed us to increase standardization. An interesting result was a variation in invertebrate types in sites where different fishing methods were used.