Weeks 2-3!

We’ve had a busy few weeks here at Roots. We’ve settled into expedition life very well, and the four projects are now well underway after our pilot studies and with the help of our supervisor David Bailey, who stayed with us for a week whilst we picked his brains on all aspects of the projects.

Fraser has already collected lots of data for his Hawkfish project with the help of Lauren. Rosalie and Hannah have been working on laying transects, taking coral photos and collecting data using PAR meters. Robbie has had his first camera drop trial from the boat and Lisa has been snorkelling almost every day gathering cleaner fish data and videos, both of which have been with the help of Rhianna and Lewis.

When we aren’t gathering data, our time is usually spent in the lab or at the poolside analysing data, updating spreadsheets or practicing our fish and coral ID skills.

Yesterday we met with our local counterpart, Ali, who we will work with to arrange outreach work over the coming weeks, including talks, games and mangrove clean-ups with local children.

In our free time we’ve watched the sun set over the desert, had beach BBQs, and went on a couple of recreational dives to other nearby sites such as Serib Kebir, where the full team get to enjoy the beauty of the reefs without searching for Hawkfish or laying transects!

This week we'll be continuing our research, and on our day off we plan to visit the famous wreck at Salem Express for Rosie's 21st birthday. Watch out for pictures to come!