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Team 1 has arrived, and yesterday was our first day at sea. We were quite successful even though the first day is only a half day. We caught and tagged two loggerhead turtles – a wee one and a larger one. Scientist Lisa obviously has had a great deal of practice netting these fellows, because they both were already diving before we could get close.
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We also saw a sperm whale, a fin whale, scores of common dolphins and met the resident troupe of bottlenose dolphins. The sea was relatively calm yesterday, yet the overcast light conditions made spotting blows and spotting floating sperm whales quite difficult. We knew where the sperm whales were, and even put the hydrophone in the water to confirm it, yet somehow they eluded us. We heard at least four of them clicking away quite loudly, and yet we never saw them despite our intensive searching.
A great start, and the seas today are predicted to be the same as yesterday, so we’re off to the Physeter to catalouge whatever animals show themselves to us today.
Greetings from Banana Manor, our base in Horta. Lisa, Catherine and I (left, right, centre) have been very busy preparing for your arrival. Base is now all set up, and we are eager to greet the first team on Monday.
Girl power (left to right: Lisa Steiner, Alisa Clickenger, Catherine Edsell)
You can start arriving at Banana Manor after 13:00 on start day. Training begins promptly at 14:00 so please be on time as there is a lot of information to take in during the first 24 hours of the expedition slot. (Please do not arrive at Banana Manor before 13:00 as you are likely to find it empty or in the process of being cleaned with no room for you to put yourself or your belongings in.)
If we don’t see you at Peter’s, then we’ll meet you at the official meeting time between 13.00 and 14.00 at Banana Manor. Expedition briefing will start promptly at 14:00.
It’s not a cushy holiday, but if you’re still packing your things, it might be a good idea to bring some cushy house slippers. They’re not official expedition kit list, but they might make base camp life more comfortable since Banana Manor is a stone and tile building. If your slippers are in the shape of cetaceans, you’ll get a star for the day 😉
I hope you all have good journeys and if you need to contact me before we meet, I confirm that my Portuguese mobile number is xxx. Please call me if you are going to miss the assembly meeting at Banana Manor. I am eager to meet you all!
Alisa Clickenger here. I’ll be your expedition leader in the Azores this year. I love working in the Azores because our scientist Lisa Steiner (we like to see if you are paying attention using our given names Alisa and Lisa) is great to work with. You won’t find anyone more passionate about whales than she is, and she has the best “eyes” on the ocean for spotting cetaceans. I learn so much from her every year. There’s a video of Lisa below
I’m finishing up some things here in the States (mainly a visit with mum) and then I will arrive a few days before you volunteers in order to set up the expedition headquarters. We’ll have Catherine, Craig and Sue as expedition-leaders-in-training (see www.biosphere-eexeditions.org/about for their details) along with us on each slot (and in that order), and we’re fortunate for that. I’ll send around another message once I get on the ground in Horta and confirm my local mobile telephone number. It should be xxxxxx, but I’ll confirm it’s working when I get it out of storage on arrival. Please remember this is only for emergency use such as missing assembly.
Ah, yes, mobile phones. There’s reception on Faial in addition to internet here and there, but we won’t be using cell phones while we’re at sea, so I invite you all to tell everyone you are off the grid for the expedition, leave your devices at home, and soak up all this expedition experience has to offer. I’ve recently become addicted to backgammon, so if anyone has a game they’d like to bring along…
I know you’ve all been eagerly reading your expedition materials and know to bring many layers of clothing. Last year was freezing cold, and the year before that very warm. We’ll see what 2014 brings. I’ll mention now that every year we have someone arrive without waterproof pants, and they get very wet and cold and miserable, especially if they are stationed on the bow as a lookout and the weather is choppy. While you can purchase waterproofs in Horta, they are expensive on the island.
Lisa tells me that she’s already been whispering to the whales, and they are eager for your arrival. So am I. Lisa has posted some updates of cetacean activity on www.facebook.com/biosphere.expeditions1 and there is a welcome video by yours truly below, so you can meet me before you meet me, it you see what I mean.
Well, we’ve thoroughly checked those reefs! We put two more surveys under our belts on Thursday, arriving in the south of Ari atoll as the sun was setting over Mamigilli. One survey was along the wall of a sea mount (thilla) with dense growths of coral, ascidians, echinoderms, sponges and encrusting algae painting the wall in all colours of the rainbow. Large groupers and sweetlips lurked in the overhangs, jacks traversed the blue and sharks patrolled the sea fan gardens below.
Once at Mamigilli as night fell, most then opted for a last twilight dive to round off the day.
Today brought storms, which blew out our whale shark survey efforts and made for an interesting crossing of the channel back over to North Male’ atoll. The excellent crew of the Carpe Vita steered us through this too with total assurance, as they have done all week. Thank you again for looking after us so well!
As I type this, night has fallen over Male’ and Hulamale’ harbour. The bright lights of the city can be seen not far away, but for one more night we hang onto the relative solitude of our live-aboard home. The week has gone far too quickly and all that remains is to pack up and say our good-byes tomorrow.
Thank you to the whole team for making it pass so quickly. You could have gone to a resort and read a book on the beach for a week; you could have gone anywhere. But you chose to put your time and money into reef conservation. My respect and gratitude for this and I hope to meet you again sometime, somewhere on this blue planet of ours.
Matthias
Thank you Shidha for sharing this beautiful selection of your photos
We’ve had a very busy day. The hammerheads did not show themselves for our dawn “lazy dive”, but there were schools of fish in the blue and a moment of diving amongst the stars as we passed through tiny and strange bioluminant creatures all around us. Coming back up, we passed a beautiful reef full of life.
Our survey dives weren’t bad either. Two steep slopes with excellent visibility and lots of biodiversity for us to record. As one team returned from laying out the transect, two eagle rays gracefully swam with them for a while before turning left into the blue.
We ran out of sunlight for a third survey towards the end of the day, but made the best of it by scheduling in a twilight lazy dive. A large manta visting the back of the boat at dinner time rounded off a memorable day.
It’s done! Lessons in and out of the water, tests in and out and a mock survey dive. Here is the honour roll of newly qualified Reef Checkers (Umair, Valho, Ibrahim, Shaha, Mohamed, Ann, Tim, Mascha, Alex, Michelle, Song, Maddy, Anais).
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Jen & Suze, who had qualified already on a previous expedition, put in a heroic effort and surveyed two full transects just as a buddy pair over our two training days at Banyan Tree house reef. Thank you!
Even during training we saw lots – turtles and sharks, but also the little things that make a reef so fascinating. As Anais said, after the training you’ll never look at a reef in the same way again. Once you can distinguish hard from soft corals, from ascidians, sponges, algae and others, and you know what a Drupella looks like, there is endless fascination in even a small patch of reef.
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Yesterday afternoon we moved on to Rasdhoo, where we ended our day with a mock survey. Now the day is dawning, colouring the sky pink and orange as I type.
Downstairs our local dive guide Valho is briefing some of the team on a dawn hammerhead dive in the blue.
The rest are having a lie-in and an unfeasibly late breakfast at 07.30 before we start our survey day.
Almost everyone was on time for assembly and those who weren’t didn’t do press-ups ;( After that disappointment, we made it to our beautiful research liveaboard and almost straight into briefings and Reef Check training as we steamed over to Banyan Tree. Once there, we got wet and settled into our diving at the really nice house reef with a couple of sharks and plenty of fish and coral for company.
No rest for the wicked as the sun set, however. Instead more Reef Check training (see below. I think we’ll all sleep well tonight!
My bag: Some of you have said that “men can pack like that, but women can’t”. I’m not sure. Some of you have very rightly pointed out that there is a scale missing on the photo, so you were unable to assess whether my bag was small or humongous. That of course is a very valid point, so a picture of the bag (with my dive watch for scale) is below. I would argue it is small.
And I have an admission to make. I am struggling to fit it all in! The main culprit is Buff (who?). Well, as you may know they help us out on the expeditions and supply us with Buffs (what?). Their latest shipment has arrived this morning and so I have to fit your Buffs in to my bag.
If you are still not sure what this Buff thing is, then have a look below.
I am 45, pushing 46, and I am told – by someone who does – that I will soon need glasses to read small print. Well, some people on the expedition last year were there already and one of them suggested that we should have underwater magnifying glasses to help us old people with data slate filling-in. So, voilà , here they are and in my bag, which I packed today. That bag, incidentally, is the entirety of my luggage. Beat that troopers!
Another beautiful addition is a map of our proposed route with some background info:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Maldives 2013 diary. Here is a welcome message with some news –
I look forward to seeing you in Male’ on Sunday (no change to what it says in the dossier).
We have also put more study materials on www.biosphere-expeditions.org/checklist > tab “Diving expeditions” and I attach our itinerary and the dive sites plan. As you can see, it’s a packed schedule, so please come rested and as swatted up on Reef Check and whale sharks as you can.
My local number should be xxx. Remember that this is for emergencies (such as missing assembly) only and that I will only be in Male’ from Saturday 15.00.
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