2009
Exploring Australia's extremes: form south to north (December 2009)
During the past two weeks I had the opportunity to visit two distinct parts of Australia:Hobart and Bramble Cay.
I went to Hobart to attend the Australian National Network in Marine Science Inaugural Conference. The conference presented an opportunity for students from James Cook university, University of Tasmania and Western Australia University to exchange ideas, collaborate and netwrok. Although most of the work presented was not directly related to my work it was very interesting to hear about the research being conducted at temperate and southern oceans in Australia, especially the work being conducted in Antartica. The weather in Hobart was also extremelly different to what I had previously experienced in sunny Queensland. Even though it was summer , temperatures dropped to 5C, with constant rain and freezing winds, which made it quite challenging to explore Hobart's countryside and famous trekking sites.Regardless, we braved the freezing weather, put on as many layers of clothes as we could and explored Mt wellington’s treks, the Tasmania devil’s zoo, the botanical garden and some of the countryside. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that we could hardly see the views from Mt. Wellington, nevertheless if was worth the adventure.
After a week in cold Hobart, I had one day back in Townsville to prepare for my annual turtle monitoring trip to Bramble Cay in Torres Strait. Despite going there for the past three years I knew this would be a different trip; not only this was the first trip I wasn’t going as part of my PhD but also we would have a mother ship to provide support, fresh water, a hiding place with air conditioning, and the luxury of a bathroom with hot shower. As there were about 20 of us the boat only provided accommodation to a few participants. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed the three hour boat ride from Darnley Island to Bramble Cay; how fortunate I felt to be able to sit comfortably on the back deck and enjoy the smooth ride with a hot cup of tea.
As we got to Bramble we set camp on the beach and waited for the tide and turtles to come up. Unfortunately, high tide was only at three thirty in the morning and most of the turtles came up after midnight. Thus, it was a long night waiting for the turtles, the only thing we got before midnight was lots of rain. As the days went by the tides were later and later so the nights become longer and longer. Nevertheless, the sleepless nights were well worth it since the sunsets were truly breath taking. We were also luck because this year wasn’t as hot as the previous ones; so rather than melting away in the main tent during the days we could actually go swimming, fishing and walking around the island. This year as well as training the turtle and dugong officers and rangers on how to monitor nesting turtles I also provided a couple of training sessions on GIS and GPS use. It was extremely rewarding to work with such a keen group of people. Despite the long hours and tiring trip it was well worth it, Bramble Cay is a truly amazing place were you experience nature’s energy constantly. I can’t wait to return next year.
A trip to the happiest place on earth (11th to 14th May 2009)
I was recently invited to be part of the annual sea turtle workshop held by the Vanua-Tai Monitors from Wan Smolbag. Wan Smolbag is a non-government organization based in Vanuatu but operating all over the South Pacific. Wan Smolbag uses drama to inform, raise awareness and encourage public discussion on a range of contemporary health, lifestyle, environment and governance issues. The workshop I was part of was organized by Wan Smolbag environmental program. About 40 resource monitors (turtle rangers) participated in the workshop from various islands from the southern part of Vanuatu. The workshop was conducted over three days so that the monitors could go over the data they collected during the previous sea turtle nesting year, discuss issues with data collection or any other environmental issue from their community. In addition, several presentations on a variety of topics, ranging from waste management to animal abuse, were provided to broaden the skills and knowledge of the monitors. All the monitors were extremely interested on these talks and listened closely so they could go back to their communities and share what they had learned. During the workshop I gave a talk on climate change and sea turtles.
The monitors were really interested on the science behind current and future climatic changes and how it would affect their resources and lives. I also took the monitors to a close by beach and taught then how to collect different data to monitor for changes in beach morphology and sand temperature as climate change progresses. They were really keen and interested in learning news skills and were amazed to see what sort of data could be produced from those surveys. As a result they are eager to implement some of the monitoring tools they learned to their turtle monitoring program. It was very rewarding to work with such a keen and interested group. For more information on Wan Smolbag please visit http://www.wansmolbag.org and for more information on their global vision turtle project please visit http://www.gvi.co.uk/projects/oceania/vanuatu/volunteer-turtles-vanuatu/home.
