Spots and Rocks!

Spots and Rocks

So we have been here for over 4 weeks and working hard every day. But what have we actually been doing? Here is an update on two of our research projects.

       1.       Photo ID

Diving and snorkeling teams have been working together every day at 6am, 8am and 2pm to gather data for our photo ID study. Divers swim along a certain patch of reef and photograph species of groupers whilst noting the depth and time the photo was taken. Then the divers tug on the reel which tells the snorkelers above to record a GPS location for that photo.

By doing this we aim to use piece of software that identifies individual fish based on their markings (the groupers have bright blue spots!) much like you can identify a whale from its fin markings. Once we can recognize individual fish by its spots we can look at how big its territory size is and if this changes depending on time of day, for example. Groupers are one of the most commercially valuable fish in the Red Sea and our research will give an insight in to their behaviour and abundance.

                    Anna & Lydia diving with the reel taking photos

                                               

                             A Cephalopholis miniata (Coral Hind)

 So far we have finalized our methodology, perfected communication between snorkelers and divers and have been building on a solid set of data. We will continue this routine for the following weeks as well as add in some snorkeling transects and a GPS map of the reef. Then it’s on to analysing all our pictures. That will involve hours of computer work - so it can wait till we are back in not so sunny Scotland.

            2.       Coralline Algae

Coralline algae may look like nothing more than pink rocks but they play just as important a role on the reef as coral. They too lay down the hard calcium carbonate structure that builds the reef and locks up the world’s carbon. We are looking at the distribution of coralline algae along one of our favourite locations - Suleman Reef - situated a walk away from our hotel. We want to find out if the amount and size of coralline algae change from one area of the reef to another and from the reef flat out to the reef crest.

So far we have recorded abundance and size at 7 sites in three locations - more than half way through the study plan. We have also deployed sediment traps to measure sedimentation rate to see if this has an effect on the number of algae found there.

We have been recording habitat type by taking photos of the substrate at each site…but a few of us have had problems with the camera! One day, instead of taking quadrat photos Michael took around 500 photos of himself just swimming along…Michael’s face is most definitely not suitable habitat but we all had a good laugh!

                                  A piece of Coralline Algae 

                                                                                                   

                                  One of Michael's Selfies!
                                                            

These two studies alone are very time consuming and take up most of our time and energy. However we have two more projects we move on to at night - parasites and socio-economic fisheries. Stay tuned for our update on these very soon!

Jenny