Wild and Wicked Day 3, Mission 3 wraps up inshore BRUVs surveys.

Our boat captain and navigator decides each day which sites would be most safe and efficient to sample, given sea conditions and our available time during daylight hours. 

Today, conditions were good inshore on the west coast, but our remaining inshore drops were on the east coast. Do we brave the conditions or postpone the mission until a calmer day? 

Our Captain saw a window to proceed, so we decided to push forward and complete the remaining three BRUVs drops, 1 seagrass and 2x coral reef. Our small but ‘tallawah’ crew were amazing!

Fieldnotes -  13th August 2023

• Boat: Optinum Mrat 

• Target species: Elasmobranch ( sharks and rays)

• Tech deployed: Blue Abacus BRUVS x 3

• There were no tech issues 

• Maka Niu 7 issues resolved; however, before we deploy this unit again, we must wait for a replacement clip. I decided not to deploy Maka Niu 16.

Rationale: Do what we can while remaining safely operating and balancing the risk of equipment loss against creating information.✅

• Expedition hours completed: 9 am to 12:20 pm

• Drops: 3

• Soak time: Approx 90mins

• Footage: Approx: 4.5 hrs

• Sea sickness was a challenge but Jason and I pushed through 🙌🏾

• We postponed plans to deploy pelagic BRUVs configuration, as we await additional accessories to facilitate drifting of 3-5 BRUVs per deployment + we’d already completed a full day's effort in half the time. I am pleased with what we achieved today!

I wrap up this mission eager to see the footage to understand how sargassum seaweed inundations on the northeastern coastline have affected the reefs in the area. 

Stay connected to find out... 

Veta x