MMMF Expedition 01 began on 1st August 2023.

On this day ( 1st August), in 1833, much of the former British territories in the Caribbean commemorate the anniversary of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

It was a very special day for me; a sacred experience onboard 22ft, Optimum Montserrat, captained by Fisher, Sheldon Carty and assisted by Fish ‘N Fins Inc., assistant Jason Willett. We circumnavigated the entire island from 630am to 530pm.

I'm keeping a vlog diary to keep you all updated on the process. These will be uploaded to our Youtube page soon.

In the meantime, here are a few photographs.

 

Jason deploying a Blue Abacus BRUV off 22ft, Fisher vessel, ‘Optimum Mrat’, captained by Sheldon Carty.

 

Maka Niu imaging and environmental sensing device attached to the Blue Abacus carbon fibre rig.

 

Me, managing precious data and tracking sample 📍 locations.

 

Jason assisting with hand hauling Blue Abacus rigs. ( He also rescued old buoys for re-use)

These rigs are lighter than our homemade BRUVs but HEAVY when water floods the rigs on hauling to the surface, especially when we have attached additional 10lb weights for stabilizing the frame. Special shot out to Jason for relieving me of this task!! 🙌🏾

Project Status

Tech deployed: Blue Abacus BRUVS x 2, and Maka Nius x2 .

All Blue Abacus BRUVs and Go Pro 9 cameras performed ( though I forgot to format the SD cards and camera to take 4K film)*

1 Maka Niu camera was unresponsive- no LED lights appeared and there was no haptic feedback despite cycling power to the device 3x. We have since been troubleshooting this issue with Ocean Discovery League engineers.

Status: Ongoing

Expedition Hours completed: 10hrs (on 1st August)

Drops: 6

Soak time: Approx 90mins

Footage: 10hours+

Sharks spotted: 1

Species: Caribbean Reef Shark.

 

Caribbean Reef Shark 01082023_MMMF

 

Me, feeling like my ancestors wildest dreams - inshore Montserrat’s epic volcanic eastern coastline.

P.S. Pardon any typo’s I am uploading this from a tiny screen as all of the recent shark action seemed to have made my laptop short circuit.

😀🫣🧐🤔