I recently got back home after a great start to the scholarship year. I had given myself a week to catch up with a few things and get ready for the remainder of 2008. Planning stages of the scholarship has proven to be quite difficult, especially trying to confirm dates and availability of busy people! But all is starting to work out well, hence I have finally booked a round the world flight!
The day after coming back from Lord Howe Island, I took my brand new TUSA H.R.S. (heat retaining system) drysuit for a dive at my local site, Terrigal Haven. The suit performed great and after a bit of practice playing with my buoyancy and floating with my legs above my head, I soon got the hang of it. This gave me the opportunity to catch up for a dive with a couple of mates and my younger brother, Tom, who is also a keen diver.
During the week I was able to attend a function a couple friends of mine from the Catchment Management Authority (CMA) had organised. They have been holding a series of talks known as the ‘Marine Discovery Series’ to raise awareness of the marine environment. These free seminars are held at various places along the coast and get people involved in research or marine education. They are 20 min presentations to the public. I have previously done a few of these talks up the coast and it is a great event. The ones held locally at the Terrigal Crowne Plaza Hotel are particularly good as the hotel provides free drinks and finger food to all who attend! This time two other friends of mine, Dr Mick Lowry from NSW DPI gave a presentation on the use of artificial reefs as fisheries enhancement tools. This was particularly interesting for me as I plan on visiting some different artificial reef systems during my year as a scholar.
The other talk was by Dr Jason Moreton, who has spent the last 5 years studying three species of wrasse in NSW. During his talk he focused on the sex change of the crimson-banded wrasse, (research I have helped with) and Jason knows most of the fish in his study sites by name (due to the subtle differences in colour patterns!) and is able to map where they are found on the reef and how they change territories as they change sex from females to males!
After a few more days on the computer organising things and sending an endless stream of emails. I had finalised my flights for the rest of this year! I am off to WA first for a month before flying to Indonesia for a three week research trip to SE Sulawesi. Then straight to Denmark where I will spend five weeks diving throughout Scandinavia doing some wreck diving and technical diving courses with the other two scholars. I then head to Egypt for a couple weeks diving the Red Sea. I then fly to Canada where I will be diving the artificial reefs sunk around British Columbia. before heading down to California for some further training, marine science research, photography and the dive exhibition, DEMA, in Las Vegas!
Not bad for someone who had never been outside Australia before winning the OWUS Rolex Scholarship! Watch this space!
