Earthwatch Expedtion to the Great Barrier Reef

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Journal from fellow Earthwatch volunteer, Lachlan Duff, to be used with any grade levels.



Sunday 25/5/2008
Well I am finally in Cairns. After months of preparation and sacrifice I have started the first leg of the expedition. I have packed and repacked my bags more times than I care to remember, but hey, I’m here!
The morning for me started at about 5am. I lay awake in bed trying to fall back asleep. I eventually gave up on that idea and rose at 5.30am. I had a quick shower and headed ufor breakfast. I wanted to leave for the airport at 8am. I arrived at the airport at about 9am, just in time to hear them hear Qantas paging my flight - cool - straight to the front of the queue. I throw my dive bag and tent onto the baggage conveyer. I even managed to get an ‘exit row, isle seat’. I feel that this is a good omen. I know this trip will go well for me.
I take my seat and settle in. I read the project brief for the umpteenth time. I recline the seat and watch a documentary on the Grey Whales.
Arrived in Cairns on time and without incident (always good with air travel). I will wait for my fellow Australian Earthwatch volunteer to arrive from Melbourne. We’ll share a cab from the airport to the motel and once there, hopefully catch up with our two American team members.
I realised on the flight here that I never packed a pillow. I’ll have to try and find an inflatable pillow when I pick up some disposable waterproof cameras.
It’s overcast in Cairns today and a pleasant 21 degrees celsius.
I called Brian McNeill’s mobile while he was still in-flight and left a message to let him know that I was waiting for him and to call me when he gets the message. He calls and we hook up when he retrieves his luggage. He seems like a great bloke and reminds me of my great mate Carl. I think we are going to get on pretty well as he seems like he has a great sense of humour and a sharp wit.
We both pile out of the cab at the motel and proceed to check in. We are chatting like school girls. We are pretty excited. We hear an American voice while we are checking in. It is Michell (not Mitchell as I had first mistaken her name for). We introduce ourselves. Michell has this lovely southern accent. She is on her way to send a couple of emails to family and friends to let them know she has arrived safely. We agree to hook up in 30 minutes to go exploring the city. Brian and I finish checking in and take our bags up to our rooms.
We meet up with Michell as planned and run into the American Brian. We invite him out with us but he declines.
The three of us head out in light rain regardless. Michell needs to get some cheap snorkelling gear as the weight restrictions meant that she had to leave her gear in Atlanta. It is a beautiful walk of about 1 km along the esplanade from our hotel to the city hub even though the tide is out. I found a travel pillow. It was like a small bean bag and I think it will be pretty comfortable (at least it will be better than a rolled up towel). I also grab two disposable cameras from the same ‘tourist trap’. I think I got ripped off. We head deeper into the city centre to find some snorkelling gear for Michell. We go to a couple of dive shops but the three of us are sure that we can get a cheap set from somewhere like Target or K-Mart. We ended up going back to one of the dive shops and buying the cheapest pair.
We are getting pretty hungry by this stage and decide to find a nice place to eat. We settle on a restaurant called ‘Rattle & Hum’. Brian and I opt for a steak sandwich (subconsciously I think we are making the most of fresh read meat availability) and Michell goes for a wood fired pizza.
Monday 26/5/2008
I wake before the alarm. I must be excited! I have a long shower, hot and hard. I am in the foyer at 5.30am. The others come down and we jump into the cab I had ordered the day before. We are off to the Skytrans Terminal to catch a plane to Cooktown.
We boarded the plane and after a while we were under way. I was sitting next to a Murray kid. He was in grade 10 and was returning to Hopevale (an aboriginal community) after a weekend in Brisbane. A group of them stayed down at the youth camp on the Gold Coast and had gone to the Gabba to see the lions play. He was a great little bloke and loved his sport.
We arrived in Cooktown at about 7.45am. We were met by Jess, a National Parks ranger. She whisked us off to the town bakery for breakfast before dropping us off at the Hurricane, a 40ft charter vessel moored at the Cooktown harbour. The wind was up and the swell was about 2.5m from the southeast. We were in for a long day… we were going to be heading north so once we had made it out from the coast the seas would be hitting us across our beam. We slogged out for what seemed like a couple of hours before heading north. We snatched short naps on the engine covers during the seven hour trip and arrived at Ingram Island at about 3.45pm.
We were met offshore by Sam (National Parks Ranger) and Ian (Principle Investigator) in a 16ft catch boat. They had been out chasing turtles around Ingram Island when we arrived. I think we may have arrived earlier than expected. We loaded our gear onto the catch boat and went ashore.
The first thing we did was get out tents set up and gear stowed away as it looked like rain was on the way. After this we had our project introduction and safety induction. Satellite phone, VHF radio, RFDS medical kit, water protocol, toilet protocol, and basic courtesy expectations.
Sam made a beautiful ‘pasta putonesca’ for dinner. After dinner we had a general discussion about the project, solved the worlds problems over a cup of tea. 9pm is pumpkin hour in ‘turtle town’ so we all headed for our tents to get ready for bed.
Brian (from here on in will be known as Aussie Brian) and I rigged our fishing rod as we intended to go fishing at first light as we had a late start with the turtle catching because of the low tide in the morning.
Tomorrow we jump on some turtles…
Tuesday 27/5/2008
First day of turtle catching -
We mount up in the three tinnies (one is actually a poly boat like the one I have at home). The boat names are ‘Turtle 2’, ‘Turtle 4’ and ‘Turtle 8’ (the poly boat). They are all set up as catch boats but the poly boat is used as a barge and floating processing facility when the other boats ‘fill up’ with turtles. The outboard motors on these boats are set abnormally high. This is to allow the boats to operate in the shallowest of water. The legs of the motors are also reinforced with stainless steel round bar and flat bar as there are inevitable groundings when chasing fleeing turtles.
We start off at about 8am in the ‘nursery’. This area is a large reef flat adjacent to Ingram Island that the smaller turtles use for grazing. This trip is a shake down. I think it is used to show us the correct technique for the turtle rodeo and to see how we might react when we head out to open water after the larger turtles.
We are instructed on how to spot the turtles and to capture them ‘rodeo style’. In typical fashion I line up first on the bow. I am keen to bag my first turtle, I mean how hard could it be? I am in Ian‘s boat, Turtle 2, and we spot a turtle. Ian keeps me calm and advises me to jump slightly ahead on the turtle… “when you’re ready…” he says. I jump… I never even came close enough to touch the turtle! I am back on board and up front again. We see a couple more but I don’t even come close. The other boats are doing better than us! We do this for another hour then head back to camp for some lunch.
The volunteers chatter like crazy when we hit the beach. “Did you see the one I got?”. “How cool was that?” “How good was the Danish bloke?” After a while we all calm down and begin to eat.
After lunch we head over to Combe Island and work the surrounding reefs. This is probably the time I should tell you about the project staff and what specific species of turtles we are targeting…
The main thrust of this research is the Hawksbill Turtle, it is listed as vulnerable, but we have other researchers on this trip studying other aspects of our turtle populations.
Ian Bell is the Principle Investigator. He is studying the Hawksbill Turtle. He is a muscular man with a barrel chest and harbours a wealth of knowledge on the turtles. He is a great communicator with a classic sense of humour. He exercises a great deal of patience when answering the myriad of questions that we ask incessantly.
Sam Dibella is a National Parks Officer and has been with the department for over 20 years. Sam appears to be a ‘jack of all trades’ as he can turn his hand to almost anything. He has the uncanny knack of describing things very well with very few words and phrasing it all hilariously.
Tim Harvey is a director on the board of the Sea Turtle Foundation. He has a degree in oceanography and is the current editor of a number of environmental journals. Tim is a nice chap and goes to great lengths to explain what is happening, why we do it etc.
Michael Jensen aka the Danish Dart, is a quiet fellow and like his nick name suggests is from Denmark. He is a handsome man I would imagine he would be very popular with the ladies. He is doing his PHD at Canberra University. His study is on the relationship between the turtles using the foraging grounds and the turtle using the nesting grounds and the gene pools associated with these turtles.
Laura Parsley is doing her PHD at the University of Tasmania. Her study is based around charactering the ratio of sex hormones and how they change over the adult life of the turtle. It is also to study how pesticides and heavy metals can change the hormone ratio from puberty to laying adult female turtles. The samples taken here on Ingram Island will be used as base line samples as our waters are relatively unaffected by these contaminants. Part 2 of Laura’s study will take her to Malaysia where she will study the eggs of laying turtles there to determine the effect of the pollutants.
So after all that waffle we will basically catch everything we see until we get enough samples to satisfy each researcher’s requirements.
So after all that we will be catching almost any turtle we come across. We have to catch juveniles, sub adults female and male Green Turtle, any Hawksbill Turtle, any Loggerhead and any Leatherbacks that are unfortunate enough to stray past us. We may even come across a Dugong, in which we need a minimum of two boats (six people) to catch these things. They can weigh up to 400kg and they do not like being caught. Sam described them as a “2 and a half metre, sausage shaped ball of muscle”. Once caught they need to be measured, determine gender and tagged before releasing them.
With the Green Turtles, the type of information that is gathered is maximum carapace length measurement (CCL), maximum carapace width (CCW), weight and the data recorded, samples get taken for genetics and blood gets taken from the cervical sinus. The Hawks’ all get returned to the base camp for all of the above in addition to a minimum CCL and a Laparoscopy. The Laparoscopy was actually developed for a procedure used on humans whereby a small incision is made in the groin area and a trochar inserted to make a passage through the muscle and connective tissue and into the peritoneum for the cannula (a tube with a light and lens for viewing). The same technique is used for the turtles. This procedure is required because most immature male turtles cannot be distinguished from the females using external sexual characteristics making an internal examination necessary. It also allows the researchers to determine the maturity of the female turtles and whether they have bred in the past or will be breeding this season.
We catch heaps of Green Turtles on this afternoon and unload a couple of boat loads of turtles each on Coombe Island for the guys on Turtle 8 to process. Laura and Tim are on Turtle 8 and we keep them busy.
It has been an exhausting day and there is little talk in the main tent tonight. I am in bed by 8.30pm.
Wednesday 28/5/2008
I wake feeling pretty ordinary. I have a sore throat and sinus. I am not looking forward to a day in the boat in 20 knot winds. I am told to harden up and work thru it. Everybody is so sympathetic - not.
We catch well this day. We are actually chasing Greens until the tides turn favourable later today to catch Hawksbills. I am the first volunteer on this trip to catch a Hawksbill Turtle. We were not expecting to find one at this point in the tide at this location. I am over the moon. I knew that it was a rare opportunity and asked Ian if he wanted to catch it just to be sure. He told me to go for it! We are catching off Coombe Island again. It has an extensive reef system. We are chasing turtles in 12 - 18 inches of water. The adrenalin is high all the time and the wind whipping up the water makes it hard to see the turtles. Once spotted we have to try and intercept and catch the turtles before they reach the edge of the reef and ultimately the relative sanctuary of deep water.
We are catching adult Green Turtles for Laura and Micheal’s research. These are big animals. Aussie Brian catches one old girl that measures 110cm CCL. She could weigh as much as 170kg. They are leviathans and the trick is to tire them out with the chase if you have time, then you jump from the boat onto their backs. You have to aim to dive in front of them. The distance depends on the depth they are swimming at. The deeper the swim the further in front you need to aim. The only chance you have of holding on to them is to grab them behind the head on the leading edge of the carapace. You hang on and hold your breath until you can ‘point’ them towards the surface. You need to keep them vertical until the catch boat draws along side (down wind so the wind doesn’t blow the boat over the top of the jumper and the turtle). The guys on the catch boat attach leg ropes to the front flippers and we haul these giants into the boat and go looking for more.
Once we fill up we take them back to Coombe Island for processing. Measure, blood, genetics and tagging. Coombe Island is also a Pelican rookery and the smell of guano downwind is terrible. There are pelicans of all ages from eggs to fledglings. This happens all morning and as the tides become more favourable we start targeting Hawksbills. The Hawks have a different swimming style than the Greenies. The flipper strokes are not as graceful and they are shorter, but these guys are fast and elusive.
By the end of the day we know we have contributed. We are tired and ‘keyed up’ all at the same time. It’s another early night.
Thursday 29/5/2008
We have a late start today because of the unfavourable tides. The spare time is put towards boat and equipment maintenance. The forward controls are playing up on Turtle 8. I help Sam strip the control to see if there was something obviously wrong with the throttle mechanism. It is a really crappy design (made in Mexico). We make a few adjustments but this does nothing to solve the problem. We lift the cowl off the motor to see if there is any way we can make adjustments here. It appears that the throttle cable has stretched. We remove the linkage pins and adjust the cable. The motor revs now but the controls are still not perfect. Tim lifts the floor plates on turtle 8 as well. The bilge pumps are not working as efficiently as they should. The filters are cleaned and the plates refitted. All the ‘tag bag’ are cleaned out and replenished with new tags, scalpels, pencils and tools.
At about midday we head out to Coombe Reef again to target Hawks. We get quite a few Hawks and return to Ingram Island rather late in the afternoon. It is dark by the time we finish processing the turtles. After we finish Ian has to input all the gathered data into the computer database.
We have some dinner and clean up after ourselves. We make a Milo and drink while Ian is at the computer.
It is another early night.
Friday 30/5/2008
We head out early today to time our arrival at the catching grounds to coincide with the full tide. We have a reasonable boat ride ahead of us. The reefs we are heading to are in the middle of nowhere. They are just waypoints of a GPS until we come up on them. I am amazed at how Captain Cook could navigate his way thru the Barrier Reef without totally destroying the Endeavour. We have not worked these reefs on this trip until now. This location is supposed to hold large populations of Hawksbills. It is tough going. The rising sun is still very low on the horizon and the glare or reflection makes it very hard to spot the turtles. We are only seeing Green Turtles and it is decided to catch adult males until the Hawks show themselves. This means that we have to identify the males from the boat travelling at about 15 knots. Adult male turtle have larger tails than those on the females but identification can still be difficult as the rear flippers can hide the tail. These guys are big and they have a lot of fight in them as well. After the initial catch it is not uncommon to have to ‘ride’ them until they are tired enough for you to get them in a vertical position to allow the catch boat to approach. Once along side the catch boat the boat crew attach leg ropes to the front flippers and tie the turtles off on side the boat. These guys are too big to haul into the boat unnecessarily so all the measurements and genetics are taken ‘in the water’. All the captured data is recorded on the waterproof data sheets for Ian to enter in to his data base later on tonight.
After catching all morning we trolled a lure behind the boat on the way back to Ingram Island in the hope that we might catch some fresh fish for dinner but no such luck. I am still feeling pretty crook. I have what feels like pleurisy or pneumonia or something. I have a really ‘chesty’ cough and headaches and flu like symptoms (typical seeing as I have been on a health kick for the last 5 months and I haven’t had so much as a runny nose!) It does not help being wet and cold all day but I don’t want to miss out on any of the action.
When we get back to the Island a couple of the crew decide to go snorkelling and Sam takes the opportunity to go spear fishing for some dinner. I am not keen on getting wet unnecessarily so I elect to drive the boat while everybody is snorkelling. This solves two problems; 1. it means that we don’t have to anchor and potentially damage some reef and 2. that I can get over and retrieve any fish that Sam might spear before the speared fish attracts a shark or gets away.
Oh Yeah… this morning we saw an 8 or 9 foot Tiger Shark while we were looking for turtles. Michael, the ‘Danish Dart’, is a keen photographer and rarely has his camera away. He has a little digital like mine but he has an underwater case for it that seems to work really well. He gets some great video of the shark by simply holding the camera in the water alongside the boat while we were cruising along beside it. These guys seem pretty gentle and not too concerned by our presence. Michael even videoed a capture and release. Michael held onto a big Green’s tail while he swam away.
Saturday 31/5/2008
We woke to an absolutely glorious morning. Today the clouds and wind have disappeared. The sea is calm and the conditions are perfect. It is an early start because today we have to travel even further to get to today’s catching grounds. Because we could travel much faster we actually get to this reef too early. The sun is still low on the water and it makes it nearly impossible to see into the water. We zig zag across the reef trying to work our respective areas hoping to stumble across a turtle. It is not long before we start seeing a few. It is a very impressive site to see an adult Green Turtle speeding through shallow water. I think the bow wave they push is larger than the little boats we use to catch them can make. Today we only need to catch adult Greens and Hawksbills. We catch 6 adult Greens and process as we catch. We also catch 5 Hawks but keep these on board for processing back at the base camp. These guys need to have the laparoscopy performed before being released. We off load these guys onto the yellow boat and they head for home. Ian, The Dart and I decide to stay out and catch adult male Greens. The tides are not perfect but the weather is just too good to not take advantage of. The ocean is just magic! It is like looking into an aquarium. Eventually the dropping tide beats us we run out of water and head for home.
Back near the island we notice that Turtle 4 is anchored in a sandy patch at the edge of a reef. Sam is trying to catch us a feed again. I am dropped off so I can drive the boat for Sam. Unfortunately we head back to camp empty handed. We conclude that the coral trout boats must have worked the surrounding reefs over recently and the fish life has not recovered yet.
Ian has decided to go out into the mangroves tonight to catch juvenile turtles. These are little turtles that have a carapace length of greater than about 40cm.Believe it or not these little guys are about 10 to 15 years old at this stage of their growth. They head out at about 6.30pm. I am still feeling pretty ordinary so I elect to stay at home and stay out of the cold. I am really disappointed not to be on this trip. They will be spot-lighting and I really think I could be contributing to the catch. They return home at about 9.30pm and I help with the processing. I record the data thrown at me under torch light. Ian’s boat gets about 16 and Sam’s a similar amount. I head back up to the communal tent to make a hot Milo for the cold troops. Michell, who stayed back at camp as well has ‘pre-boiled’ the kettle so it doesn’t take long to make them all. We finish our hot drinks and have a wash and head for bed. I take some tablets that will allow me to sleep and I drift off quickly…
Sunday 1/6/2008
I put up Yankee Brian’s hammock for him so he is sleeping under a tree right now. Michell has just made me a green tea and it is very nice. This rest has given me the chance to ‘take personal stock’. I have an incredible amount of bruises up and down my legs and buttocks. Bruises on top of bruises. My feet and shins are showing scars and sores that seem to multiply each day. If you breach the skin in any way grains of sand will seek the breach out and grind away at the soft, water-soaked skin between the bone and the inside of your wetsuit or wetsuit boots. Nothing that a few band-aids and a big cup of ‘harden up’ won’t fix! They only hurt until the water all soft and pliable again.
When the two boats return home (no processing Hawks as they took all the gear with them for the Laparoscopies with they and process on an island near the catch grounds) I called the RFDS on the satellite phone to speak with a doctor about my worsening cough. Obviously over the phone he could not diagnose whether or not it was a viral or bacterial infect so he prescribed me some antibiotics just to be on the safe side.
I am hoping like hell that everybody will want to go out chasing juvies again tonight. The tides are perfect for it (very high tides early in the evening). We go out but Ian decides to sit this one out. Brian, Laura and I were with Sam in Turtle 4. Brian was on point with Laura as two. I was reluctant to get wet and cold so I started on the spot light. We cruise out over the reef flats with a clear, starry sky above. We really are privileged to be up here. When I think about it, there have been less people on these expeditions than have climbed Mt Everest!!! So we are definitely amongst the lucky few. Anyway, back to the catching. We cruise along the edge of the mangroves on Beany Island (it is adjacent to Ingram Island). Really get amongst them. It isn’t long before I push my way to the front of the boat so I can get in on the action. At times we are diving straight into the mangrove roots as the baby turtles get in there and sleep, relative protection from the Tiger sharks that like to prey upon them. The water can be pretty shallow so we have to execute low flat dives. Quite spectacular at times. Our boat ends up with 25 for the evening and processing is finished by 9pm. It was like a production line! Sam was tagging on the floor of the boat, I sat on the side of the boat and placed each turtle on my lap for measuring, tag recording and genetics, Laura took the tissue sample while I held the fin, and Aussie Brian recorded the data. Once the genetic sample was sealed in the individual sample tube I slid the turtle off my lap and over the side of the boat into the water. The whole process was started again until we finished. The other boat must have been really fast at processing their turtles as they came across and helped us process some of ours as well.
It was quite interesting to see the really young turtles that have come into the foraging areas for the first time. You see after they hatch and make it down to the water, they drift around on the ocean currents for 10 to 15 years. This time is known as ‘the lost years’ as it is unknown where the drift to or get up to during this time. Then something ‘clicks’ in their brain and sends them to the foraging areas. These guys are known as the ‘New Recruits’. Their carapaces and plastrons are clean and free from the algae that the juveniles pick up in the shallower waters of the foraging areas. They all have beautiful shells.
We all got out of our wet gear and took advantage of the newly opened shower water drum. Because it was fresh it had retained most of the heat the black drum had absorbed during the day. It was a great feeling to be in fresh clothes and knowing that it will be a comfortable sleep tonight. Almost everyone has gone to bed by 9.30pm but Sam, Laura, Aussie Brian and I stay up telling ‘war stories’. Sam decides to make us something to eat. He makes the best ‘throw togethers’. By 10.45 we have all had enough and head to bed. It is a 6am start tomorrow. It’s going to be a hard day chasing Green males and Hawks now that we have caught enough juvies.
Monday 2/6/2008
We are woken by Sam at 5.45am. Normally you would expect a wake up call to be soothing and calm to ease you into the day but not with Sam. “Come on drag your guts out of bed. Let’s see if you can manage to catch some turtles today…” I rise and go thru the morning routine. One by one we assemble at the communal tent for breakfast and the mandatory cup of coffee. There is a slight tension in the air. We are heading over to Howick Island today. On the way over we head to a large structure on the edge of the shipping channel. It is a beacon with a helipad attached to it. It stands about 15 - 20 meters high. It is used for swapping the navigation pilots that are required on the all shipping using the shipping lanes on the inside of the GBR. On this day however, it is used for initiation of the ‘new recruits’. We tie the boats off and climb the stainless steel ladder to the top. We each take our turn to hurl ourselves at the water below. What an adrenalin rush! It is a great precursor to the day. After we each had a couple of turns and some of the more experienced divers (show-offs) did some swallow diving we headed of to catch turtles. The weather is glorious again today with the wind at a pleasant 10 knots from the south east.
We head off in to the Howick Island mangroves. The tide is still a bit full so we do not see any adult turtles. We are not looking for juvies anymore as we reached our quota last night.
As the tide drops we head off to Middle Reef. We come across heaps of adult females but very few adult males. I’m in the yellow boat, Turtle 8, with Tim and Michael (the Danish Dart) today and we grab one on Middle Reef. So do each of the other boats.
Ian decides to head over to Coombe Reef on the falling tide. We manage to nab another green male. The other boats did not get any more adult Greens but did manage to catch a sub-adult Green, 4 hawks and a Loggerhead, our first one for this trip. Aussie Brian caught this big bugger. Ian called us on the radio and invited us over to check it out. They are a big lump of a thing. They have a head like a besser brick and they are just big, boofy turtles.
We head back to Ingram Island to process the Hawks. After processing and lunch we have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Yankee Brian, Aussie Brian, Laura, Sam and I all decide to go snorkelling again. Sam brings the spear-gun so we may get some fresh fish for dinner. After two hours we have nothing so we head for home. Sam says there were smaller trout down there but he would have to spear 3 or 4 of them to make a decent meal for us all. His preference is to spear just one decent sized fish.
When we get back Aussie Brian and I decide to go fishing ourselves. We take Turtle 2 out and head around to the side of the island. Brain got busted off by something pretty big and I caught two little trout.
We try a bit of trolling on the way back to camp. I got busted off twice and Brian caught a queen fish. Maybe we will get something better tomorrow.
Yankee Brian and I cook dinner tonight. He has decided that we will prepare Chilli and Cus Cus. It turns out pretty well and everybody fills up. After a Milo everyone heads to bed. It is only 8.30pm but it has been a long day. We have a 6am start in the morning. We still have 11 more adult Greens and 15 Hawksbill turtles to catch before we can start thinking about taking it easy. The weather forecast is looking grim so we could be in for an uncomfortable couple of days.
Tuesday 3/6/2008
Sam wakes us with his normal humour. He gets you laughing from the get-go. The days fighting turtles into the boats is making it hard to climb out of bed. The thought of dragging on a damp wetsuit is not very appealing. The thought of pulling on a pair of booties is even less appealing.
I rise and head down to the communal tent for breakfast. The weet-bix have all gone so I make do with some ‘trill’ (bird seed) and some canned pears. Sam makes a pot of coffee so I grab a cup of that as well. I apply plaster to all my foot and leg wounds in preparation for the ‘suiting and booting’. I head up to my tent to get ‘my poop in a group’(as they say in Atlanta).
We are heading out to Coombe Reef again today. The word is that we are running low on genetic sample tubes so we are only hunting Hawks.
The day is looking pretty grey and the wind has picked up considerably. It is going to be a lot harder to spot turtles today than it has been for the last 4 or 5 days. We have been blessed with some sensational weather.
The cloud clears as the morning progresses but the wind persists.
The pickings are slim with Turtle 2 bagging 4. Our boat, Turtle 4, did manage to catch a Loggerhead turtle. Laura was first jumper and had a shot at it but missed. We left her in the water and I had a shot. It was extremely hard to garb on to this big bloke, his head was so big it didn’t leave much room to grab them where we would normally go for. I managed to hang on to him but I couldn’t turn him vertical at first. I had to let him drag me around. It was about 5 or so minutes before Michael could manoeuvre the boat along side me to attach the leg ropes. He was pretty big so we secure him vertically on the outside of the boat and call Turtle 8 over to give us a hand to haul him into the boat to tag and measure him.
We had to take genetics using the filleting knife that I left in the boat after fishing last night. We did not pack the genetics kits into the catch bags today as we were only targeting Hawks they would be processed back on the island. It was a monster. It measured 94cm CCL. While this I an average size for a loggerhead it is probably the heaviest turtle we have handled to date.
We head back to Ingram Island and unload the Hawks. We have a quick lunch and then process the turtles, Laps, genetics, measurements, weighing and freedom. Releasing the turtles is an even better feeling than catching them. It is a very hard feeling to describe.
Tim and I refuel the boats in preparation for an early departure in the morning. After this I get a perfect opportunity to slither off to my hammock under a tree for a snooze. I grab my travel pillow, iPod, and water bottle and head down to the hammock. I am woken about 45 minutes later with a beam of sunlight shinning through what may have been the only hole in the whole Casuarina tree, straight onto my face.
Just as well, I may yet find it hard to get to sleep tonight.
Wednesday 4/6/2008
No problems getting to sleep last night. I listened to Slim Dusty and drifted off to sleep quite quickly. I woke just before 6 am and grabbed my fishing rod to see if I could catch some breakfast. No luck again. I can feel them hitting the lure, they are just not hooking up. I might change the type of lure I am casting tomorrow. I’ll have to make do with ‘trill’ again.
I am teamed up with Ian and Michell today. We head off to Snake Reef to look for Hawks. We see heaps of Greens and only 2 or 3 hawks. One of these Hawks was an unfortunate female that had had half of her right flipper and all of her left flipper missing, probably chewed off by a Tiger shark. We process this girl in the boat, electing not to take her back to the island for the laparoscope because she would have to swim all the way back here to her foraging grounds. A bit hard without flippers!!!
Ian decides to chase Greens for the next couple of hours. It is typical, when you are chasing Hawks, all you see are Greens, and lots of them.
We head for home. Ian asks me if I want to drive the boat, which I accept. Ian sits down the back with Michell and chats all the way home. I need to keep the exposed reef to my left and Coombe Island reef to my right and we make it home without any problems. We unload the 5 hawks from the yellow boat that were captured during the course of the morning. We fuel all the boats and assemble for a lunch of tinned fish, cream cheese, vego sausage and cruskets. After that gastronomic delight we all head down to process the turtles.
One by one they are processed and released. It is an ultra low tide and we drag the turtles down to the waters edge to help them on their way.
Sam, Laura an I go out again for some spear-fishing. Sam takes the spear gun, Laura goes for a snorkel and I drive the boat. After an hour we head home empty handed again. It is HOT, very HOT. It is even too hot for me to go fishing! I wait until about 4.30pm until it is cool enough to head out. Yankee Brian comes along to hold the rod while I drive the boat. Man, oh man, did we get smashed by a couple of big fish! We got busted off twice before landing a couple of reasonable sized trevally. At last we have some fresh fish for dinner.
Ian and I are on dinner duty so we start to prepare a fish curry. Ian prepares the fish while I peel and dice some sweet potatoes and some pumpkin. We throw in a can of baby corn, a can of capsicum, a bag of dried peas and some green curry paste. The curry turns out pretty well and every last drop is eaten around a great camp fire that we built this afternoon. Yankee Brian and I are told ‘we have to go out again tomorrow to catch more fish’.
My bruises are still multiplying. The insides of my legs are almost one gigantic bruise. My cuts and sores are looking quite ‘angry’. I am told that as soon as we get back to civilisation and fresh water they will clear up pretty quickly.
Poor Michael spent the day back at camp by himself today. His foot is swollen up from an ingrown toenail and a couple of nasty sores. He is hoping to be ok tomorrow. We need to get another 10 - 15 Hawks before we head home.
They are predicting severe winds on the weekend. We are leaving a day early in an attempt to beat the weather. This means that we will leave on Saturday morning not Sunday morning as per the original plan. We will conduct our last hunt of Friday morning and break camp in an orderly fashion after lunch on Friday and pack what ever is possible on the catch boats. First thing on Saturday morning we will load the Hurricane with what ever is left, tether the tinnies and head off to Cooktown shortly there after.
Thursday 5/6/2008
We head out to the Coombe Island reef again today. I was in Turtle 8 with Tim and Michell. So far for the trip we have caught 65 Hawksbill turtles. We need at least 70 to give Ian an accurate indication on the population status.
Turtle 2 caught 1 this morning, Turtle 4 caught 2 and Turtle 8 caught 1.
The highlight of the day was we saw and caught a dugong. Aussie Brian had a go at catching him but was thrown off so Sam had a go. It took him two attempts to latch on to this guy and as soon as he did we threw the anchors out and dived in to give him a hand.
Dugongs have really little eyes for the size of their bodies and their shin is pock marked with little bristles. They are insanely strong and the 8 of us had trouble restraining him. Ian determined the gender of the dugong while we tagged him through the tail fluke and measured him. Ian went to take a photo and realised that the camera had fallen out of the carry case and into the ocean. So after we released the dugong we all searched the reef in area we caught the dugong. Thankfully we found the camera so it all ended well.
We headed home and unloaded the turtles from the boats and readied them for processing. After a quick lunch we all headed down to the beach to process the turtles. This was done in relatively short space of time. We were into a routine by now. Everybody had developed a niche that they worked at. Sam and I tied the turtles to the truss for the laparoscopy, Ian did the lap’, Michell recorded all the data, Laura took blood samples, Michael took genetics, and Tim and Brain weighed and released.
Sam went out again to try and get a feed of fish for dinner. Tim, Michell, Yankee Brian and I went across to have a look the Pelican rookery on Coombe Island. There were chicks of all ages in the nesting site, from eggs to fledglings. It was pretty neat the way the older birds always kept themselves between us and the chicks. After we took heaps of photos Tim headed straight back to the boat. Yankee Brian walked out onto the reef flats following the birds and Michell and I went to collect rubbish on our way back to the boat. Crikey, we picked up a lot of rubbish. We loaded it onto the boat to return it to Ingram Island for pick up by the National Parks vessel coming to retrieve all the fuel and water drums.
On the way back to Ingram Island I trolled a lure. I was fast running out of time to impress the camp with my hunting and gathering skills. I needed a fish, badly! Suddenly my reel started screaming. I had learnt by now to have the drag on the reel backed right off to give me more of a chance to land the fish without it busting me off. I slowly tightened the drag up to a point where the fish was fighting pretty hard but still running. I had 300 meters of line to play with. It wasn’t long before I could start the ‘pump and wind’. I got the fish up to the side of the boat and it took off again. It ran hard but I managed to get it back to the side of the boat. We had no gaff so Tim had to grab it by the tail as I got it along side. He heaved it on board and we all let out a yell. Fresh fish for dinner!!! We weighed the Mackerel when we got back to camp and it pulled the scales down at 11.5kg’s.
Sam filleted the mackerel like a pro and we ended up with a lot of flesh. He diced the flesh and Laura floured and battered as Sam deep fried each piece. It was delicious. We all sat around the camp fire and enjoyed a cup of tea. It wasn’t long before the first yarn was heard and we all headed off for bed. It was another early night.
The winds are starting to pick up and the tent is flapping again.
Friday 6/6/2008
Late official start this morning due to the tide. It was a 9.30am kick off.
The boats slit up with Turtle 2 heading over to Middle Reef and Turtle 4 (Sam, Laura and me) and Turtle 8 heading back to Coombe Island Reef.
While looking for turtles we came across a 3 metre Tiger shark. We followed him around for a little while trying to film it. We managed to grab its tail a couple of times. They are so confident, he wasn’t too worried about us being close to him and we managed to get some pretty good video of him as well.
We spotted a Hawksbill and went after it. Laura was up front. She had a dive for it but was pretty deep water but she didn’t have much of a chance. It is really hard to dive deep with the wetsuits on and the Hawks are far more elusive than the big greens.
We spotted another on that was heading fast to the edge of the reef and into very deep water. It was a low percentage jump but it was only the second Hawk that we had seen all morning.
Sam called for me to dive and dive deep. It was in about 10 feet of water and I didn’t hold much hope of even getting a hand on it. Anyway, I jumped. I figured if I jumped further in front than I normally would I could startle it enough to stop it momentarily and if I was lucky I could be quick enough to grab him before he worked out what was going on. It all came together like clockwork. I got a grab on him and steered him towards the surface. It was pretty hard work keeping it vertical while the boat came along side as I could not touch the bottom. It wasn’t long before the leg-ropes were attached and the turtle and I were dragged on board. I consider this dive a PB for me.
Turtle 2 joined us soon after and we decided to head back to camp to process the four turtles caught this morning. Sam suggested to Laura and I that we try and dive to the bottom of a deep hole in the reef that we had been driving over all week. This hole was about 10 metres in diameter and was probably about 10 metre deep. It was the most vivid aqua colour I have ever seen (a close second was the lake on the island of Espirito Santo in Vanuatu). The three of us had a go but Sam was the only one that came up with a hand full of sand. As I have said before, it is very hard to deep dive with the added buoyancy of a wet suit.
When we get back to camp we unload the turtles and head up for a quick bit for lunch. There is some cold fish left over from last nights dinner and it is beautiful. It makes a nice change from Spam, cream cheese and Saladas.
We start processing the turtles and see the Hurricane arrive at the lagoon and drop anchor. Sam takes Turtle 4 over to see if he wants some lunch but comes back saying that the skipper wants to load up now and leave as soon as possible. It is 2pm now so it looks like we will be heading off after dark.
It is decided that Ian, Aussie Brian and I would stay and finish processing while the others start packing up their personal belongings. Once they finished this they would start packing up the communal tent and communications equipment. The four turtles did not take long for us to process and we were soon packing up our own stuff.
It was hard work packing up the camp in temperatures in the high 20’s. it was worse carrying everything down to the waters edge through the soft sand. The three catch boats were loaded and prepared for the trip back behind the Hurricane. We were sweaty and smelly by the time we finished.
We pack the camp up and loaded the boats in three hours flat. I never thought we could do it that quickly. The catch boats were tethered to the Hurricane after a bit of ginning around. Turtle 2 is tethered on it’s own line. Turtle 4 and Turtle 8 are daisy chained together. We were under way at just after 5pm.
Ian, Sam and I use the deck hose to shower. The others choose not to. I did not feel like spending the whole night is stinky, sweaty cloths.
We all steele ourselves for a long night as the winds have really picked up. The swell is about 2 - 2.5 metres and it is really choppy. There is nowhere on the boat that is totally dry. We sit around and chat until after dark. Keith, the skipper, has bought along a knob of ham, a chicken, some tomatoes and a couple of loaves of fresh bread. My God, I never thought a tomato sandwich could taste so good! We all take turns at making sandwiches and clean the galley up after we finish. With full bellies it wasn’t long before we started getting sleepy. There is only limited room in the cabin so most of us had to try and stay dry outside on the main deck (normally used for charter fishing).
Outside there were two padded platforms that covered the access to the engine room. These platforms were about 1.8m long and about 1.2m wide. There is just enough room across for three people to lay on their sides (at a squeeze). We had to ‘spoon’ so we could wrap our arm around the person next to us to stop either person rolling off the edge. Every now and then someone would say “time to roll” and we would all roll the other way and snooze for a while.
It was around 8pm, after we had been battered by some pretty rough seas that Ian noticed what appeared to be a flare burning in Turtle 4. the alarm was raised and Kieth, the skipper, slowed the Hurricane to a pace where he still had steerage. Ian, Sam, Aussie Brian, Tim and I tried with all our might to pull Turtle 4 (and Turtle 8 closer to us so we could see what was going on inside the boat. The boats were heavy as the water splashing over the front and sides had filled them considerably. The ropes burned and bruised our hands but nobody complained. We were trying to save the boat and all the equipment packed onto it.
We managed to get the boats close enough to spray water from the deck hose onto the fire. Turtle 4 has the Nelly Bins loaded with miscellaneous gear and communications equipment as well as 100 litres of unleaded fuel in jerry cans and a couple of 9kg LPGas cylinders. So we were trying to prevent from them from getting hot and igniting as well. After we were satisfied that the fire was extinguished we pulled the boats even closer.
Later, we heard a loud “pop” and two of our boats had disappeared! Fortunately, we were able to find them and reattach - in the dark and rough seas!
We finally made it back to the mainland after 12 hours of swelling seas. We were all so glad to back on land after a long night. However, we were all very sad to be leaving Ingram Island and each other. This has been the most fun I have ever had!

Catch Points:
Green Turtles 214
Hawksbill Turtles 74
Loggerhead Turtles 1
Dugong 1
Fun - priceless!!!!


Blog by Lachlan Duff

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