AIMS

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Hi Everyone,

I had promised I would get this started up when I was back home so here goes.

It was great to be able to see everyone while back in the states, I wish I could visit more often and spend more time at each spot, but I guess this is one of the disadvantages of living so far away.

I don't have nearly as much to report as when I was travelling, but since being home to visit in the states I have had one worthy adventure. I went out on another research trip with AIMS (Australia Institute of Marine Science).

The trip was led by Dr. Walt Dunlap with main objectives of collecting corals, sponges, and ascidians for genetic testing. I was recruited to help with the diving and collection.

The vessel was AIMS's own Cape Furguson - a 17 metre research vessel complete with a floating lab. although the boat wasn't as flash as the Elizabeth EII which we chartered on the last trip I did with aims, the food was just as good if not better. The crew onboard consisted of the captain, the first mate, the engineer, and the chef.

We were refered to as the scientists of which there were 6: walt (the trip leader and only AIMS employee), two volunteer divers, Adrian - a Phd student, Walts collaborating lab assistant ed, and a girl from austria who tagged along but did little other than work on a tan and sleep in til 9 or 10am every morning.

The steam out to Davies Reef was 4 hours from Cape Cleveland where the AIMS facility is located and was smooth sailing. so smooth in fact that we were able to set up the lab while underway and save a days work. We arrived at the reef in time for lunch and an afternoon dive. Our first subject to collect was Acropora micorthalm, a staghorn hard coral which Walt had previously worked with.

A little background history: Walt Dunlap discovered that Corals when "stressed" (because of extreme high water temperatures, or light, or even as the case in the gulf an oil spill) will secrete a protective mucus layer that acts as a sunscreen. One of the Objectives of this trip was to collect these corals, stress them by taking them from ~14 meters and placing them in a 1 meter tank aboard the ship in broad daylight so they would "stress", and then trying to isolate the gene that is responsible for this stress mechanism in the lab.

We did on average about 1 dive a day so there was plenty of time to relax. We filled this by reading or mainly by fishing. We were not able to go snorkeling without Walts supervision b/c of strict AIMS policies, so we would take the tenders (small inflatable boats) out when not diving in order to fish on the reef. Through my fishing efforts over the week I took home two coral trout, two emperor, a green jobfish, and a sharky mackeral... yum.

Some other interesting research we were working on was an ascidian (Irsinea remosa ((pictured)) that has agents effective against leukemia, and a sponge (not pictured) that we collected which possessess agents effective against bone cancer.

Once the corals were collected they were placed in a tub onboard the boat to "stress" in the sun. tests were run in the lab each day to measure levels of the stress gene and then they were frozen for further analysis back at the AIMS facility.

In all we spent 4 days at Davies reef and then moved north to Pith reef where the weather turned worse. We stayed at Pith for three days of diving and collecting before steaming home a day before schedule through very bad wind and waves (most on board did not sleep well that night).

It was an amazing trip and I was glad to be a part of it, not quite as much diving as the last AIMS trip I did, but fun, none the less. I learned heaps and was able to help out with some very interesting research so I am glad I did it.

Thats all for now, enjoy the pictures and i will try to write again soon.

I miss you all,

Love,

Paul

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