February 2012 Expedition - Day 13 - Thoughts from Pascaline
The strong winds are starting to take a toll on the divers. So far it hasn’t stopped any work yet but heavy sea conditions have made what is normally a fairly effortless task into hard work, and one data logger located in a storm corner of reef was left because the sea was too rough for safety. Yesterday morning a short squall with over 40 knot winds made for an extremely uncomfortable period for the surface team who huddled in the wind and rain. When the divers surfaced at the end of the squall, all smiles and comments about how rich the coral was, they were surprised to see some miserable faces greet them. In the afternoon, a trip to the seaward side of Eagle Island had to be abandoned before we got there due to very high waves making it potentially dangerous. However a reserve site in the lagoon proved to be very rich in species some of us were sampling.
In Eagle Island, we also found and area which is undergoing an outbreak of Crown of Thorns starfish (COTs). There is a large area of dead Acropora coral, which are COTs favourite food. That which was dead for some weeks is covered in algae, while that which is recently dead is bleached pure white, and among these newly dead bleached patches we found aggregations of about 20 COTs per m2. We took the opportunity to map the area affected and found that it fortunately goes only half way down Eagle Island rather than covering its entire coast. Expedition doctor Bob Long made a manta board and was towed along the length of Eagle Island; as a result the heavily impacted area has been mapped along with the approach front of the outbreak and the as yet unimpacted area. We have taken several GPS coordinates to plot the boundaries of the area so we can look to check on extent of damage and recovery sometime in the future. Usually these outbreaks are completely natural, and being a healthy reef system, we predict that the corals here will bounce back in a short time, given that there are no other stressors acting on the reefs here.
One dive team caused a lot of envy amongst the rest of us by seeing a sailfish swim by. It was about 2 metres long and swam past only about 10 metres away from the divers. We will post the picture of it when we return to Diego Garcia.
In the evenings we are continuing the Pacific Marlin Seminar Series (rated by some to be on a par with far grander lecture series!) which started with the expedition in 2006. After the evening briefing, each scientist gives a short presentation on their research. As we are a collection of scientists from all over the world and working on a variety of topics, we have a lot to learn from each other. This exchange of information is very important and already several cross disciplinary research ideas have been discussed.
As well as being a collection of scientists from around the world, we also have a young trainee member of our team. Pascaline Cotte is 19 years old and is of Chagossian descent, her grandfather was born on Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos atoll. Pascaline was a Chagos Conservation Trust scholar on a recent Coral Cay Conservation programme in Tobago, where she learnt to dive and learnt the basics of conservation monitoring and took part in a monitoring programme out there.
Pascaline tells of her thoughts on the Chagos MPA and being a member of this expedition:
“The MPA, it’s not just good for Chagos but for everyone else too. It’s good to have an example of how other places should be – to know if your place is good or bad. I’m for the MPA, it means no fishing in Chagos, keeping the place good. Places like Chagos are rare.
I feel privileged to be here. Being a member of this expedition is overwhelming because having the chance to work along such experienced scientists at an early stage of my career is a great opportunity for me. Each day I learn a whole new thing. There’s a lot more going on than I expected and it’s been going on longer than I knew.
Also being on Chagos is inspiring because it gives me the opportunity to see the islands of my ancestors, something not all Chagossians can do.
The Chagossian community have mixed views of me being here. Lots of people I didn’t know, knew that I was coming here and asked me about it. Many think it’s for a holiday. I don’t really follow any political views and I don’t speak for anyone. I personally think that there needs to be a raised awareness of the work being done here. I’m very happy to see some heads in the community supporting the MPA. Allen Vincatassin does and I would very much like to see much more people in the Chagossian community supporting it and not to see it as a barrier to this place but a gateway instead.
Being on Tobago with Coral Cay gave me an idea what I want to do and being here confirmed it. When I get back to England I will do my ‘A’ level Biology and then I hope to go to Uni to do Marine Biology and in the future I might do research out here.”