November 2102 Expedition - Peering into the deep blue
We are well over half way into our expedition now and despite the weather’s best efforts to restrict our sampling and dampen our spirits, we have successfully deployed over 95 Stereo Imaging System for Shark and Tuna Analysis (SISSTAs) at depths of 10, 30 and 50m. This has resulted in over 285 hours of footage for myself, Dave Tickler and our team in Perth to analyse.
Our voyage began with a return to Sandes Seamount. Having processed the baited remote underwater video footage from the February 2012 expedition that captures imagery of fish associated with the seabed, I was excited to see what the SISSTAs would reveal about the midwater fish community. They certainly didn’t disappoint with our preliminary review of the footage providing highlights such as 20 strong schools of rainbow runners, silver tip sharks circling the camera rigs, grey reef sharks moving off feature to investigate, a couple of silky sharks cruising through, and two billfish searching for prey.
In a bid to outsmart the weather we moved towards the North of the MPA which turned up some pleasant surprises. We started seeing larger schools of mackerel scad, more silky sharks and a rather robust tiger shark. We were also rewarded with a school of 10 dorado, a manta ray and surprisingly, a false killer whale on its way to the surface.
At present we are working on one of the Northern atolls discovering more surprises by the day with bait balls under our cameras, sailfish hunting and a shark sucker showing great interest in our rig and maybe a little disappointment in not being able to find anywhere to attach itself. The biggest shock of the day, quite literally for Jas our medical officer as she screamed SHARK!, was a rather angry looking shortfin mako circling for over a minute.
So with the bad weather giving us the opportunity to catch up on videos that brings us just about up to date…for now at least as we are getting ready to deploy our next round of SISSTAs and begin the whole process again!
Lloyd Groves
Get dan sa fonder ble
Nou ariv plis ki lanmyatye dan nou lekspedisyon e menm tou bann zefor sorti ek letan pou dekouraz nou e restrikt nou pran bann sanp , nou sikseman larg plis ki 95 SISSTAs dan fonder 10, 30 e 50m. Sa inn donn rezilta dan plis ki 285 erdtan foutaz pou mwan, Dave Tickler ek nou tim an Perth pou analize.
Nou voyaz in komans par retourn kot Sandes Seamount (montany anba lanmer). Apre ki noun pas lo sa bann video anba lanmer sorti kot sa ekspedisyon an Fevriye 2012 ki ti kaptir bann zimaz pwason ki asosiye avek fon lanmer, mon ti eksite pou vwar ki SISSTAs pou montre lo kominote pwason dan milye delo. Zot in sertennman pa dezapwentan koman premye gete nou gany bann foutaz koman 20 pwason an group , bann reken silver tip pe fer letour kamera, ek bann lezot reken ki vini pou envestige, e seten zis pe naze an pasan, ek 2 espadron ki pe rod manze.
Dan en lesey pou bat sa letan nou ti bouz an direksyon Nor sa proteksyon marin ki montre detwa sirpriz. Noun komans vwar pli larz group makro, plis reken silky e en gro reken tigre. Noun osi gany rekonpanse par en group 10 Dorad, en Lare Manta e menm en balenn ki pe all lo sirfas.
A se moman nou pe travay kot enn bann atol dan nor an dekouver plis sirpriz par zour avek en group bann pti pwason anserkle nou kamera, dyab lavwal ki pe fer lasas, sise osi i sa pwason ki atas son lonkor avek reken ek plizyer ankor ki pe montre lentere avek nou kamera en petet dezapwente akoz i pan vwaren landwa pou li atas avek. Pli gro sok lazournen, literaman pou nou dokter Jas ler i kriy reken!, i ti reken mako ki ti get byen ankoler ki ti pe fer letour nou kamera pou en minit
Alors avek move letan ki pe donn nou oportinite pou regard nou bann video ki anmenn nou ziska prezan… pou aprezan nou pe met pare pou larg nou prosen SISSTAs e rekomans tou sa presedir ankor!
Lloyd Groves