Aldabra reef monitoring a success |13 February 2017

The first fully in-house Aldabra Reef Monitoring was a success! A lot of hard work and energy goes into marine monitoring; however there is also nothing quite as enjoyable as two weeks of intensive diving at Aldabra Atoll! The team were very focused, knowing that they had to achieve a great deal in a short space of time, and expecting inevitable disruptions to the plan. The collective effort of the logistics and research teams enabled smooth operations, and the weather, for the most part, was ideal throughout. During the monitoring the team spent some time stationed at Middle Camp on Malabar Island to survey the furthest monitoring sites.

Dives at the 12 monitoring sites have to be timed perfectly to make maximum use of the tides and to ensure the diving is not disrupted by strong currents from the channels. Surveys were completed at two depths per site, with one dive at 15m and another at 5m. At these depths benthic photoquadrats (multiple images of the reef and other substrate), fish surveys and coral juvenile surveys were conducted. Each team member was allocated a role and the underwater operations ran like clock-work, with everyone knowing what they were supposed to do when. The first task upon entering the water was to locate the start of the permanent transect and then descend near to this, ensuring not to enter into the survey area. The fish team then begin first, counting and identifying the fish within the transect area. The benthic team follow, focussing on surveying the benthic community.

Although each team had to focus on their task and ignore everything else, there were some dives with distractions that were impossible to ignore, for example when a giant manta ray slowly glided past, or divers were flanked by a large silvertip shark, or were surrounded by a wall of shoaling snappers, or (for the benthic lovers) when they encountered a huge thriving patch of Physogyra corals. These moments are very special.

The over-riding feeling for the team was that, despite a substantial and obvious shift in coral cover since the widespread bleaching of early 2016, there has been much recovery and the reefs are still thriving. The Aldabra marine ecosystem is doing what it does best, bouncing back from disturbance because it has the capacity to do so!