World Oceans Day - 2012. Clean up Forster Breakwall

June 8th is World Oceans Day, the UN-designated day for the global community to celebrate and take action for our shared ocean. One of the greatest threats to the ocean is also one of the most insidious because chances are it’s so mundane you don’t even notice it. Look around you right now: how much plastic do you see?

The ocean is downstream from all of us so no matter where we live, so we can all help address the issue of plastic pollution in the ocean. Each year a huge amount of plastic eventually makes it into coastal waters and harms ocean life. Many animals such as seabirds, sea turtles, dolphins, and whales die every year from plastic entanglement or starvation because they fill up their stomachs on plastic they mistake for food. Take action for World Oceans Day and prevent plastic from harming ocean wildlife!

Reduce plastic use . Help stop plastic pollution at its source! As consumers, we each have the power to reduce demand. And if you encourage family and friends to do the same, the more the more good we can do to keep the ocean clean and safe. Here are a few disposable plastic products everyone can reduce in our daily lives:

Plastic water bottles. Invest in a reusable water bottle, and filter water if necessary. Help the ocean and save money; it’s a win-win for you and the blue. On average, Americans now use 4 plastic water bottles a day—the highest ever recorded! Let’s turn the tide against wasteful plastic consumption.

Plastic bags. People use nearly 1 trillion plastic bags each year, and unfortunately, many of those end up ingested by sea turtles that mistake plastic for jellyfish. Remember to bring a reusable bag for food (including vegetables) and other shopping and save a life!

Straws, cups to-go, food containers, and utensils. Bring your own reusable products like mugs when you get coffee and take a pass on the plastic utensils when you get take-out food. And if you must have a straw, there a number affordable options!

Be aware of packaging. Pay attention to how much incidental plastic that comes with what you buy—your candy, headphones, pens, etc., all come in plastic packaging. Strive to cut down on your daily plastic consumption and reward corporations that package responsibly!

Act for World Oceans Day!
Come along and help with our Underwater CleanUp - Meet at Forster Marina at 11am on Friday 8th June.  Call 65917301 for more information.
Hold a ‘Switch for the Sea’ contest! Ask friends and family to switch one of their disposable plastic habits for a sustainable, ocean-friendly one: such as bringing reusable food containers from home when eating out for your ‘doggie bag.’

Organize an aquatic clean-up! Head out to your nearest and dearest body of water with some friends and pick up all the trash you find. You’ll be surprised at how much of it is plastic.

Ban the bag in your town. Many communities around the world are banning plastic bags from being used at their stores. Learn how to start a campaign to stop plastic bags use in your town!

There are hundreds of events being held all over the world, find one near you and celebrate with a purpose this World Oceans Day! You can also go the extra mile and organize an event yourself using ideas and free materials provided at WorldOceansDay.org!

http://worldoceansday.org/ 

Latest hideous display of human barbarianism.....it makes me feel ill. Check it out - You might have to copy and paste this url - the link function is not working for me tonight http://express-advocate-gosford.whereilive.com.au/news/story/grey-nurse-shark-atrocity-at-terrigal/

Dive Trip to North Latitude and Bennett’s Bommie, 5th May, 2012

The dive started out with a bit of confusion despite the magnificent morning weather as both Suzanne and Peter turned up as extras to dive with Forster Dive Centre. Nick had indicated by phone that morning that there was room for two extras but once the boat was loaded he realized that other non-GLUG divers had brought friends unannounced to dive, some being in the extra extra large category. So although both Suzanne and Pete tried to pull out, the very gracious Rachel and Heather insisted that they would give their dive up and go out the next day with Nick.

So after an embarrassing start and a farewell from Rachel and Heather, the group headed out to Latitude. The dive buddy groups for the first dive were Suzanne, Tony and Anita; and Brian and Peter. Despite the sun fading before the first dive the visibility was not too bad, about 7- 9m. Due to a fairly strong current we decided to do a roaming debris survey and collection rather than use transect lines. The findings comprised a single aluminium can and an anchor was found by the non-GLUG group but was left in situ. The habitat comprised mostly of kelp-covered rock. In terms of fish species there were plenty of bait fish, red morwong, a leather jacket, a single striped catfish, lots of blue grouper, wobbegongs, crimson-banded and other wrasses and a tropical long nose butterfly. The highlight species were several - a small green turtle and a beautiful large spotted eagle ray with a tail length of at least 2 metres. The maximum depth of the dive was 19-21m and dive time was around 50 minutes.

The surface interval was not very pleasant. The sun was gone and the wind had sprung up and there were some seriously noisy chundering companions from the non-GLUG contingent. They were very sick and not very happy, but spent most of their time bouncing around in the water while the non-sickies tried to ignore their noises and chunder and pretend to enjoy the lovely soup, bikkies and lollies provided by Nick. There was much discussion as to whether the second dive could go ahead or whether we should offload the off-colour divers first, but we ended up at Bennett’s Head bommy and all went below.

Dive pairs consisted of Janne and Tony, Brian and Peter; and Suzanne and Anita. The habitat was again kelp-covered rock on a sand floor base. The visibility was poor (2-5m max) and the current was strong. Again we did a roaming debris collection and I found a broken crab trap. Again there were plenty of baitfish around and lots of ornate wobbegongs, a few Port Jackson sharks and fiddler rays. I found a beautiful gastropod buried in the shell and soon found out how razor-sharp is the edge of the shell-opening. Max. depth was around 11m and dive time around 50 minutes, but the decreasing visibility and increasing current made heading for the top a more desirable option.

Back on board dear Nick experienced boat problems as the steering broke and he did a very professional job steering us through the bar using his reverse gear when necessary. Back at the Dive Centre the gear washing and hot shower services were most appreciated and our dear Heather and Rachel had returned to greet us and show the fruits of their labour. They had snorkeled in Breckenridge Channel and collected more debris than us! Well done girls – they also stayed on for the scrumptious GLUG BBQ organized by Anita and Janne.

Big Seal Rock, 12 May 2012

BIG SEAL ROCK -SATURDAY 12^TH MAY 2012

DIVE 1 - SOUTH EAST CORNER -Five members of the Great Lakes Underwater Group joined Action Divers to complete marine debris surveys, monitor grey nurse sharks and record fish life at Seal Rocks. A chilly wind was from the southwest meant we could not anchor too close so a shot line was put over the stern directly into the gutter.

Anita and I were first in the water and we were met by approximately forty males grey nurse sharks, many juveniles, and twenty females. Quite a few carried scars and one female had tackle trailing from her mouth – the hook way down in her stomach. She was in poor condition. Two others had thick monofilament line (long-line) with large stainless steel hooks and another had the top of its tail chopped off. Fortunately John managed to remove a hook from one individual, but it is frustrating to not be able to help the others.

A random marine debris survey was conducted as at a depth of 20 metres it was too deep to carry out transects, and one large stainless fishing hook with a trace was found and removed.

A fish identification survey recorded blue grouper, red morwong, comb wrasse, maori wrasse, crimson banded wrasse, girdled parma, common and small scale bullseyes, old wives, Moorish idols, half banded sea perch, sweep, mado, wobbegongs, bream, snapper, red rock cods, pufferfish, white cheeked scalyfin, kingfish, one spot pullers, black reef leatherjacket, moray eels and a free swimming older large loggerhead turtle.

The conditions were pleasant with a water temperature of 22 degrees and visibility of 15 metres.

DIVE 2 - WESTERN GUTTER – This dive was to 14 metres which meant Jordon and Brian were able to conduct marine debris transects. They did not find any debris however Anita found another large stainless steel hook with monofilament line buried in the sand on the north east gutter which she took back to the boat with her.

Approximately twenty grey nurse sharks were sighted with one female trailing a long section of fishing line covered in growth. Also recorded were surgeon fish, blue grouper, red morwong, kelp fish, comb wrasse, maori wrasse, crimson banded wrasse, girdled parma, common and small scale bullseyes, old wives, half banded sea perch, sweep, pike, yellowtail scad, wobbygongs, Port Jackson shark, bream, mado, stripeys, pufferfish, blackspot goatfish, luderick, blue damsels, one spot pullers, crested morwong, red morwong, bream, snapper, moray eels, six spine leatherjacket (male and female), Moorish idols, Lord Howe Island butterfly fish, black spot goatfish, blue and yellow fusilier, eastern hulafish and red rock cod.

The water temperature was 22 degrees with visibility at 8 metres however we began to feel the cold and headed back up the anchor to decompress whilst watching a large school of sweep swim about under the boat in the sunlight.

HEATHER ARMOUR.

Anzac Day Dive

The Pinnacle, Cape Hawke. The day started with a fresh sou-westerly wind and clear skies. Six GLUG members boarded for the first dive of our new project Monitoring marine debris in the Great Lakes Area. We were heading to deep water site, the Pinnacle for some threatened species work, followed by a training dive at Latitude Reef. After a few delays in the harbour, Nick, skipper at Forster Dive Centre, chartered us out to the mooring at the Pinnacle. The water was a balmy 23deg on the surface, 19deg below, and visibility was good - 10-15m. We were there to document the local grey nurse shark and black cod populations, as well as check the area for marine debris. The site is deep >30m, so transect work was out of the question. Unfortunately, Heather had trouble with her weight belt and bcd, and had to abort the dive all together. The rest of us completed a roaming search for marine debris, and documented the fish life present. We checked the latest haunts for the cod family, spotting plenty of snapper, mulloway and kingies on the way, as well as the resident (massive) black ray. After a few 'hiccups' with insects in regulators & near choking events, we made our way back to the mooring line, where a lovely black cod was hanging in the dark crevices. Greg found an old rope and tangled monofilament bundle, which we removed from the site. No sharks were seen. Lesson of the day - always purge your regs before descending, you never know what you might find! Dive Details: 33.8m, 29min, 19-23deg

Tangled mess of rope and monofilament found at 37m at the Pinnacle. Photo by Greg Toland

Young female grey nurse shark with fishing line trailing from her mouth at Latitude Reef. Photo by Greg Toland

Latitude Reef, Cape Hawke. Jordan, Kaitlyn and I jumped in to 10m, the top of Latitude Reef, which runs due East-West, with a nice kelp bed on the top, and reef wall to the north that drops down to about 20m. I was showing Kaitlyn and Jordan the Marine Debris Method, so we stayed up on top, and ran two 25m tapes due east, checking for marine debris in a 5m band along each tape. Kaitlyn made the only find, a stainless swivel. We had to contend with a bit of swell, which always makes the method more of a challenge, but the trainees did a great job. To top it off, we had four grey nurses swim through the transect line right at the end, one of which was a lovely large female (2.5-3m). We then bumped into Greg and Colin and swam back along the wall to the cod hole, where at least 10 grey nurse sharks were cruising. Greg took around 80 shots of the sharks with the lasers (used to size each animal accurately) for the Spot a Shark team, and I tried to battle with the surge and get some shots for spot a shark. We spotted one small female with a long piece of line trailing from her mouth - a common sight in our local grey nurse shark population. Greg also spotted a green turtle, and Rob, the dive master, spotted a small hawksbill turtle. I found another debris item on our swim - a piece of metal bar, probably from an anchor. Heather had more trouble with her gear, and again had to abort the dive half way through the transect. 'I should not have got out of bed', she said back on board! A great day for our first dive, and with the water looking better than it has in two years, we may be in for some busy weekends! Dive Details: 16.4m, 36min, 19 deg. I am out of action for a while after my choking incident - inhaled a full-grown cockroach at 33m, and now have pneumonia! Ah, the joys of diving :)

The Barge / The Colours, 24th July 2010

Some dives are just meant to be just wonderful. As we stood geared up ready to plunge into the cool 16 degrees water the GLUG group was treated to a huge humpback whale breaching at the stern of the boat. Feeling elated we made our way down to the barge. It is an old garbage barge lying in 28 metres of water a couple kilometres off the entrance to Wallis Lake.
Even though the visibility was around 5m there was lots to see. A few huge old snapper were cruising a couple metres off the bottom while a school of small scale bulls-eyes hid under the bow of the wreck.
I was fascinated by the enormous school of black and yellow striped balling catfish who were literally balling their way around the edge of the wreck. You could gently pass your hand into the mass and watch your hand being engulfed by the fish.
In the rusty bowels of the wreck was a school of around 20 big mullaway, seemingly hanging in suspended animation.
After our mandatory surface interval, where we compared notes on what each buddy pair saw on the dive we pulled anchor and moved to our second dive location, The Colours. The Colours is just that, a very colourful area of reef in about 10 metres of water off the north end of Mc Brides Beach. The area has lots of sand and kelp covered gutters and it isn’t hard to get lost in the maze of reef structures. Even though there was a lot of surge in the water and the group doing the reef life survey got themselves a bit tangled up there was a great range of fish species to be seen. These included the ever friendly blue groper, a number of colourful senator wrasse, schools of yellowtail scad and lots of rock cale.
Anita Roche

DIVING WITH THE “SPOT A SHARK” TEAM- 25TH JUNE 2010

The east coast population of Grey Nurse Sharks is listed as Critically Endangered. The Great Lakes Underwater Group (GLUG) are familiar with the “Spot a Shark” program, a non-profit dive community research project that uses photo-identification techniques to monitor grey nurse shark populations on the east coast of Australia.
Club members often send down photos of grey nurse sharks for possible matches. One diver in particular has had a few of her shark photos from Seal Rocks identified as the same sharks sighted at Magic Point or Fish Rock.

Peter Simpson and Sean Barker from “Spot a Shark” were invited up to give a presentation of their work to the members of GLUG and the general public as part of the Great Lakes Marine Discovery Series. The following morning GLUG planned to take them out to Seal Rocks to continue the task and complete some field training for GLUG members. The presentation at Club Forster was well received and both guys were happy to answer any questions about their program. The project is based on non-invasive photographic identification system then identifies and tracks individual grey nurse sharks between key aggregation sites in NSW.
Each shark has a series of pigmentation spots on either side of their body. These markings are unique to each shark. One device they use is two laser pointers attached to their cameras to ascertain the length of the shark. A left facing shark photograph is preferable as each side of a shark is different to the other side. It turns out Seal Rocks is an integral part of the shark migration being half way between Magic Point and Fish Rock.

Divers met at Forster marina early the next day to load up the boat then drove down to Seal Rocks for a short snorkel out to the boat to drop anchor off nearby Big Seal Rock. The water had good visibility and still reasonably comfortable at 19 degrees. Approximately thirty grey nurse sharks were sighted; unfortunately at least three animals had hooks in their mouths or gills. The songs of the whale could be heard throughout the entire dive.

Aside from the sharks also sighted was a large loggerhead turtle, girdled parmas, mado, maori wrasse, comb wrasse, one spot pullers, bulleyes, red morwong, blue and brown grouper, red rock cod, goatfish and a large wobbegong, all duly recorded on slates and photographed for our identification and research work. Total dive time was 40 minutes with a maximum depth of 24.8 metres.



A second dive was done at the same site, as Peter and Sean were more than happy with both the conditions and number of grey nurses. Total dive time was 41 minutes with a maximum depth of 23.3 metres.


HEATHER ARMOUR