Kangaroo Island, 12-15th March 2010

Once again RLS joined forces with the Kangaroo Island NRM Board for another weekend of surveys on Kangaroo Island (12th-15th March).

This year’s team consisted mainly of trained RLS volunteers from last year: Heiri Klein, Kelly Dibben, Grant Flanagan, Lesley Saunders, and Adrian Brown; and the cracking KINRM team; Danny, Martine and Kym. RLS also welcomed two new KI local trainees: Robert Schonherr, and Danny Male. Dane Jones from TAFI joined Toni for the trip over as well. The diving was based out of Middle River, on the north of the island, and although the water temperature wasn’t exactly what everyone was expecting (16-18 degrees), the crew still managed to get a stack of surveys done in the four days – 37 surveys in total.

Photo: Lesley Saunders

Photo: Toni Cooper

Survey effort was on the north coast this year with 8 new sites established to the west of last year’s sites. Although there seemed to be less fish around compared to last year (63 different species of fish were recorded over four days at the same time last year), the team still managed to score a total of 51 different species of fish and 78 species of invertebrates/cryptic fish over the weekend. It was also interesting to note the decrease in fur seal and sea lion activity in the area, in comparison seals were spotted on 90% of dives last year.

Photo: Kelly Dibben

Photo: Lesley Saunders

Our location meant that unloading and loading the boat was a little trickier – there wasn’t a jetty or boat ramp for miles so each morning Mark and Heysen drew straws to see who was going to row us and gear to and from the boat at Snug Cove! Thanks must go to Mark and Heysen from Wild Cougar (no Lesley, I’m not talking about you!). The logistics of dealing with 12 divers, 12 sets of gear, and 53 tanks on board didn’t seem to faze them one bit! Thanks to all the trained divers and trainees for putting in such a great effort.

A huge thanks to Danny Brock, Martine Kinloch and Kym Lashmar from the KINRM board for managing all of the logistics and for providing financial support for the trip. Without their support these weekends would not be possible. It was a great success and we look forward to many more years of surveys!

Photo: Toni Cooper

Photo: Toni Cooper