In mid-July 2023, Melita continued its journey around the continent, sailing from Gimuy/Cairns to Waibene/Thursday Island. The trip was sure to be a busy adventure with four keen RLS divers aboard, a thousand kilometres of coastline to traverse, a myriad of possible dive sites, and only two and a half weeks to do it!
Setting sail in July 2023, RLS Co-founder Graham Edgar hopped aboard sailing catamaran 'Melita' along with a crew of RLS divers, ready to complete biodiversity surveys along the way as Melita embarked on her lap of Australia. RLSer Kirsty Whitman reports on the team's adventures during the first leg of the voyage, sailing from Gladstone to Cairns.
Returning to Barkley Sound for the third consecutive year, RLS Canada's team of passionate marine scientists surveyed 20 sites in May this year to build on their existing time series data. This time around, the team surveyed four new sites and recorded returning species such as the sunflower star, as well as some first on-transect encounters like playful harbour seals!
Sydney-based RLS Trainer and Coordinator John Turnbull gets to the pointy end of Tripneustes identification trip-ups.
The 2023 Cod Grounds trip was four years in the making. We battled bushfires, a global pandemic and three years of La Nina floods, but finally in June this year, the curse of the Cod Grounds was lifted! Everything about this trip was epic. It can best be described as one of those 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzles that can only be solved if all the pieces line up perfectly, and boy did they line up for us this year!
