Turtles, temples and tides. Paddy’s thoughts on the last week

We have now been in Nilaveli for little over three weeks and in retrospect the time has absolutely flown by. We only have another two weeks of work ahead of us and thus far everything has been running smoothly. Especially as we now have our two newly qualified rescue divers, Ruadhan and Nico, on side to assist in collecting data. Our techniques have become more refined and we are covering new ground every day. The only hindrance that has hit us is a spring of ear infections amongst the group. However, this is to be expected from time to time when you are diving in waters so rich with microbial life. This thick soup of life may cause an ear infection here or there but on the upside it is this aspect of the region which attracts so many hungry whales. Thankfully a prompt trip to the doctors and a few courses of antibiotics has resolved the issue and everyone is back in the water working away. We have been especially preoccupied at pigeon island; a local national park only a few kilometres boat ride from the dive centre which sports the most impressive of marine life we have seen of any dive site so far. On our first day there we were delighted to be diving with black tip reef sharks, green turtles and titan triggerfish. The latter animal I was much more cautious of during the trip as they are notorious for getting a little bitey if they have eggs they need to protect. Luckily despite their large presence here we have progressed through the trip without any chunks missing from us.

In my personal opinion my favourite part of the trip has been observing the plethora of coral types Trincomalee has to offer. The table corals are especially strikingly beautiful, branching two to three metres wide with a burgundy hue which is very pleasing to the eye. It has been a privilege to dive somewhere which has been relatively unexplored and untouched compared to some of the more prominent dive sites around the globe. The air crackles with the wonder of possibilities of what we may discover whilst we are here and where we will progress with future expeditions. One subject which I am particularly interested in is the impact of crown of thorns starfish on coral density. The species have earnt a bit of an infamous name in the last year as being the second biggest cause of coral loss in the Great Barrier Reef which made headlines last year with many marine biologists claiming it is a dying ecosystem. Their presence has been taken so seriously that automatous starfish killing robots have been released into the area to help control the population. Seeing as I have spotted at least one of these starfish at every dive I have visited, I brought up their presence to the local dive instructors and they have confirmed that they have had troubles with their numbers. One instructor even told me that last year they pulled as many as three hundred of the crown of thorns starfish out of the sea. Seeing as the locals are particularly concerned about their numbers here I would be very interested to explore the possibility of tracking their numbers in future expeditions.

For now though we have been plenty busy with alternating teams either in the water or back home analysing pictures and videos. It is a nine to five job staying back to process the data but one can hardly complain when there are cheap coconuts and a local beach at your disposal. Although it has not been all diving and office hours, last Friday the team went on a trip to Anuradhapura for some much needed culture. I would like to say my favourite part of the trip was being able to walk around ancient temples but if I am going to be honest my fondest memory was seeing a grey langur monkey steal a bunch of flowers from a poor woman and shamelessly started eating them only a few feet away from her. The temples themselves were a sight to behold. The Thuparamaya temple (which you can see displayed with this blog) I found particularly spectacular. I was shocked to discover that is in fact over two thousand years old despite the fact it looks like a building built in the year 3020 for interdimensional space flight. It was the most perfectly white object I have ever seen and it was not until I got right up close to the building before I could notice any blemishes whatsoever. The sheer amount of effort which must be invested to maintain a building like that boggled my mind. It was a peaceful and somnolent place to be. People walked backwards and forwards giving their offerings at and taking the opportunity to visit a holy tree which stems from the Bodhi tree that the original Buddha found enlightenment under. I cannot say we found enlightenment at this tree but we did find a very nice day.