And so the research begins...
Now that the rest of our team is Padi Rescue certified it was time to start our Pilot studies. With both our fish identifying and benthic coverage projects taking place underwater, our sound-scape ecology from the dive boat above and our marine plastic abundance project across the water on this paradise coast, our researchers got to work!
Organising research equipment, going over dive procedures, briefing each project methodology, the start to our second week in Sri Lanka and all systems are go!
Bright, early and bushy-tailed, a team of four researchers and two assistants geared up and headed for the coral reefs at the dive site White Rock, off the coast of Nilaveli beach. Anchor down, and the divers suited up and hit the water, ready to scout the reefs.
Meanwhile team member, Andrew descended his underwater microphone to listen in on life deep below, with help of his assistant on the surface. On land, our four other members scoped areas of Nilaveli beach coastline to undertake plastic pollutant surveys and microplastic samples.
With all the help from the guys at Poseidon Dive centre, our week of pilot studies is looking fruitful and soon we will be commencing our data collection next week.
So stayed tuned to hear more about our underwater adventures!
