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:tree: Well, I've finally decompressed from the boat show. Every year we have a trade show where about 70 charter brokers come onboard our boat and give us the once over. We had a good show and I hope it's going to be a great year; we'll see. Opus is now a member of the PADI International Resort Association. Maybe that will make a differance, we are now the only charter boat with resort status.
We had a great time, and can't wait to get on the boat again.
We just finished our RECON course. RECON is program by the Ocean Conservancy which monitors the health of the reef. I've been diving a long time and I'm amazed at how little I know about the coral. If you get a chance to take the class,do it, it's worth it. If your local shop can set it up, the course and all the diving was free and was funded through and grant. It is similar to tha Reef fish id program where divers monitor the reef and help compile valuable data for scientists to use in thier research.
The Canuck contingent is still trying to get them to come here and enjoy the great diving. It seems they're a wee bit worried about pushing the "hard water" out of the way..... hehehe
The course was designed to teach us how to do survey dives. There are two parts to a survey dive. The first is to find one of the four kinds of coral to be suveyed and measure it's size, if there is any deases, or other damage such a parrot bites and Damsel fish alga farms, also the type and amount of alga on the head. The second part consists of measuring out a 20 sq. m area and count the amount and type of alga and long spine sea erchines and other inpact on the coral. The whole survey should take about 20 to 30 min. The depth range of the survey is only 20 to 50, mostly shallow water so you you have plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the dive. It's quite interesting and I'm glad we did it.
We also will be teaching the REEF fish id course on the boat soon. The course is great, it not only teaches how to identify fish but you send in surveys on type and abundance. The data again is compiled for use by scientists.
We can all be involved in the monitoring and preservation of the oceans and it's a lot of fun too. Contact REEF for more information about thier courses and where you can take them.
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