After a month of training, learning, diving, trips off site, dive courses and a bad spell of weather, PG is finally on track and monitoring like a well oiled machine. The data is flying in whilst most boat trips are made to our monitoring sites with the three buddy pairs collecting data from Coral Communities and Point Intercept to assess the coral, and Adult and Juvenile fish surveys to monitor any patterns evolving year on year. All the training has paid off and everyone is happy to be doing what they came here to do. They are all assuming the position, horizontal for fishy folk and upside down for coral cuties, to do as instructed along 30m transects to ensure we gather the data required.
Another monitoring style is also being adopted, and has been recently pioneered on one of our sites with the hopes of expanding to others. As there is so little known about the progress of disease and predation, and the effects on corals, we have begun to mark corals with a negative impact such as disease that will be monitored through photography comparisons to establish any relevant information and track the progress of the corals. The four corals that have been marked so far include an encrusting gorgonian that is overgrowing a coral, White Plague which is a disease that kills the animal, bleaching which is a colour defect resulting from loss of algae, and finally Red Band Disease.
PG in full monitoring swing
After a month of training, learning, diving, trips off site, dive courses and a bad spell of weather, PG is finally on track and monitoring like a well oiled machine. The data is flying in whilst most boat trips are made to our monitoring sites with the three buddy pairs collecting data from Coral Communities and Point Intercept to assess the coral, and Adult and Juvenile fish surveys to monitor any patterns evolving year on year. All the training has paid off and everyone is happy to be doing what they came here to do. They are all assuming the position, horizontal for fishy folk and upside down for coral cuties, to do as instructed along 30m transects to ensure we gather the data required. 
Another monitoring style is also being adopted, and has been recently pioneered on one of our sites with the hopes of expanding to others. As there is so little known about the progress of disease and predation, and the effects on corals, we have begun to mark corals with a negative impact such as disease that will be monitored through photography comparisons to establish any relevant information and track the progress of the corals. The four corals that have been marked so far include an encrusting gorgonian that is overgrowing a coral, White Plague which is a disease that kills the animal, bleaching which is a colour defect resulting from loss of algae, and finally Red Band Disease.
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