It is Easter Friday also on Aldabra and the little blonde 4 year old daughter of Aldabra’s Research Officer is getting excited at the prospect of a certain tropical bunny. As she splashes in the shallows with the black tip reef sharks around her, the creatures she calls her friends, I think how fantastic it would be if the world saw this scene. Perhaps it would change the media influenced perceptions of people across the globe for the better and for the benefit of our marine realm. As soon as I have a chance I will photograph Anna with her friends.Tom and I had a day on the atoll catching up with downloading and backing up our images. The digital age has taken photography to a higher level but it has also created much more work in the field. Downloading and backing up (repeatedly and several times) is extremely time consuming!The rest of the team went out on the boat specifically to deploy the remote camera in the reef running off our island. It has been giving James endless amounts of trouble and today he thought it would finally be up and running. It failed, but they did see…

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The wind changed direction yesterday and has brought in a slight swell compared to the flat, calm waters we have been lucky enough to have for our first few days here. We just made it over the reef this morning – our captain could not put the engines down as we were too shallow and we had to hold our breath, praying a large set of waves didn’t come through. It is nearing full moon and with it we have spring tides, caused by the reinforced tidal forces of the sun with the moon, a time when the tide is at its maximum range (it is named after the verb “to spring”). The waves of high tide crashing against the ancient fossilized coral limestone meters away from my bed were so loud at 3am this morning I thought at one stage that they would come crashing over our balcony.Aldabra is green turtle paradise and this morning as we motored along parallel to the beach we came across one making her way down towards us, and the tracks from where she clambered up the beach to lay her eggs in the dark of the night were still visible. We didn’t have…

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Chaos rains in the school of Bohar snappers. The red big-eyed fish are everywhere – darting beside the plastic blue crate of dead fish, changing direction with the flick of a tail and nibbling at anything they think resembles food. Apart from the frenzy the media love to build around sharks I don’t know why anyone gets hysterical at the sight of them – it’s the small things that get you. On our drift dive in the main channel late this afternoon we had four or five grey reef sharks at one time cruising around the bait box together amidst the wave of the red snappers and Rainer in the middle of it dragging the buoy back to the reef’s edge. Smelling the bait but only being able to catch the escaping morsels the snappers had a go at his mask, Tom’s ears, Kim’s blonde hair and my fingers! I think we all now have neat little puncture marks either on us or on our equipment and Rainer’s hands are beginning to look like they have been through a cheese grater courtesy of several attempts by a potato grouper to chomp his hand. All the while the grey reefs swim…

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Up when Aldabra’s coconut crabs were still roaming in the hour before dawn we were all ready and rearing to go this morning for a full day’s diving, but those tricky tides fooled us and we were half an hour too late to get over the reef. Some of us sat patiently on the beach waiting for the sun to light the water and splash some colour on the grey heron fishing along the shore and the dainty crab plovers mingling with the shark fins. Most of the team spent the rest of the morning doing more scheming and discussing the dive scenarios for the week.Later in the day James volunteered as shark caller and for almost four hours splashed the water from the rocks above with a mackerel baited bag, just enough to gather all the black tips into the small bay where we were photographing. The sicklefin lemon sharks are finally relaxing a little and not being as timid as the first couple of days, making it possible to catch a couple of images.As if the tide against us wasn’t enough - again are plans for an afternoon of diving were thwarted when the boatman, Steven, informed us…

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Our life revolves around the tides, high tide, low tide and the severity of the level. If we are on the island and the tide is too low the boat cannot navigate over the reef and if we are on the outside of the reef and the tide drops too low before we return we cannot get back to the island until the tide turns and the water level rises. It takes about six hour on average for a complete turn in the tides, for high tide to become low and visa-versa. Thus, this morning we did not set out until 12h00, on the incoming tide when the water was sufficient for us to glide out without touching any corals, and returned full speed at 17h30 just in time to get back over the reef.With a low tide the reef is exposed and this morning it was covered in startling white egrets fishing in the shallows. From my room they look like the sails of miniature sail boats floating across a flat bay. Rainer spent the morning stalking them with his 300mm lens, while I photographed the scientific officer’s 3 year old splashing in the shallows with her friends –…

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An Aldabra Tortoise was having a chilled morning on the beach, an unusual site as they love their food - leaves, fruit, and pretty much anything else that drops from the trees – and that is what seems to drive them!Things are taking shape in the waters here. For the past two days James and Dr Ormond have been configuring, tinkering and adjusting Save Our Seas’ new remotely operated camera unit. It looks like a small R2D2 robot and its technology is capable of similar wonders, but its assembly instructions seem to also be in star wars language. Nonetheless it is almost up and running. The friendly black tip reef sharks that patrol the shallow waters here acted as the guinea pigs this afternoon, triggering the camera’s motion sensor each time one dutifully swam past and OB1 recorded their images on a hard drive, which is viewed live on a linked computer. Once it has been fine-tuned and emits the right light intensity at night (too much and it will spook the sharks, too little and it will not detect them) it will be deployed at strategic places on the reef and in the inlet channels for 24hr periods at…

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Today was in technical terms a ‘down day’. Consisting of equipment preparation, checking, rechecking and scheming. The compressor problem was fixed and Rainer boosted our confidence by announcing “It SEEMS fine, ah hum hum, correction. It IS fine.” A huh! All the filters were replaced; the air was tested and passed with a clean bill of particle free.Tom, Dan and myself spent the evening ankle, knee then chest deep surrounded by inquisitive black tips. They are much smaller than their cousins the black tip (Charcharhinus limbatus) but there is no comparison as to who of the two species has the most paint on their dorsal fin – the melanopterus wins hands down, with a distinct black tip, whereas the limbatus’ is virtually non-existent. As the water darkened a couple of large sicklefin sharks swam by, as their name suggests their skin above is a yellowish brown. The black tips ignored her, continuing to swim in front, behind and around me.More on the mangroves, coral mushrooms and black tips, but before the story continues, I need sleep! (A line I fear you might read fairly often).Today was in technical terms a ‘down day’. Consisting of equipment preparation, checking, rechecking and…

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