Ocean News

This morning was one of my favourites. I crept out of bed, unclipped my pelican case quietly (which is near impossible) and crept down the veranda – between our sleeping habits on this expedition, which are far off in zombie land and the crashing of the waves against the champignons…

We pulled up both bait stations out of the water today, and with them our hopes to find and photograph large shark species off Aldabra also dried. Inshore, however, we did enjoy a last dive at high tide with the black tip reef sharks, photographing them silhouetted between the champignons.…

Life was back in our warm blood this morning and we headed out at first light to see if we could find some life with cold blood. Aldabra is a haven for green turtles and we hoped to catch some on film making use of the morning’s hide tide and…

Breakfast each morning in the station’s dining room, a veranda of sort that looks out over the reef flat and onto blue yonder, is usually full of banter with plans for the day being finalized according to the weather and the tides over several cups of Seychelles’ vanilla tea. This…

The morning sunrise over the channel was spectacular – and what a relief to have clear sky and sunshine for the day. We photographed the frigatebirds soaring over the island and the channel, waiting for the wind to die down and for the birds to drop closer to our level…

After an early morning lull the rain clouds returned and we were battered by strong winds and rain until the afternoon. The dark light made photography in the mangroves impossible and we were left at camp with the tortoise and the rail. (more on these characters later) In the afternoon’s…

Our journey to Middle camp took longer than I expected. The southeast monsoon wind has stirred the ocean and our 30ft boat feels very small on its surface, especially riding against the swell of the waves. Our departure was delayed an hour due to last minute technical difficulties – hard…

The wind here in Cape Town just refuses to stop blowing and has prevented Alison from going out to sea to study the White Sharks of False Bay. It does, however mean that she does get to spend a lot more time writing up her PhD thesis! Alison is currently…

Eighteen hours of lemon sharks! Eighteen hours! … We collected R2 this afternoon and as soon as we were back James downloaded the data and sat watching R2’s recordings. A mix of characters swam past R2’s eyes: plenty of squid, a few green turtles, one swam straight into the camera…

We are still in neap tides. Yesterday, like today, the low water prevented us from crossing over the reef until after lunch, but this is Aldabra and a gateway to another world. I never get bored of photographing the shore birds, such as the endemic dimorphic egret or the more…

We have been extremely honoured to have Dr Rupert Ormond, the Save-our-Seas Foundation’s Chief Scientist, on board as our scientific advisor. We were sad to see him leave the Atoll last week but students were waiting for him in the Red Sea. He kindly wrote a few words and took…

We are back once again in our old research station rooms, bordered by champignons and black tips cruising in the shallows – home sweet home. The school kids left this morning in rough seas for Assumption and the sounds of the island have returned to full volume. The southeast wind…

Our fresh fruit supply has dwindled to nothing, the last extremely over-ripe banana was cooked a few days ago, the school kids have wiped out the chocolate supply from the island tuck shop (a sight I foresaw upon their arrival but was too slow to beat them to it) and…

Tom and Dan spent a couple of hours this morning in the mangroves off the Passe Houareau channel between the islands of Malabar and Grande Terre photographing and filming the abundant marine life. There wasn’t enough room in the unstable and leaking tiny tin boat for the whole team to…

I can’t believe that it’s Friday, when I woke up yesterday morning I was really sure that it was Tuesday!! Things are moving into a higher gear at the SOSSC, work that has had the appearance of a pile of rubble for about two weeks, appeared as an actual bathroom…