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Calling All Citizen Scientists
What is a Citizen Scientist?
A Citizen Scientist is an individual who voluntarily contributes time, effort, and resources toward scientific research in collaboration with professional scientists or alone. These individuals don’t necessarily have a formal science background.
Why everyone who visits the Bird’s Head Seascape (BHS) should become one.
Unquestionably the BHS is beautiful; it also contains the most bio-diverse, intact coral reef systems on the planet. Divers rave about the reefs, and a trip to the BHS is on every diver’s “bucket list”. But with over 225,000 square kilometers of marine area (including 11 Marine Protected Areas, which cover over 36,000 square kilometers), the region is simply too large for NGOs, local organizations and the regional government to monitor adequately. Without your help, collecting data to support scientific and conservation issues is an overwhelming task.
Only a few people had traveled to Raja Ampat before 2002, when Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy completed their initial surveys of the region. Finding unprecedented numbers of marine species and amazingly habitats, these organizations began working on conservation plans. A network of MPAs was established, and patrol teams were empowered to enforce the rules. Word of the region’s marine riches spread beyond the scientific community, and soon intrepid divers began exploring Raja Ampat, Triton Bay and Cenderawasih Bay. Numerous travel articles and two guidebooks, “Diving Indonesia’s Raja Ampat” and “Diving Indonesia’s Bird’s Head Seascape” led to increasing numbers of marine tourists. In 2014 the website, www.birdsheadseascape.com, began promoting diving, photography, and tourism, while providing an internet platform for sharing and archiving all the scientific data being produced in the Bird’s Head, as well as reporting scientific, conservation, and regional news.
In the past year, the BHS site has added new features that enable a traveler to become part of the conservation action in the Bird’s Head. You can become a Citizen Scientist by uploading your images into the site’s Manta Ray and Whale Shark photo ID databases. This is not about “selfies”, or “sharing”, this is about actively engaging in real science and conservation. In order to protect these creatures, scientists need to know the movement of these animals, their health, and their numbers. Unfortunately, scientists cannot to be in the field every day, but divers can. By regularly contributing to these databases, you help us dramatically expand our knowledge of the populations of these charismatic giants in the Bird’s Head – which in turn will help us better design management actions to ensure their continued well-being.
Additionally the Raja Ampat Environmental Watch (RAEW) is designed so that visitors can report an incident such as fish bombing, garbage dumping, or harassment of marine life. By reporting incidents through the app, tourists become virtual patrol team members. Positive encounters, a sighting of unusual marine life or reef & fisheries recovery, are also encouraged.
By becoming involved and using these databases, you, the Citizen Scientist, take an active role in in ensuring the wellbeing of this unparalleled region. Without your involvement your visit is only about you; if you participate, everyone and everything, especially the environment you love, benefits.
WE NEED YOU!
Today we are diving one of the outer reefs from an inflatable. As we reach the bottom, a reef octopus eases its way into the cover of a small crack in the coral while displaying it’s incredible ability to change colour. They are arguably one of the most charismatic of reef dwellers and it is always exciting for me to simply hover and watch. I would have spent longer and waited for it to come and investigate me, but as dive time is limited we wanted to move on and find a turtle.
The waters around Somabay are well protected and hold a rich variety of marine life. The reef edges are thriving colonies of coral and shoaling fish, while nearer the sea bed plenty of wildlife is still to be found.
Then we located the turtles. They are very used to divers and so show little concern when slowly approached. In fact occasionally one will come over to see what you are doing. There is always huge excitement when diving with a turtle. The shear thrill of sharing a moment with another species.
What a fantastic way to finish a wonderful few days diving and I would like to thank SOMABAY, ORCA DIVING and THE BREAKERS for making my stay such a good one.
I had a great time, with diving everyday either on the house reef or on one of the offshore reefs by inflatable or larger day boat. Orca diving provided high quality equipment and facilities while the staff were all very friendly and welcoming. The Breakers was right on the coast with nice rooms, good food and once again friendly staff making the whole trip a real pleasure.
Soma Bay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds.
As well as scuba diving, Somabay caters for many other sports and activities, and so is perfect for families as well as individuals and/or groups. And of course there is always time to lay peacefully on the beach under the Egyptian sun.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
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