oops

I've been having such a great time lately that I have totally forgot about updating.

Last week we had 5 girls from a school in Singapore visiting. We built metal structrus and bottle nurseries and put them down in Shark Bay. They were put down in our monitoring transect so that we can see how the corals make it on them compared to the other half of the transect which has been left as it is.

With the first weekend off for some time I started Saturday with a lzy beach day, in the evening we had a night out with the girls as a good bye party. Since it was the full moon party at Koh Panang, the bars in Chalok was really quiet. It was really nice when there were less people at the bars, me Frankie and Meika didn't get back home until efter 4 in the morning :)

Sunday was another lazy day, all three of us was a bit tired after our late Saturday.

Monday we mapped the Acropora corals in Chalok Bay to see where to do our monitoring during the evenings to watch for their spawning. I, however, got one of my favorite chores, cleaning. I was kneeling on the bottom scrubbing small cement "mushrooms" which has been in the ocean for about a year. They are put there so that crustae Coraline algae should set on them, CCA is a chemical marker for the coral larvae when they decide where to settle. 

Corals spawn once a year a few days after full moon in the evening after sunset. We are waiting for them to spawn to collect eggs and sperm, fertilize them and put in our tanks to rear them up and eventually put them in a coral nursery. After a couple of years when they've grown bigger and stronger they will be planted to one of our artificial reefs. It's like a live stock of corals.

Tuesday, Wednesday and today we have started work later in the afternoon and from 18 we've been on the boat. Teams of two divers take turn in 20 minute shifts to monitor the Acropora in a specific area. First shift goes in about 19.00 and the last team comes up about 22.

So far no spawning but maybe tonight is the night.

After we got back yesterday we went out to a party, it was a real late night, got home about 4.30, luckily I only had a few drinks :)

Still no rain unfortunately, really hope it will come soon.