We arrived at Salomons Atoll while it was still dark and waited for first light to enter the lagoon. The captain of the Pacific Marlin, Neil Sandes, has obviously done this many times and the GPS waypoints are well known, but it is still a good precaution to be able to see where you are going.We started work immediately -- Pete Carr visited the islands to do vegetation mapping and bird counts while the rest of us went diving...
Distances around Diego Garcia atoll are much greater than in the northern atolls as the only exit from the lagoon is the pass at the north. The other atolls have several passes through which we can get to seaward sites...
Today, we worked on the reefs on the northeast and north sectors of Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos archipelago, at depths ranging from 25 meters up to 5 meters.
We've arrived at our primary field site! In the northeast edge of the Malaysian state of Sarawak lies Gunung Mulu National Park, a mountainous area with wonderful forests.
This morning, we did a ‘shakedown’ dive to check the dive equipment and see how some of the specialised equipment performed. In the afternoon, we did the first of the ‘work’ dives, recording cryptic fauna, coral cover, recovering temperature data loggers and some pretty complicated stuff to do with the Baited Remote Underwater Video Cameras, or BRUV, work, which involves a set of stereo underwater HD video systems for collecting fish data in deeper water.Only some members of our team have dived in Chagos before...
Salticids, commonly known as jumping spiders, are our focus. We are Team Salticid Borneo (unfortunately, we forgot to prepare T-shirts in advance).The four of us have come together from different backgrounds to search for salticids...
Vast coral reefs, hundreds of fish species, hundreds of thousands of pairs of breeding seabirds, a refuge and breeding ground for large, critically important marine species such as sharks, dolphins, and green and hawksbill turtles: I am describing the Chagos Archipelago, one of the most remote and unspoiled marine areas on the planet...
It's time that I introduce you to the guests of honor of my posts, the jumping spiders, known to biologists by the name "Salticidae". Imagine a miniature cat, 5 millimeters long, spotting prey with keen eyesight, walking carefully toward the prey, then crouching down, inching forward stealthily, tensing its legs, then pouncing with deadly accuracy...
Biologists have discovered and recognized just under 2 million different species of living organisms on Earth, most of which are small things like insects.
For the next five weeks, I will be in Borneo along with a student (Edy Piascik) to find jumping spiders. When I tell people that I look for jumping spiders in tropical forests, they sometimes ask me with fear in their voices: are there spiders that jump?...
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