What is our marine program up to these days you wonder? All sorts of incredible things!
This passed week our team came together to assemble another structure to add to our artificial reef!
Our artificial reefs are built within MRCI’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) which MRCI worked very hard to establish as one of our proudest long term accomplishments!
Composed of 6 separate parts, volunteers and staff have spent time, both on land and in the water, to assemble this structure.
Check out volunteers Carrie, Luke, and Gavin, assisted by Marine Intern Alex and Scuba Instructor Greta, effectively maneuvering it into place.
Our artificial reef has become home to lots of aquatic animals since being created! You can see some progress photos of older structures (versus our newest addition) and the increasing density and diversity of sessile and benthic organisms living on and around them.
In an attached photo, we even have some squid eggs on one particular framework!
Taking 2-3 weeks to hatch, there’s only approximately one more week before we have some baby squids in our midst!
Marine intern Alex, marine science officer Emma and ‘survey ready’ volunteer Verity, have just carried out our monthly survey this passed Wednesday at our Artificial Reef to record it’s progress as part of MRCI’s larger MPA reef monitoring program.
All this hard work is going towards the “bigger picture”of encouraging the rejuvenation of our reef and its inhabitants!
