EXPED DIARY

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02 July 2006 - Deploy to Cocos Island

Sunday 02 July 2006 - The team have arrived safely in Costa Rica after about 25 hours of travelling. Amazingly, we managed to avoid excess baggage charges thanks to some last minute re-packing of kit. Met up with Alex -the 14th member of the team in Houston and now have everything we require to tag sharks. Tomorrow we will be picked up by bus for the 2.5 hour journey to the coast where we will join the Undersea Hunter. For now it is time for bed!

03 July 2006 - Desperately in need of sleep

Monday 03 July 06 - We are finally on our way out to Cocos Island. Getting from San José to the Undersea Hunter was relatively straight forward; however, as we write we are about 6 hours into the 36 hour sea passage and 5 members of the team are already seasick! The sea isn’t particularly rough but the swell seems to be enough to keep you permanently off-balance. Hopefully everyone will be feeling OK in the morning because we need to spend most of the day setting up and testing the tags, receivers and hydrophone. At the moment we are still desperately in need of sleep – it is a long way to Cocos Island!

04 July 2006 - Jurassic Park

Tuesday 04 July 2006 - It is still a very long way to Cocos Island! With jet lag still affecting most people (and sea-sickness affecting the rest); the majority of the team were awake by 05:00hrs. After a hearty breakfast the team gathered together to receive instruction on the scientific equipment from Dr Alex Antoniou. After an introduction to the scientific equipment, the team was split into smaller groups and set to work assembling and testing the radio tags, satellite tags, radio receivers and hydrophone. By mid-afternoon, with all tasks complete and the rain heavy outside, the film Jurassic Park was shown in order to set the scene – Cocos Island was the notional setting for the film Jurassic Park. Finally, WO1 Kenny McDonald received the news that the money he had lost in Puntarenas had been found. Words cannot describe his joy! It is now Day 3 of the expedition and we still haven’t reached our destination – we can hardly wait to get underwater. As the sun sets, the steady beat of the Undersea Hunter’s engines continues to push us all too slowly towards the ‘Island of the Sharks’. We are scheduled to arrive at midnight - tomorrow we dive.

05 July 2006 - Nobody ever said it would be easy!

Wednesday 05 July 2006 - Today we finally went diving! The diving consisted of a shakedown dive, 2 dives to retrieve existing radio receivers and place new ones and a night dive. Everything went to plan, although the team were slightly frustrated by the fact that we could have easily tagged sharks at a cleaning station on dive two but had not yet deployed the spear guns - no sharks were tagged today. The night dive presented an opportunity to watch literally hundreds of White Tipped Reef Sharks as they foraged the reef. For many of us this was our best ever night dive. Tomorrow we will concentrate on the tactics required to identify and observe the cleaning stations in order to be able to tag the sharks from above and behind. Nobody ever said it would be easy!

06 July 2006 - Jacque Cousteau

Thursday 06 July 2006 - The first dive of the day brought mixed news – we had succeeded in tagging our first shark with a radio tag but underwater conditions were less than perfect and the spear from the spear gun was lost when the tether snapped. Since we only have 2 spear guns this was a significant setback that rather overshadowed our success. Undeterred the team set about making a new shark tagging device out of a broom handle, duck tape and some jubilee clips! The new device was somewhat akin to a Hawaiian Sling in concept but unfortunately it proved inadequate and was quickly abandoned. An old spear was then found on the boat and tailored (using the limited engineering facilities on board the Undersea Hunter) to fit our spear gun - we will see if this works tomorrow.

Despite having just a single spear gun 2 more sharks were tagged on the second and third dives. The last of these sharks was tagged with a satellite tag – designed to read the temperature, depth and approximate location experienced by the shark every 1 to 6 minutes for the next 30 days; it then releases itself from the shark and downloads this information to a satellite. This is the only active satellite tag on a Scalloped Hammerhead Shark in the world today. The team also deployed 2 more radio receivers and successfully tested the hydrophone for the first time. Overall, despite some challenging diving (with strong currents and reduced visibility), it has been an incredibly successful day. Tomorrow the diving gets even more challenging when we dive a deep seamount first discovered by Jacque Cousteau – this site offers our best chance to tag Hammerheads.

07 July 2006 - Heavyweight Sharks

Friday 07 July 2006 - We are beginning to wonder if it ever stops raining on Cocos Island! Despite the incessant rain, it has been another very successful day with a further two radio tags and one satellite tag being deployed. This brings the overall total to six. The only bad news was the loss of another spear tip when a young female Hammerhead reacted with slightly more than mild annoyance when tagged – snapping the stainless steel spear tip in the process. We are not sure whether we will run out of the tagging equipment or the tags first! The improvised replacement spear bounced off two sharks as a result of the fact the tether had been tied to the front of the spear resulting in sufficient drag to deflect the spear from its course. The spear has now been fitted with a sliding collar to allow the tether to slide to the end of the spear once fired; it will be field tested again tomorrow.

The seamount proved to be a highly adventurous dive – a deep site one mile offshore with heavy seas, strong currents and a particularly healthy population of Hammerheads. Despite the conditions, all today’s sharks were tagged at this site and we will certainly be returning over the next few days. The team were also fortunate to dive on a cleaning station occupied by 2 massive Silver Tip Sharks. These heavyweight sharks kept the team mesmerised for over half an hour and came close enough to touch at one point. Finally, on a much smaller scale we found a Red-Lipped Batfish – this weird fish has large, arm-like pectoral fins with which it waddles across the seabed. Tomorrow we need to retrieve the last receiver from the seamount. We just hope it stops raining soon!

08 July 2006 - President of PRETOMA

Saturday 08 July 2006 - It is still raining! The day did not start well when we returned to the seamount to find that the Hammerheads were not coming in close enough to tag and that the receiver still could not be found. Surface conditions subsequently deteriorated to the point where the second dive team were unable to dive this site. It was beginning to look as if we would not tag a shark today; however, this changed when a shark was tagged with a radio tag in the first minute of the second dive. This was the first shark to be tagged by a diver using open circuit SCUBA equipment and also the first to be tagged by a member of the RAF. All three Services have now tagged sharks. A third satellite tag was deployed later in the day bringing the total number of tagged sharks to eight. In addition, a few members of the team were lucky enough to see a Manta Ray and a Whale Shark. Seeing these animals is a once-in-a-lifetime experience but WO1 McDonald managed to leave the lens cap on his camera and therefore missed the opportunity to photograph the Whale Shark.

The improvised replacement spear was still found to be veering off course despite the new collar and has yet to be used to successfully tag a shark. The day finished with a presentation by Randall Arauz (President of PRETOMA – the local conservation group with whom we are carrying out this research project) on shark finning and the impact of fishing on endangered marine species. This presentation had a profound impact on the team and underlined the importance of tracking the movements of Hammerhead Sharks. Tomorrow we hope to organise a search for the spear lost earlier on the expedition in order to bring the second spear gun into full working order. It is also vital that we locate and download the data from the receiver on the seamount before the end of the expedition, as this has been in location for a year and is where most of the sharks have been tagged. Maybe just maybe it will stop raining tomorrow?

09 July 2006 - Hopeful that it will stop raining one day

Sunday 09 July 2006 - The day started with (yet more) torrential rain together with heavy seas. However, we needed to search for the missing spear and that meant diving on the seaward side of the island. The first dive was definitely more adventurous than scientific – currents were so strong that, at times, it was impossible to make headway underwater and they were described as the strongest many members of the expedition have encountered whilst diving. In addition, surface conditions meant that the boat could not see one group of divers on the surface for several minutes – a little worrying considering where we are. The team did not find the missing spear and broke the two remaining spear tips, whilst tagging two more sharks with radio tags – bringing the total to ten. Sgt Gareth Thomas tagged both of today’s sharks (bringing his personal total to six) and found that he had to subsequently fend off a number of other sharks with the spear gun itself! The broken spear tips have since been repaired and we hope to be back in business tomorrow. Needless to say, we saw hundreds of Hammerheads whilst diving without the spear gun! We also saw another Manta Ray, which the expedition leader was accused of chasing with his camera - something he would, of course, never do!

The evening saw the hydrophone team in action. The hydrophone allows us to pick up the transmission from the radio tags and track them from the surface. The team picked up the signal from two of our sharks and tracked them until it was evident that they had left the vicinity of Cocos Island for the night. Using a small boat to track sharks one mile offshore in the dark (and, of course, rain) was, again, something of an adventure.

Weather permitting, we plan to dive the seamount again in the morning as we still need to find andretrieve the receiver, and time is fast running out. Hopefully, therepairs to the spear tips will prove to be effective allowing us to deploy the last remaining tags, although we are already really satisfied with our efforts so far. We also remain ever hopeful that it will stop raining one day.

The picture shows today’s diving conditions.

10 July 2006 - Official complaint

Monday 10 July 2006 - Today it finally stopped raining, the sun came out and the sea conditions were good enough to allow us to return to the seamount. As a result we were able to deploy the three remaining radio tags and retrieve, download and replace the last receiver. The expedition has now deployed ten radio tags and three satellite tags – a total of thirteen; meaning the expedition has achieved its aim with a day to go. We have also put down two new receivers and downloaded the data from the two existing receivers. It is interesting to note that the total value of the tags and new receivers that we are leaving behind is approximately £11000. We have two larger satellite tags designed for Whale Sharks remaining. The deployment of these was not part of the expedition’s original aim; however, we are currently reconfiguring them for use on Hammerhead Sharks and will attempt to deploy them tomorrow.

All of today’s tags were deployed by open circuit divers (as opposed to re-breather users who produce fewer bubbles). WO1 Colin Bartholomew tagged two sharks but still required support from the Royal Marines in order to re-load his weapon. Cpl Nik Badham tagged the third shark using the improvised replacement spear – finally proving that, after all the modifications and repeated trials, the cheapest option can still work providing you are close enough to the task. This appeared to be something of a model for Defence procurement on behalf of the RAF. Finding the last receiver on the seamount meant that we were able to download a significant amount of valuable data. It was, however, extremely fortunate that the President of PRETOMA remembered that he had not reset the receiver just before we put it back again!

There was some excitement when we found an illegal fishing boat near the seamount. The boat was well within the twelve mile exclusion zone and dangerously close to our best dive site. Somewhat upset by this we approached the boat and photographed it together with the GPS position. Subsequently, we reported it to the National Park headquarters on the island and the patrol boat was sent out to deal with it. PRETOMA will also file an official complaint.

The hydrophone team located four tagged sharks at the seamount during the day but didn’t locate any during the evening shark hunting patrol. It is likely that they started after the sharks had left the immediate vicinity of Cocos Island for the evening. Nevertheless, they greatly enjoyed the fast boat ride over a moonlit sea.

Given that it had finally stopped raining we seized the opportunity to take a group photograph, which is (satellite permitting) below. While we were doing this a Humpback Whale swam past. Tomorrow we will return to the seamount for the last time. We are also hoping to explore a second seamount closer to the island for the first time. After the day’s diving is over we will start the long journey back to the mainland.

10 July 2006 - Group Photo

11 July 2006 - Most tags ever deployed

Tuesday 11 July 2006 - We are on our way home. We have completed a total of 305 individual dives and tagged a grand total of 15 sharks; having successfully deployed the two additional Whale Shark satellite tags onto Hammerheads. This brings the total value of the deployed tags and receivers to approximately £16000 and is the most tags ever deployed on Hammerhead Sharks by a single expedition. Of the fifteen tags, six were deployed by Sgt Gareth Tomas, two by WO1 Colin Bartholomew, two by Cpl Nik Badham, two by Dr Alex Antoniou (SRI), one by PO Steve Paris-Hunter, one by Randall Arauz (President of PRETOMA – diving as a member of the boat crew) and one by Maj Andy Reid. However, everyone had a significant part to play in preparing and deploying the equipment. On the downside the hydrophone team confirmed that one of the radio tags has almost certainly fallen off, as the tag appears to be transmitting from a static location.

The new seamount turned out to be an underwater extension of a ridge leading out from the island. The upwelling of cold water meant that there was an incredible number of both Hammerheads and other fish, including a large Galapagos Shark. We would love to be able to dive this site again.

As we departed, Cocos Island was once again shrouded by torrential rain. Despite the near incessant rain experienced during the expedition we already miss this beautiful island and its sharks; even more so given that we now have to start writing it all up! Tomorrow we will spend the whole day at sea.