Vanuatu: A Divers' Paradise... or is it?

Vlaming's Unicornfish at Paul's Rock. Naso vlamingii. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Well, I don't have the bloody answer to that question do I? Why are you asking me? Ok wait, maybe I do have some opinions on the topic after my recent trip to Port Vila over Christmas. DD and I gave the region a thorough work out, testing out three different dive shops and six sites around the capital... with varying results.

The Amphibians of Bauple

Mixophyes fasciolatus. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Last month I was out bush helping with the field work for a PHD student. During this week in the bush (in and around Bauple, QLD, Australia), we encountered many different types of frog and toad. I'm going to use this space to talk a little bit about the amphibians we found, but also the process of identifying these creatures.

Fun in the bush!

DD with one of the many Bush Rats we caught. Rattus fuscipes. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Sounds rude right? Well, it wasn't really. You see, I've been out bush... yep, the bush, with all the spiders, ticks, lizards, snakes, marsupilami's, muddy death traps, and heat stroke that come along with it. And damn it was fun! I've been out helping my lovely lady DD with her PHD study into fire ecology. As part of it we were trapping to find out which species exist in certain areas that have been exposed to different fire regimes. This basically just means that they've been burnt at different intervals, some yearly, some never, and a couple of in betweeners.

The not so O.K. Coral... reefs.

A large bed of dead coral at Lady Musgrave Island. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Scientists claim that coral reefs are dying, they're disappearing, going extinct! There are even claims that they will disappear entirely by the end of this century. This would be an astounding 'accomplishment' by the human race... the first to wipe out not only a species, but an entire ecosystem. The sad part is, my first trip to the Great Barrier Reef, a single day of diving, has illustrated to me just how dire the situation is.

Epically Unfortunate - Lady Musgrave Island

A 3-4m Manta Ray swims over me while free-diving next to Lady Musgrave Island. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson
For a very unlucky, and ultimately disappointing dive trip, this one was great fun! The crew from the Griffith University Dive Club ventured north to Bundaberg for a weekend of diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Our aim was to live aboard the dive vessel Venus II for three nights, and have ten dives around Lady Musgrave Island. The whole group was very excited to dive with heaps of Manta Rays and we were all holding out hope for an appearance by the fabled resident 4m Tiger Shark. Unfortunately, not everything went to plan...

The South West Wall - 18th November

The Gills of an Obscure Hypselodoris. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson
There were nudibranchs and octopi everywhere on todays dive. Here is a bunch of pics and a rundown of what I saw....

Zombification!

Ben zombified in Photoshop. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

So, this is a little off topic for my blog, but I wanted to put it up anyway.

My lovely girlfriend and I recently had a combined birthday/halloween party and almost all of our friends turned up in some awesome costumes... but some didn't. I'd set up a make-shift 'photo booth' with multiple strobes. The backdrop was made as creepy as possible with a skeleton in a 'coffin' (which was actually a coffin shaped guitar case), and spider webs and skulls laying around. 

A Burleigh Heads Sunset

The Moon over Burleigh Heads at Sunset. Photo: Ryan Pearson

I took a quick walk down to Burleigh beach the other evening right after the sun dropped below the horizon. My intention was to get some nice long exposure shots of the coastline, but they didn't turn out as great as I'd hoped due to a broken and wobbly tripod. Anyway, this is one I did get.

I obviously did a bit of photoshop processing, and it was my first attempt to flatten out an image taken at the widest point on my Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens. But considering the troubles I had I'm relatively happy with the result :)

A Weekend's Worth of Plant Nutrient Transport

Nature's cup of nectar. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Plant nutrient transport is a hard thing to understand - especially for those of us who tuned out during the lectures. But after reading up on it, here's my understanding of how it works.

Basically, there's three levels to it. The initial uptake of water and minerals via the roots, the short distance transport from cell to cell, and the long distance transport from the roots to the shoots. Let's look at it in terms of a trip to the bottle-o.

Need help with Botany & Zoology?

Bot and Zoo in one picture. An Arachnid lies in its leaf hammock. Photo: Ryan Pearson

Just in case any of my fellow classmates are actually reading this and find my writings useful. I figured I'd centralise all of my 1602ENV Botany & Zoology related blogs into one post. If nothing else they may give you a break from the monotony of the lecture notes.