So this was a trip that I scheduled early in the semester and have been looking forward to for months! A live aboard dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef!!! Yes, I was fortunate to get up to the GBR not once, not twice, but three times! And this time I was literally living on the reef for 3 days!!!! A live abroad dive trip is this. You dive, you eat breakfast, you dive again, you eat lunch, you dive again, you eat dinner, you dive AGAIN, you sleep, and then you wake up and repeat!!! 3 days, 2 nights, 10 dives (it was supposed to be 11, but we didn't do the second night dive because it was cold and conditions were really choppy). I had an absolute blast!!! I went with 2 of my housemates (photo cred for all of these pictures goes to one of them), and we got to really experience the GBR to it's fullest. I actually dove 1 of the same spots that we had on my first trip to Cairns, but we all saw a lot of new ones as well. We saw magnificent corals (see above right), and SO MUCH wildlife. We were lucky in that our group saw sharks every other dive (below bottom) (a total of 4 or 5 I think), turtles almost every dive, a bunch of rays (below left), hundreds of fish, including my favorite puffers (below right) and my other favorite parrotfish.
Another great thing about this trip was that I felt I got a lot of experience as a diver, after the first dive we were supposed to navigate by ourselves. We had a through dive briefing before every dive explaining the site and the route and then it was up to us. At first, this was really intimidating, but by the end of the 3 days I found that I had gotten a lot better at using my compass. Also I felt myself getting more comfortable underwater, using less air, and moving with more confidence. My buoyancy still needs a lot of work, and I really cannot call myself an experienced diver yet, but practice really is essential for this activity and I gained a lot of it during this time.
Some funny moments from the trip! We got to play with Christmas Tree Worms! They live on corals (above) and look like mini trees if you wave water around them they will suck back into their holes and reemerge, this is extremely cool to watch. These animals are gorgeous. Also fun fact, the plants in the movie Avatar that suck into the ground when Jake touches them, were inspired by Christmas Tree Worms (James Cameron is an avid diver and lots of the flora and fauna in that movie was inspired by marine life)!!!! Another great moment was when we got back to the boat on one of our dives and one of the dive classes was also returning. We ended up hanging out under the boat at 3m waiting for them to get out of the water, we ended up just goofing off. Doing barrel rolls, lounging around, and taking photos, a great way to end a dive! Another cool highlight was our night dive, not only did we see sharks and turtles, but it was unlike anything I've done. Unlike a night snorkel, a night dive is more disorienting because you feel like you are hanging in space. I actually loved this feeling, I think it's as close as I'm going to get to being an astronaut in space.
We had rainy weather for the first two days, but the sun came out on the last day. Just in time for a couple of sunlit dives, and then we headed back to Cairns with a beautiful sunny view. I have to say there is nothing quite like sitting on the top of a boat with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face, enjoying some wonderful music (Sleeping at Last's Oceans EP, seriously the best music EVER for being on the water) and the rocking of the boat. I LOVE LOVE LOVE, being about on the water and I've found it's these moments when I feel the most joyful.
The Great Barrier Reef is a special place, and I'm cannot express how happy I am and how lucky I am to be able to experience it this way while I've been in Australia. (Okay I'm putting the conservation hat on) Coral Reefs are disappearing from the world at an alarming rate, bleaching events, ocean acidification, and pollution (Australia just decided to start coal mining right next to the reef and then will dump waste into the water, really fucking great choice) are destroying one of the oldest and unique ecosystems on the earth. It's up to us to spread awareness about human impacts on the ocean, and do what we can to mitigate our actions. Visiting this amazing place really puts into perspective how special it is and how essential it is that we protect it (I was actually diving the GBR on World Oceans Day, which was really special). I want my children to be able to have these same experiences as me, I don't want the pictures from this trip to be all they can see of the reef.
I try to do what I can to reduce my carbon footprint, through my diet, transportation choices, and reducing, reusing, and recycling. As well as getting involved in sustainability in my community. Also I have decided to go into paleoclimate and paleoecology research to help better understand how the climate has changed in the past so we can prepare ourselves for the future. I believe that everyone can make a difference, even if it's a small difference, and those little changes add up! So use a reusable bag next time you go the the store (save turtles), write to your local politician about climate change concerns, or take public transport next time your able! Small things we do have an impact on the ocean, coral reefs, and ecosystems around the world. It's easy to be negative when looking at what's happening with our oceans today, but instead I saw stay positive and do your part to help preserve our Natural Wonders of the World!
Thanks for reading my mini conservation and sustainability rant! The Great Barrier Reef makes me really emotional and is a tangible representation of what we're trying to protect!
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