My First Marine Experience!

The first week for us new volunteers on Marine has been a great one! With today being particularly awesome! The day started like most other days with breakfast at 6.30am leaving to board Bardan at 7am. The sun was shinning brightly as we headed out to the Marine Park, in search of dolphins and other exciting marine wildlife!

Playful Bottlenose dolphins approach our research boat

Mid morning we were lucky enough to meet a group of 12 Bottlenose Dolphins! The dolphins were particularly playful, approaching Bardan, bow riding, spy hopping, belly up swims and even leaping fully out of the water. We also witnessed a lot of mating and social activities - in fact so much mating that the two juveniles slapped their tails in embarrassment!



A juvenile leaps clear of the water!



After such an exciting morning, we didn't know what to expect from snorkelling transect 10, unaware of what was lurking beneath. After a refreshing jump into the ocean, we started snorkelling along the reef taking care not to touch the corals or scare all the fish away! Then out of nowhere, a White Tip Reef Shark appeared! Swimming gracefully past us, turning around and then swimming back past us again! What’s more we also saw a Blue Spotted Stingray, a lobster, an octopus and lots of cool Butterfly and Angelfish! Back on Bardan, we ate some lunch before heading back to base. In keeping with the rest of the day, the journey back was also eventful with the volunteers spotting a total of 8 Green and Hawksbill turtles! All in all an amazing day on Marine, I can’t wait until tomorrow!

My First Marine Experience!