Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 4

Following from Day 3, the weather for Day 4 was fantastic- sunny with very little breeze. A perfect day to be out on the boat! Luckily, I was part of the whalesharking group for the day. We started the day with a snorkel at a site inside the Ningaloo Reef and saw a huge array of marine reef fish. This included a number of large pufferfish and many species of damsels and chromis such as the ones in the pic to the left.

After abit of morning tea back on the boat, we had a briefing on the Code of Conduct when swimming with whalesharks - an important part of ensuring the impact of snorkellers on the whalesharks is minimised. Following the briefing we headed outside the reef in search of the biggest fish in the sea. We didn't need to search for long, and found a small (3.5-4m) beauty just outside the reef in shallow water.

This was the first of five different whalesharks we saw on the day. The other four were abit larger ranging in size from 5-8m long. The largest was distinguished by a damaged pectoral fin and a large tumour growth on the left hand side of its body - hopefully the marks will aid in the identification of the shark in the ECOCEAN database when we take the pictures to the lab tomorrow.

After a few hours of snorkelling with the whalesharks and photo-documenting their spots, we had lunch on the boat as we made our way back inside the Ningaloo Reef for a quick snorkel to end the day.

Again, the reef was packed with life and I found a few butterfly fish and lunar wrasse taking a snack on an unsuspecting jelly (left top), aswell as a family of banded humbugs hanging out in a staghorn coral (left bottom).

After a productive day on the water, we headed back to the ECOCEAN research house to see how the other group fared in the lab with the photo-identification of the sharks they sited on Day 3. A number of the sharks were matched to sharks that had initially visited the Ningaloo Reef as far back as 1996! So it was another productive day for both groups.

Sean