From the 16th through the 19th of November, the Liger Marine Research Team (LMRT) was at Koh Seh, practicing doing fish surveys and take our substrate identification exam. On the trip, I went on four dives, all of which, we were focusing on improving our surveying skills. Personally, the most challenging skill for me to practice was the swimming position. The swimming position for doing surveys is head down, legs up at an angle about 30 degrees. To achieve this goal, I had to get a good buoyancy, which was hard already. This ensures that I won’t be all the way up on the surface or, sink to the bottom of the ocean. After achieving that, I have to get into my position, lay the transect line, come back to the start of the line, and start the survey.
Beside the dives and the exam, I spent my Saturday morning looking under a microscope at a zoanthid that Karen, my facilitator, picked up. I used a pair of tweezers to grab a worm to look at closely under a microscope.
This trip was very productive since we finished our second identification exam and we also got a chance to experience what it’s like to do surveys. I, now, have a sense of how the survey goes and the skills I have to improve on my upcoming survey practices.