Although this was the last trip of 2017, it was not the least. We had been really productive. By the second day on Koh Seh we took our invertebrate identification test and practice our navigation skill underwater and by the next day, we did our first official transect practice survey. The survey starts with two people laying the 100 meters transect line, followed by two people doing the fish survey, then two people doing the substrate survey and two people doing the invertebrate survey. My role was to conduct the fish survey with Venghour. Conducting the survey we established neutral buoyancy and swim by each side of the measuring tape. When the survey starts we would swim really slowly and record any fish that is in the are of 2.5 meters away from the measuring tape on the side we are assigned to. Then we would stop every five meters for our one minute break to make sure we didn’t miss count any fish. Lastly, we would skip five meters for every 20 meters that the survey covered to reduce bias, meaning we did four 20-meter transect surveys. Below is a visual of what the survey looks like.
During the practice survey, I saw many fish species with includes eight-banded butterflyfish, golden trevally, long-beaked coral fish, sergeant fish, cardinal fish, black-spot snapper and wrasses and a remora. At some point of the survey, we eliminate the one-minute breaks to make sure we have enough air for the whole survey. Beside from the practice survey and the invertebrate test, I did a lot of beach clean up which is something I proud of doing.