This was to be my last big adventure of the year – I was volunteering on the Marine Parks patrol vessel "Reef Ranger" on a trip that started in Lockhart River, making our way back down to Cairns conducting predominantly seabird surveys and coral reef health surveys. For 9 days I would be at sea with a crew of 9 others on what is honestly a pretty flash patrol vessel, compared to the its predecessor the “Kerralyn”. This state of the art vessel is designed for long term work at sea and has a dedicated “cradle” that lowers, raises and houses a fast response RHIB vessel “Darter II”. There is a spacious kitchen for us crew to create our meals, a walk in pantry for our dry stores, a room dedicated to chest freezers for all our frozen food stores, 3 toilets and 2 showers (previously only one!). We were comfortable to say the least.

As we worked our way down the coast, we stop at various targeted islands and cays to conduct bird surveys and count all the sea bird species we encounter . We spot Brown Boobies, Masked Boobies, Crested Terns, Lesser Crested Terns, Sooty Terns, Black naped Terns, Bridled Terns, Roseate Terns, Gull Billed Terns, Silver Gulls, Varied Honeyeaters, Pelicans, Pied Oyster Catchers, Common Noddies, Black Noddies and the best part was when we saw the chicks of various species!! Sooooo super cute!

We also stop at a number of reefs to conduct Reef Health & Impact Surveys (RHIS). RHIS are designed to provide a snapshot of reef health at a point in time. It is a fast assessment involving a series of five metre radius circles and a bunch of assessment criteria. Surveys are usually done on snorkel but they can also be done whilst SCUBA diving. We saw some sites that had been heavily impacted by storm/cyclone damage with utter decimation of coral, some big crown-of-thorns-seastar (COTS) which naturally feed on corals, and then the other end of the scale with some of the most healthy coral I've seen this year! Also had some awesome animal encounters, being buzzed, and I mean seriously buzzed by 6 Grey Reef sharks at the same time and the best sighting of all – an Oceanic White Tip shark cruising along one of the walls I was dropped in on! AWESOME!!! Best reef surveys I’ve ever done!! :)

On this trip we also did assessments of some vessel grounding sites and inspected several installed mooring lines at various locations . Overall, it was a really varied trip with different tasks to do each day and despite the long days, it was extremely fun and interesting. I loved every second of being at sea – it’s the best feeling to wake up to the sun each morning and breathe in that fresh salty air. I love that feeling of being away from it all – no phone signal, no internet, no stresses of life back on land. All there is is the expanse of the great ocean all around you and the sky above. A feeling of total freedom. My kind of world.

To learn more about RHIS and the possibility of participating yourself, please visit: http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/managing-the-reef/how-the-reefs-managed/eye-on-the-reef/reef-health-and-impact-survey