Jane Maddocks takes a deep dive into BSAC ’ s Underwater Surveyor course , and how it can enhance our projects
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ENVIRONMENT
Taking it further
Underwater Surveyor : tools for the future
Jane Maddocks takes a deep dive into BSAC ’ s Underwater Surveyor course , and how it can enhance our projects
There is a saying that if you give a person a fish , you feed that person for one day but if you teach them how to fish , you feed them for life . Thinking about how to do underwater surveys tells me that BSAC ’ s new Underwater Surveyor course won ’ t just give you survey skills for one project , but will give you survey skills for the rest of your diving life .
Underwater Surveyor ( which you can do as a snorkeller as well as a diver ) will provide you with a range of skills . You can then use those skills on so many of the amazing projects that BSAC members could get involved with , not just Project Seagrass or Operation Oyster , but other projects as well .
Next year you may choose to do an Easter egg hunt-cuttlefish , squid , skates , and rays all have distinctive egg masses and round about Easter is a good time to look for their egg cases . This year you may want to get involved in Diadema recording ( long spined sea urchin ) if you are out in the Red Sea .
You may simply want to get involved in recording the presence or absence
Plumose anemones on the Fraoch Ban wreck , Shetland of plumose anemones on different parts of your favourite wreck . We need records of numbers of plumose – there is some evidence they could be declining .
Successfully completing the Underwater Surveyor course , whether as a snorkeller or a diver , is a springboard that can take you in the direction you want to go . What we care about is highly individual – we ’ re all different – but Underwater Surveyor is flexible in its application , and the skills that are taught .
Some of us want to record and research wrecks . Others have been swept up in the current challenges of recording seagrass , native oysters , and maerl . Still others have set up huge branch projects to record different species and the conditions within the harbour , but more from Southsea Sub Aqua Club later !
Shipwrecks make brilliant artificial reefs as well as historical records – the best of both worlds , if you will . Recording the wrecks and the marine life on them can make a great project for the branch and engage all members who join in using their diving as ‘ travel to fun ’.
“ Shipwrecks make brilliant artificial reefs ”
Underwater Surveyor can be taught by Open Water Instructors in the branch as well as in centres . For the Underwater Surveyor we do ask that the instructor does the eLearning before teaching the course . OWIs do not have to do the practical before teaching this course to students .
Once the OWIs have completed the eLearning and got their quizzes marked at pass level , they should contact HQ and get the USI ( Underwater Surveyor Instructor ) status added to their MyBSAC .
It ’ s such fun , and valid for scientific divers as well . It teaches excellent underwater recording methods , and we all know that diving with a purpose keeps us renewing our subs .
I have a quote from Laura Baker , from Orkney Sub Aqua club , about one of the dives we did in November on an Underwater Surveyor course .
“ We dived the German Light Cruiser SMS Karlsruhe . We ran a transect ( tape ) out for 15m and did a series of random quadrat placements on the tape . We then took images of each quadrat , recording its exact position on the tape .
“ We came back to the boat and as a group identified the species observed . Specific sightings , correctly identified , could then be submitted to iNaturalist - a network of citizen scientists who map and share biodiversity observations globally .”
Following on from that weekend , Orkney ’ s members are now involved in mapping the seagrass beds in some detail xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
. They are recording the health of some diverse marine habitats , including the fauna on wrecks , and are using remote cameras to record potentially shy fish , including skate , for the Orkney Skate Trust .
Finally , a word to the wise . It may be worth recording your surveys , and the different techniques you have used , with the results . Keep evidence of your scientific diving development . You never know if what you do today will lead to something even bigger tomorrow .
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