Just call me the Data Steward!
Hey friends, here is a long overdue update!
We are currently scrolling through over 60 hours of video footage taken from our BRUVS survey around Montserrat, and stitching together footage of each drop for analysis. The Go Pro’s recorded in chunks of around 11 minutes and these needs to be in file to allow for analysis. This is time consuming work! I have the explorer, connector, energiser thinking style so it's been important for my efficiency to find team members who could handle support on this phase of the work.
It’s been exciting to see shark sightings as I have personally seen very few alive and all the apex predators I’ve only seen were dead. However sharks sightings aren’t the only fish we want to see on the expedition, we are keen to gather as much of the invaluable data on ocean habitats surrounding our island, and these horse-eye jacks surely didn’t disappoint!
First, let me apologise for not making as many vlogs as I would’ve liked too. By the time we got into full gear on our expedition, I had to give my full attention to the project, tiredness, and mild seasickness started to take hold, and then of course I got completely consumed with managing the data. Next project I think it would be awesome to have a budget for a dedicated videographer on team to help capture and edit the footage into an exciting vlog for you all. Storytelling is a major part of my work. You sure would've had a laugh with me walking around with my waterproof pelican and SD card cases, as if I was carrying gold! lol We worked HARD for this data!
Some highlights of this experiment were spending a morning at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) talking GIS and data management with Dr. Jose Marrero. It was also interested to see how the MVO are using QGIS software and how it aids in data collection related to volcanic hazards , like lahars. It was interesting to explore the synergies in our work, for me especially, in further understanding of the threats facing Montserrat’s marine environment and detecting changes early in marine biodiversity with greater accuracy.
I was also able to obtain some multi beam datasets from Nautilus Exploration Cruise of 2013. Unfortunately due to technical issues with my laptop I was not able to really work with this data until now. Really excited to dive into this and use it hopefully in plans to continue this research ins 2024. I’m getting quite excited about the power of GIS in the work we do. I shared this data with MVO and Government of Montserrat's GIS Unit.
Once we’ve finished stitching the videos together, we can then get into the nitty gritty of the visual data analysis…We also successfully collected 60 eDNA samples from 20 sites. To build up a baseline of elasmobranch diversity around Montserrat, we’ve chosen non-specific metabardocing as the first choice for sequencing. We had to choose between the MiFish U-F or MiFish U-R or different 12S and COI primers. ( Simply put, primers amplify the DNA; once the DNA is extracted, the sequencing process tells the scientists the genetic information carried in a particular DNA segment.) We decided the MiFish-E primer set would be a reasonable choice as it was recently used for a similar study in the UK Overseas Territory of the Chagos Archipelago (Central Indian Ocean). Shout out to Molly Kressner and Dr. Sam Weber for guiding this next step forward.
If we are able to secure funding for 2024, we would be interesting to pick up on some qPCR for the most commonly observed species on BRUVs (e.g., Caribbean reef and nurse shark). This would allow us to look at the specific species detection capacity of the 'Metaprobes' relative to BRUVs (instead of wider fish diversity).
As we hit the peak of hurricane season at the end of August, and I also had to urgently travel to the UK , we were not able to really work with Maka Niu to its fullest capability. In an effort to do we so, we reached out for UK naval support but their co-operation was not possible due to logistics and limited time the ship was scheduled to visit ( only 2 days) I still believe that such collaborations would be a huge support for the future of conservation research in the UK Overseas Territories!
The good news! This video gives you a glimpse into what we saw on our deep deployment using our homemade PVC lander and Nautilus light - a yummy school of red snappers. No sharks or rays. The quality of imagery was 100%, and our homemade lander performed well. Maka Niu Environmental log read : KELL: computational runtime(10340229855000) 2023-08-27 15:36:34.598 UTC 19.98 bars 200.0 meters 18.70 deg C.
We’ve applied to the Exploration Grant Fund to support continuing working with tech and its exciting new capabilities in early 2024. This would allow us to build on our data and gain a more thorough understanding of the locations and movements of Montserrat’s Marine Megafauna. Finger crossed for 2024! funding success!
Though we spent our outreach budget in project comms, so that we could engage our community at home and internationally, we will still be curating an exhibition of the work once the data analysis is complete. Over the next few months we will be compiling footage for an exhibition in 2024 and will ofcourse share details with you.
Finally, we are currently drafting an overall summary of the project for you, our backers, and the team at Experiment, because we truly appreciate Experiment.com and your support in allowing us to kick off this exciting project.
We’re looking forward to continuing this work and wish to express special thanks to Government of Montserrat - Fisheries and Ocean Governance Unit, Marine Conservation Society UK, Exeter University and Ocean Discovery League for your continued support!
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More later,
Veta Wade and the Montserrat Marine Megafauna Team
*PS pardon any typo's my internet is unstable and I lost my previous draft, so I'm gonna hit publish and dash!
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