Hi everyone,
We are anchored in Mulcahy Bay after cleaning the beach and doing some exploring on land and underwater.
We found three weird bits of rubbish on the beach today:
- The first was a little plastic polar bear
- The second was a little plastic pony toy
- The third was some sort of lolly dispenser
HOW YOU THINK THEY ENDED UP ON A BEACH IN THE TASMANIAN WILDERNESS?
We will report on the litter we collected tomorrow, (we found some weird things).
The rest of today's report is a bit like a sandwich:
Part 1 is interesting stuff.
Part 2 is task stuff.
Part 3 is fun stuff.
Part 1: Animal Evidence
Today Theo made a photo gallery of all the animals we have seen, or seen evidence of so far in the trip:
I will upload the photos when we get back to Hobart but here is the list of what we have seen so far:
Land animals:
Tasmanian devil, tiger snake, ants, lizards, frogs, dragonflies,
wallaby, devil, pademelon, wombat, quoll, sandhoppers
Birds:
Plovers, Shy albatross, oystercatchers, sea eagle, small bushland birds, common tern, mutton birds, gulls
Water animals:
Fur seal, elephant seal, dolphin, trumpeter, gurnet, abalone, lobster, crabs, sea-hare, krill, periwinkles, anenome, limpets, octopus, tube worm, piecrust crabs. chiton, striped conniwink, mussel, sea-star, oyster, sea urchin, snotty trevalley, sea cucumber, Cunjevoi, wrasse, cuttlefish, draughtboard shark
No wonder this area is a national park and has some protected marine reserves. There are so many things living here!
I think we would have seen more animals on the land if we looked for them at night, this is because many of the land animals are nocturnal.
Part 2: 10 steps for a fun, easy beach cleanup.
We have done lot of beach cleanups in the last few days, here are some tips for how YOU and your class might go about cleaning a beach (or creek) in your local area:
Step 1: Select a beach or creek, mark it on a map, work out how to get everyone there safely at low or middle tide. Inform everyone what the plan is including the land managers (such as council).
Step 2: Prepare equipment: Big bags for larger litter, ziplock bags for small plastic pieces, gloves and tongs for yuck rubbish. Water, food and sunscreen for everyone.
Step 3: Leave you bags up one end of the beach, walk to the other end, scope out where the litter has collected, then work your way back along the beach.
Step 4: Spread out into a line, WALK SLOWLY. Half of your group should focus on the space between the low and high tide marks, the other half should go and search all the windy spots where rubbish can get caught (eg: gullies, sand dunes and bushes)
Step 5: Everyone collects their own rubbish, putting small plastic pieces together in a little plastic bag.
Step 6: Take all the rubbish to a sheltered place and put down a big tarp on the ground.
Step 6:Write down all the different types of rubbish (The “Coastwatchers" website will help you with a recording sheet) and then count out how much of everything you have collected.
Step 7: Sort everything into different bags so they can be easily recycled.
Step 8: Take photos and call the council to pick up the bags or take them away yourself.
Step 9: Make a chart or graph that shows what sort of rubbish and how much of it was collected.
Step 10: Make a poster with a map, photos and the chart and show this to the leaders and people of your community.
Part 3: What we did this afternoon. (By Theo)
After cleaning the beach we went snorkelling! It was Pat, my dad, myself and some other friends. I have been teaching Pat how to catch a crayfish by hand, here are the basic steps.
Step 1. Swim around until you find a rocky underwater cave that isn't too big.
Step 2. Take a deep breath, dive down and look for the orange colour of a crayfish in the cave, then resurface.
Step 3. Rest for a while, then take an extra-deep breath and dive down down to your chosen cave.
Step 4. Reach straight in and grab the crayfish by the very base of the antlers (feelers).
Step 5. Be ready for a battle, it will fight until it's worried it’s antlers will snap, then it will let go.
Step 6. You will be running out of air but don't panic just rise to the surface with your catch.
Step 7. Climb onto your small boat or the shore and then check the gender and size of the crayfish (males have to be bigger than the females). If it is too small then place it in the water. If it is big enough to keep then well done, you have caught yourself a crayfish!
Thanks Theo, let me tell you, it’s pretty hard to dive down without a weight belt! grrr..
Bad weather has been forecast, so we are about to pull up the Anchor and sail back to the security of Port Davey.
See you all tomorrow!
Theo and Pat.
