Wellington Marine Bioblitz
30th September to 28th October 2007

- Dive survey methodology -

Location

The survey area of the proposed Taputeranga marine reserve was split into 4 roughly equal sections or "zones". Each zone was allocated to one dive shop to manage and survey:

1.Western boundary to 80 Owhiro Bay Parade - Dive HQ.
2.80 Owhiro Bay Parade to 336 The Esplanade - Splash Gordon's
3.336 the Esplanade to 136 The Esplanade - Island Bay Divers
4.136 The Esplanade to Eastern Boundary - NZ Sea Adventures.

Within each section there are 4 identified habitat types that were surveyed (varying in proportion in each zone):

Dive teams

Each dive team consisted of 6 buddy pairs (although the full team compliment was not always available on each dive).
Buddy roles will be split onto:
Diver 1: Photographer and recorder of physical variables (visibility, light conditions)
Diver 2: Species recorder and specimen collector

Key Objectives

The principle objective of the Bioblitz surveys was to identify:
What species are present within the boundaries of the Taputeranga marine reserve?

Key survey tasks (completed to the best ability of the dive teams depending on availability, weather and visibility constraints):
Survey each habitat type at least once within each geographical zone to ensure coverage of the broad biological community variation;
Ensure, where applicable, the entire water column is surveyed;
Perform one night dive and one drift dive at depth no more than 40m.

Survey method

The survey method employed is open to diver preference. Given the wide involvement of non-marine survey divers involved in the Bioblitz project, survey methods were kept simple.

An adaptation of the Roving Diver Technique (RDT) was recommended, which is specifically designed for volunteer surveyors:

Divers swim freely throughout a dive site and record* every species that can be positively identified - for most divers this included commonly seen fish, crustaceans and perhaps macroalgae;

The goal was to find as many species as possible so divers are encouraged to look under ledges and up in the water column.

Species that could not be identified were photographed and a small specimen taken*. Sometimes unidentifiable species were found in clusters or communities (particularly small sessile species such as bryozoans, hydroids and ascidians. When recording unidentified species in a community, the photographs (and samples) were referred to as "species communities".

Note: The number of specimens collected were kept to a minimum and at the diver's discretion. Divers were encouraged to learn to identify the variety of species encountered (at least visually) and avoid collecting specimens of previously collected and identified species.

A roving survey also enabled the teams to concentrate on areas that are known or observed to contain more species.

* Where possible all species were photographed to confirm identification
** Specimens were only taken on Saturday or Sunday dives due to preservation constraints.

Diver 1

Recording physical conditions (recorded on a slate)
Depth of each species community (which may include one or multiple photographs)
e.g. First series of photographs would be called species community 1, the next area, species community 2. And so on. So the record on the slate would read something like "1 = 12m, 2 = 7.5m".
Light levels (generally) on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is dark and 5 is very bright.
Visibility (horizontal)
(Light levels and visibility may be recorded after the dive from memory if the same throughout the dive. If varying during the survey, they should be recorded if possible.)
Photographs
All species were photographed where possible or where indicated by Diver 2.
In each photograph of species communities, a measure of scale was included such as a ruler, compass or depth gauge.
At the end of recording each species, or species community, the photographer took a blank photograph (or something completely different such as surface water or body part) to signify a break in the photographs. This eased organisation of photographs to support species identification on land.
At the end of the dive, photograph Diver 2's slate. (Again this may help with identification on land.)

Diver 2

Species recording
All species that can be positively identified were recorded on a slate. (Diver 2 should communicate with Diver 1 to try to ensure a photograph is taken of all species that are uncommon.)
Specimen collection **
A small specimen of each species that cannot be identified was taken and placed into a pre-labelled bag. (The size of specimen taken was at the diver's discretion or on advice from taxonomists.)
All specimens in one species community (photographic area) were placed in the same bag. They were sorted on land.
If a photograph contained a fragile species, a sample was placed in a smaller bag first, then into the species community sample bag.
Each specimen bag is pre-coded. The number on each bag was recorded on the slate so that they could be matched with photograph series.
e.g. first, second, third collections would be recorded on the slate as:
1. Bag 2R
2. Bag 2FO
3. Bag 2D
Where the number corresponds to zone and the letter an arbitrary bag label.
All specimen bags from a particular habitat type were kept together - ie. in different catch bags.

** One buddy pair in each dive team was tasked with collecting sediment samples (in a jar or sample bag) from soft sediment habitats.

Survey analysis

Survey results, photographs and specimen collections were supplied to identification workshops.
Runners were available to collect survey information from the dive site/shop if requested.
There were five identification workshops with marine taxonomists on successive Sunday's beginning on the 7th October and finishing on the close event on the 28th October.
The venue for the identification workshops during the Bioblitz was the Island Bay Community Centre.
The close event was held at the Island Bay Lifesaving and Surfing Club.