Kenya day 11 - Swimming Expedition

This morning I joined Jaap and Peter who is he Marine specialist on a Bleaching Survey out on the reef. We got snorkeling kit from the storeroom and went down to the beach. It was nearly low tide, so easier for swimming out and for seeing the reef. Peter and Jaap were recording and photographing the state of the reef. Mostly I just swam along behind them. There seems to be a big problem with coral dying off - it loses its colour, which is why its called bleaching. Coral is very sensitive to water temperature, and the water round here is getting warmer, which affects the coral...

Healthy coral

Bleached coral - the small one at the front is the same species as the one in the picture above

Another happy coral

Small pink coral

The visibility was not great, but it was something I've wanted to do since I watched those dive documentaries when I was a child - swimming with shoals of multicoloured fish! There were dozens of Scissor-tailed Sergeants and a tiny pipefish. Jaap and Peter found several shells, which I was able to take pictures of.

We were out for 2 hours, though it didn't seem that long.

After changing out of swimming kit and washing the camera, I looked through the pictures - they weren't tremendous, but some are pretty good. I'll upload them when I have a good connection.

The other good thing today is that the song book content is finished! Now we just need a cover design and it can go for printing. Tomorrow morning is bird ringing in the nature trail at 06:00, so I'm off to bed to dream of fishes!