Wolf Rock Dive helps Coastcare’s first underwater marine project

The bright colours of this orange spotted nudibranch (Ceratosoma trilobatum) advertises its poor flavour

The bright colours of this orange spotted nudibranch (Ceratosoma trilobatum) advertises its poor flavour

The Cooloola Underwater Biodiversity Assessment (CUBA) is bubbling along full steam ahead.

CUBA is Cooloola Coastcare’s first underwater marine project, funded through the 2016-17 Gympie Council Environment Levy.

The aim of CUBA is to provide information on two popular Tin Can Inlet sites, their marine habitat, geomorphology and marine species, to stakeholders. This in turn should guide sustainable management.

A bit of bad luck with weather over the past few months has made the going a bit tough at times with underwater visibility dropping below useful levels of two or more meters. Nonetheless, with the overwhelming support of locals, we’ve completed 21 dives and have the routine nicely down-pat.

Generous support has helped, most notably from Graham Naughton offering amazing surface support, and generous Scuba air fills from Alex, James and Fiona at Wolf Rock Dive, whilst ongoing administrative support has been received from the Coastcare management team.

All that effort has put us just over the halfway mark, and to date we’ve filmed more than 900 clips of almost 200 different species of marine life – covering around half of the Norman Point and Seary’s Ledge assessment sites.

The next few months should see clearer water and the opportunity for some unique underwater film. The best and the worst of the footage will be up for public showings throughout the region.

For more information contact Josh Jensen  josh@everyspeciesmatters.com0401 237 975, or Cooloola Coastcare 0417 554 905. www.cooloolacoastcare.org.au

Of course if you want to see amazing marine life yourself, give the guys at Wolf Rock Dive a call!

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