Invert of the Month - Marine Snow

Jeff Maynard - Marine Historian

Bron and Anth are back in the studio for another dose of marine stuff. Bron moved yesterday so was a bit so can tell everyone about how heavy fridges and washing machines are.

The collective noun for whales: pod, herd, school and gam - perhaps it should be a prince of Whales.

The weather - its cold in Anths back yard, but should get warmer everywhere.

After a freigtor accident in 1993, there is a whole flock of plastic ducks travelling around the worlds oceans, and they have been tracked by a retired

One of the major ways nutrients are returned to the bottom of the ocean - This stuff is small particles made up of the detritus of the shallow marine environment, flocculating and falling to the bottom of the ocean and acting as the food source for a whole range or organisms on the way down and on the bottom.

Lovers and luggers was a pearl diving film - King of the Coral Sea was another movie starring Chips Rafferty and Bud Tingwell.

At that time the standard diver was a copper helmet and an inflatable suit where you control your buoyancy by controlling air input and outlet flows.

There guys want down to 40 fathoms (240 feet) using this technology.

The pearl industry went into decline when the plactics industry made a substitute for the major end use - buttons! It began a resurgence in the 70's with the expansion of the cultured pearl industry

The project started because of the number of seals that researchers were finding as they went about their studies. Brad's team raised the money to start an education program targeted at fisherman and the fishing communities. This could be a bit hard as fisherman have traditionally considered seals to be competition for their business.

The team have put together TAC style shock tactic posters to try and help with this change of culture in the commercial fishing arena. To get your copy of the posters, pop into RRR reception.

Birds Australia used to be the Birdwaters Union - There are 750 bird species in Australia, so if you are a twitcher, being in the 700 club is a real achievement. The terestrial atlas was reasonably easy to put together compared to the marine version - where you need to get space on the bridge of vessels to be able to get the information to map the distribution at sea.

The big suprise was that there were a lot more birds out there than was expected, and that the ecosystem was as large as it was.

" Everything must Converge"

" Me and My dog"

"We and the Sea"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Tiffany Eckhardt

Tamba 4

Brett is wonderful this morning, even after a dive in the buff. The 3mm wetsuit has finally been retired for the winter.