Mark Rodrigue - Marine National Park Education Program

Its ANZAC day - one of those days to pause and remember. The weather report was overshadowed by Hawthorn not being totally killed by Brisbane and Anth's revelation that his second child is close to making an entrance.

Speaking of babies, the coronate larve is a round, cilliated, 300 um larve of a bryozoan - called a crown larve because of the cillia around the top - looking like a crown.

The sea star issue in Western Port bay is not looking as good as it was, with individuals still being found in their teens. The DNA testing has shown that they are from the Port Phillip population. Divers are still wanted (esp those willing to dive in the colder water. Contact DSE via emailing them to volunteer.

Education is a fundamental need for the long term future of marine conservation - Parks Vic has the challenge to reach a diverse range of audiences, from the frequent visitor to the first time user. This starts with info sheets, with maps and useful information through to technical and strategy papers, cumlinating in eductation recource kits for schools and community groups.

If you want more information, call 13 1693 or head to the Parkweb site

A CD was made to balance out the northern hemisphere based view of the marine environment - Each CD contains two programs covering an introduction to the diversity of life in the southern waters of Australia. The second looks at some of the endangered species varying from giant kelp to the great white shark. Marine national parks and education/community involvement make up the last couple of tracks. The CD also contains teachers notes

AMCS, Marine Discovery Centre, Coast Action/Coast Care were all key to the production of this fantastic resource.

Navy Diving started in around 1916 to keep the ships in trim, and the training started in Victoria at the Cerberus. The training was based on the British model - which meant the air inlet to the divers suit was controlled by the officer on deck, rather that the US model that saw the diver get to control the amount of air (the officer on deck always knows best !).

Basically these guys would make running repairs, untangle ropes, pick up stuff that had been dropped. It wan't until submarines started to crash and go bad at depth that the need for scuba became critical

The last copper helmet dive for the Navy took place in 1955, after the scuba had taken over. Before then, ships would typically have two divers on board, and in the early days, the air was pumped in by hand - if the pumpmen got tired, it was a bit of a problem for the diver. Just about as bad as the first introduction of mechanical pumps which had the ability to overinflate the suit.

" What's so funny about peace love and understanding"

" Yo La Tengo "

"I got a brother "

Jimmy Little

Sea Urchins

Acapelicans

Brett can see blue sky, but it is at Dromana and moving away rapidly. The water is flat and the air is slow moving. The best for the day is a dive over Queenscliff.