Alan Beckhurst - Footage of Channel Deepening

CRC for Marine Ecology

Bron is back from up a break and all is normal - whatever normal is - cos we were not even on the same planet as normal today. That was probably as we were all excited about International Talk Like a Pirate Day - which is tomorrow.

Bron delivered the weather like the professional she is (nothing like last week Gents).

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is universally celebrated on September 19th. It was conceived in 1995 by two gents in the US -Mark Summers and John Baur - also known as Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket, who though a new National Holiday was required after a particulalry dodgy game of racquetball. After celebratiing it by themselves for 7 years, it occured to them that for it to become a National event, they would need to tell someone. The did - a US colomist, and the rest is history, with it being know around the world - and occasionally taken seriously.

The originators openly admit that there is no point to the day, and that's the point.

Want to talk like a pirate - follow the links for the US version and the UK version. The 4 key steps are (1) double up all adjectives, (2) Drop all your "g"'s and "v"'s, (3) always say "I be", and (4) Never speak in anything but the present tense.

And if you want a good laugh - ask Capn Slappy

Communities are on the front foot monitoring the site during the trail dredging process. Involved with channel deepening. Alan and his wife have been diving in the area for quite sometime and represents the scuba divers federation on the channel deepening advisory committee. Mrs Beckhurst is well known and underwater photographer They are concerned that deredging of the canyon area was not appropriate.. Video the site a month before dredging. Thought it would be good to get in there and have a look at the test site for ourselves. Recolonisation of those areas by kelp would be difficult given the substrate left after the dredging.. When filming Alan's group saw a number of spider crabs present, concerned there could have been an aggregation during the trail event .

Alan will be taking more footage once they have got a permit to enter the site

Clebrities show their love for the ocean on T-Shirts - Each one was asked to sign a T-shirt and draw a pic of what the ocean means to them. They sent them back to the CRC for auctioning to the general public - it was a novel but successful at raising funds for the CRC and their work.

The weather is beautiful today, and wasn't yesterday. Some bits of the Bay are good and others you could walk on.