Workshop Red Sea

JBL Workshop 2005 Red Sea

Workshop 2005 - participants and camp

81 persons from 8 nations took part in the 1st JBL workshop at the Red Sea. The workshop took place at the Marsa Shagra Ecolodge, directly on the coast at a gap in the reef. Divers and snorkellers were therefore able to cross sand to enter the water, without damaging the reef encircling the coast.

Workshop 2005 - underwater fish

One week was devoted to research activities. Under the guidance of experts, water samples were taken and analysed and underwater light measurements carried out. Underwater feeding trials on free-ranging reef inhabitants gave useful information on the acceptance of JBL MariPerls marine food.

The aggression behaviour of fish could be observed in mirror trials. Using a special plankton net, plankton was gathered and identified under a microscope. The participants observed oceanic whitetip sharks (Carcharodon longimanus)on Elfinstone Reef, after having learnt to understand about their body language in a lecture by Dr. Erich Ritter (Shark Project).

Sharks on Elphinstone

Body language of the sharks. In a lecture by Dr. Erich Ritter (Shark Project) all participants were familiarized with the body language of the shark. In video clips, Dr. Ritter showed his interaction with white sharks when swiming in the open waters of South Africa. During subsequent dives on Elphinstone Reef (30 minutes from the coast) the participants...

Find out more

The inside of the reef.

The diving group members had the opportunity to look at the inside of a reef (Dolphin House). The divers were able to reach the inside through a cleft in this massive, free-standing reef column and explore between the coral rocks. Hardly any life was to be found in the interior. Only in very few places where the sun´s rays shone through the lacework reef...

Find out more

Turtles

Turtles could be observed at all dive or snorkelling sites. The creatures showed no fear of divers and continued with their activities unperturbed. The participants were able to clearly observe how one single turtle can consume a relatively large amount of soft coral! After a generous meal a turtle leaves behind an area grazed bare of about 30 x 30 cm...

Find out more

Desert trip and lizards

The participants set off in groups on various methods of transport into the desert, which consists of stone desert in this part of the country. The sand desert with its high sand dunes only begins west of the Nile Valley. Some participants chose quad bikes, some jeeps, whilst others selected camels as their mode of transport. The lizards observed were a type...

Find out more

Water analyses

Water samples were taken at different locations and at different depths. To do so neutral plastic bottles were filled with water at the surface, opened at the corresponding depth, inverted and filled with air, then again inverted and filled with the surrounding water to be tested. The samples were analysed one hour later at the most using both JBL water...

Find out more

Feeding trials

The participants offered the reef inhabitants JBL MariPerls (a special marine granulate food). Observations were made and notes taken on which fish species reacted positively to the food and which negatively. It should be noted that fish have never been fed on this section of reef and that they were correspondingly shy....

Find out more

Mirror experiments

Aggressive behaviour studies: in this experiment a 30 x 30 cm mirror was set up underwater in front of the divers and snorkellers and the behaviour of the fish was observed when they noticed their reflection. Many observations showed that most fish do not react to their reflection. It took a while until the fish approached the mirror which the diver had set...

Find out more

Plankton examination

A plankton net with a 105 µm mesh was used. This was dragged along slowly just below the surface of the water within the house reef bay of Marsa Shagra for 5 minutes. The live catch was then examined under a stereo microscope at 40X magnification. 90% of finds were copepods. The remaining 10% consisted of various forms of larvae (shrimp etc.)....

Find out more

Zoning

The divers laid a sinking nylon line from the topmost point of the reef flat to 24m deep. Boards were attached to the line every 5m to show the divers which section of the line they were on. All sessile (stationary)organisms along the line were identified and counted, including all organisms within a meter on the right and left of the line. Only colonies were...

Find out more