George Hayward, 2012 North Queensland Sustainability student blogger, writes:

Saturday May 26

Getting ready to depart for the reef

I don’t have a bucket list (maybe I should), but if I did, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef  probably would have been on it. In which case, I could now cross it off! That’s right, today was our first day at The Reef for data collection and a whole bunch of leisure time. The corals and fish were amazing. They are truly magnificent works of nature, and every color on the spectrum was generously represented. As I was looking at all the reef wonders, I thought back to my days as an architecture student and tried to recall any designs comparable to the specimens I was now observing. The truth is, nature’s designs are far superior to that of humans, even the best I can think of.

The reef is nothing short of an underground city, with each element interacting with the others, all governed by nature’s law and beauty. Each structure/form has a purpose and therefore allows for maximum efficiency and productivity.

Sunday May 27

Katie and Sam getting ready to go in

As planned, today we returned to the reef for more snorkeling fun. For sea sickness medication, today I took one Dramamine pill and it worked much better than the two Travacalm I took yesterday. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but either way, I’d recommend Dramamine for all future boat-goers.

The reef once again blew my mind. Fish that live there must have so much fun every day! It’s almost like a surreal video game world, completely unlike anything on land I’ve ever seen. The corals grow outward and upward, twisting and spiralling intricately among each other in what appears to be perfect harmony. The colors of both the fish and corals radiate in the water, practically inviting you to take a closer look (but don’t touch!). And there is so much overlap in these structures that every few moments a fish pops out from somewhere unexpected, causing one to question how much of the reef we can actually see.

Relaxing between dives

Despite the grandeur of this majestic reef, many of us (including myself) chose to stay out of the water at times when it was optional to go in. This was because of how cold it was out there. The water was warm, but once we go out, the freezing wind and absence of sunlight combined to render us incapable of moving. We were almost literally frozen in place, and it was just so much easier to avoid the cold than to go back in the water. To prevent this, future students should keep their wetsuits on between dives. It’s warmer when you take them off, so it will be tempting, but if you do so you may not want to go back in!