In Bygone Dives

This project aims to gather old marine life records from recreational divers.

Old underwater photos and videos could hold valuable scientific data on the species that were present at dive sites in the past and how reef health has changed through time.

Visit www.inbygonedives.com for more information about this project.

This project is being run by a team from the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation at the University of NSW.

FAQs

How Old?

Reef ecosystems are constantly changing. This project plans to track these changes through time, so we need images from all times, not just very old images.

We are requesting that you dig up your oldest diving photos, whether you started diving decades ago or only a few years.

Where From?

While we encourage underwater photos from anywhere in Australia to be added to the project, the research team will initially investigate changes in two regions.

Sydney region:
We will be looking at changes in reef composition at several popular Sydney dive sites:
Shelly Beach & Fairy Bower,
Camp Cove,
Fairlight,
Clifton Gardens,
Gordons Bay, Clovelly Pool & Shark Point,
Bare Island,
Kurnell &
Ship Rock

NSW North Coast: Byron Bay to Tweed Heads

We plan to use recreational diving photographs and videos to track the timing and location of the kelp loss from the NSW north coast.
Although coral bleaching gets the most media coverage, warming ocean temperatures are also impacting temperate reefs such as the loss of Kelp forests.

We also hope to understand the southward range extension of tropical herbivorous fish, which may have contributed to the Kelp loss.

What Species?

The types of changes we will be investigating include the decreased in sighting of certain species, particularly rare and endangered species.

Whereas, expect the sightings of some species may have increased, such as juvenile tropical fish, due to warming waters and a strengthening of the East Australian Current.

Much information on the condition on reefs is captured in the background of photographs and we plan to use this information to track changes in reef composition, such as Kelp forests and Sponge gardens, though time.

Many changes may have occurred, however, that have gone unnoticed and unrecorded, so we request you submit all photos from your dives, not just photos of 'interesting' species.....

What Records?

Although this project is primarily targeting diving photographs, any old observations of marine life can be added to the project as all these old observations are of potential scientific value. menos ↑