FIELDWORK/KAJIAN LAPANGAN AT BIDONG

November 17, 2019

FIELDWORK/KAJIAN LAPANGAN AT BIDONG

Bismillahirrahmannirahim.
Assalamualaikum,

Before Sem 3 officially starts, during Semester break of 2 months, in between, BIOM students will use 2 weeks to do FiELDwOrk!!! At Bidong Island!!! UMT research island. Masyaallah the island is so beautiful.

For my year, we have 75 students, and we were divided into 2 sessions, SESSION 1 and SESSION 2.
The main session would be 4 days at the island. But the rest, are just the same but at a different place,our beloved kolej and makmal BIOD/OCEANOGRAPHY.

Let's break down the parts.

1. Arrived at hostel.
I got ANN 401 , or An-nasai blok at fourth floor. It was a far cry than where i stayed during my first year at Ibnu Abbas 1st floor.

KEYS!!!

Ookay.

1 key for each room, 4 people will be staying in the said room. THE BEST THING WAS, the whole floor was filled with BIOM girls. FIRST DAY, the floor was filled with excited chatter,friendly faces and lots of stories/gossips shared. Unpacking, pray, and just relax...

SIDE NOTE: There were students, not that many,were taking short semester studies and diploma students. KOLEJ was empty,well, less filled with people.

2. Second day

From 8-5 in the evening we had brief introduction and manual given by lecturers.

It was hard to find lunch since cafe's were closed. We had to fast for a few hours.

3. Third day

We had snorkelling/water confidence session at UMT POOL. DEPTH: 2METRES

An example, wait! DID YOU NOTICE SOMETHING WRONG in this picture?

He didn't wear his snorkel properly. haha ;)

Here's one of some of my classmates snorkelling.

I spent the morning freaking out because i didn't bring my goggles with me. But fortunately, we didn't even need that, we borrowed mask,snorkel and fins to practice snorkel in the pool. AT sea, Its a different story..... WE had to fight the water current ;) Hey, its worth it!

So.... what do you do when your mask gets foggy? You clean it with toothpaste/soap/saliva and rinse it afterwards!

Snorkelling was a foreign concept for me. It has been a long time since i put on snorkel,mask and fin together, I once had the snorkelling set but they got lost somewhere back when i was a kid. I learned to expel water from the snorkel, to breathe using it and finning.

4. Fourth day,

EHHH, class from 8-10. HAHAHA. Because later on was diving session, FYI
SIDE NOTE: Only 4 divers per group.
In my group there were 6 of us who were divers, my friend and I volunteered to do snorkelling so that left 4 divers.
So the snorkellers will have the rest of the day free.
Basically,divers will be acquainted with scuba, techniques to put on bcd,tank,regulator,breathing, equalize.......

5. Fifth day
Lecture 8-4pm. SIDE NOTE: Group disscusion takes place/started. Its imperative to make data sheet now as of ASAP! Only two days left before we go to the island.

EXAMPLE of data sheet

What is a data sheet? Basically its a piece or pieces of paper where you jot down important details,observation,physical parameter: temperature,time,weather condition,any boat problem,depth,boat speed,coordinates, etc..

Also, label and make an inventory list for lab apparatus such as kitahara bottles,glass jar,urine bottles and FORCEPS(MyGROUP AND ANOTHER GROUP LOST A FORCEP)

6. Last day at main land

This day was interesting to say the least.
We had lecture from respective lecturers in charge but this time it was interesting.....
WE had Coral studies given by DR James

OnE of the slides

This is our slate board. Used to record findings/observation for coral survey.

WE got our slate board!!!! Did you notice that pointy end? Its actually a pencil that we used to use in primary school that we can replace on top/stacked end to end.

Rainbow PENCILLLL

AREN't they sweet? Posted by our senior ]

I dropped by MYDIN market to buy snacks, sweets and other stuff needed for tomorrow.

I was nervous and sad hahaha because my friends were in Session 2. But, My one friend,Deana helped me pack for the four days I'm at Bidong Island. A huge thank YOUUUU!

7. FIRST day at Island.

This is the tentative.

I'm in group 3! That morning, from our hostel we carried all our stuff all the way to Scuba Lab where a Bus will be parked there to bring us to Pulau Duyong.

From Pulau Duyong, we will be separated into a few groups. My group was split into 3, one with some lecturers,one with the remaining lecturer and mine was with volunteers/boatmen/staff.

SIDE NOTE: It was my friend and me only. Two girls on a big ship with apparatus and our bags.

Before, we were asked to put on life jackets. SAFETY FIRST!

Tadaaa.

The VIEW OF DRAWBRIDGE OF KT.

We had a little incident, there was a pipe leakage,they fixed it but it was a 20 minutes of stillness at the ocean.WE were the last ones to arrive at the Island. Others had a 1hour and 30 minutes journey, ours was 2hours plus. I had the chance to sleep on that boat. ehehehe.

Shortly after arriving,we queue up to pass equipment to put them at the WAQAF. ( We conduct lecture,dicussion,reading spectrophotometer,fish identification)

AND THEN

we were given time to rest, and also queue along the beach to the canteen to pass food. There were chefs to cook us breakfast,lunch and dinner.

We had lunch and took our stuff to the room. Us girls stayed in one of the two rooms while boys were in another room. Logically, groups stay in one room,and that's what we did.

Four rooms in there. 2 OF THEM Were where the Girls are placed, 1 for the boys to sleep in/pray.

Toilet and SHOWER STALLS. QUITE A STEP UP from the ANN bathroom amenities.
and yes, boys are situated next to girls.

MICROPLASTICS & BEACH PROFILE

Microplastic; under DR AYUB Supervision with the help of a master student.
We were given an introduction and was reminded of the procedures.
Basically,we collect water using a pail and pour it into a net with specific mesh size to trap microplastic, done 50 times, then the valve to the pump is open and the content is transferred into a glass jar. Label the jar with onshore/group no/date/place.
Beach profile was under EN. YUZWAN.
Set up Stuff/tripod and read the measurements, upper, middle, lower using telescope.
Need 4 person, recorder, observer, olding the stuff, and someone to lay out the tape meter. Take turn taking/ reading each measurement. Measurement is taken from vegetation area to where the water touches the sand. ALSO,NEED A PERSON TO DRAW LANDSCAPE OF THE BEACH.

The scene.

Telescope attached to tripod. One person reads the measurement on the staff using a telescope/the green thing,another records the measurement.

Group Picture! From left, tape meter, red box(inside: compass,telescope),tripod,stuff)

We had microbiology session at night.

ONE was collected from a marine organism, our group picked sponge.
Another was collected from Boy's toilet area.
SPONGE was crushed and placed in different media.

A colony of bacteria,We have to count them,describe their appearance.

A 10^-3 dilution .

SOURCE: Men's toilet. No growth of microbes yet....

Sponge:Using Blue agar, Nutrient(Lipid)

We prepared slate board with QUADRATS/ TRANSECT INFO.

PIT TABLE, 40 POINTS IN 20M.

QUADRAT TABLE, THIS IS QUADRAT 6, A BOX OF 25 but i did 30 oops. Not my best handwritting i tell you.

View at pantai Pengkalan Pasir.

WATER,DEad CoraL (Rubble)

Selfie on the Boat

Getting back into the boat after finishing Manta Tow

Manta Board

Snorkelling/Diving

For snorkelling, we were briefed by Dr Tahirah and Dr Jat.
They asked for our confidence level, we tried using mask at the shallow area, we cleaned mask using toothpaste, put on our life jacket.
We head to Pulau Karah, there were Dr Jat,Dr Tahirah, boatmen,master students, 2 seniors, and a firemen acquired for our safety.
There were five of us in my group, 3 of them including myself were doing quadrat, while another 2 did the PIT section.
The current held no mercy for us. We were swept left and right but some of us managed to stay put and took information about our coral survey.
We have to put the down the type, coverage, according to quadrat :1-8.
For PIT, we have to put down the type of organism seen at 0.5 intervals. For example, starting at 0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0 etc.... until we get 40 points. Then continue after 5m space, and continue again until we get 40 points. In total, we will have, 160 points.
Side NOTE: My friend wear specs, so she couldn't see anything clearly underwater. Seawater also got into the mask and snorkel that it makes the process of taking data harder.
For DIVING, Dr James will brief us before we descend . A few volunteers will also help out.
The feeling of nervous overwhelmed us since most of us had just got our diving license that said year.. Taking data while diving is hard. But here's a thought,you're not alone in there, you have your team members. They will help you out with the tasks. For an example, there will be two people who will be doing PIT ,while another two will be doing quadrats 1-4 instead of, 1-8. When you and your members had completed taking data, Dr will give you a free time to dive around if and only if you have extra air in tank. This is a great experience especially since we will be doing Final year projects in Semester 5 and 6.
Here's some advices;stay calm, keep a positive mind and make sure to look around and don't tense. Look around,enjoy viewing the sea and keep calm.

Manta Tow

After taking a rest from snorkelling/diving,

We head to the boat wearing our life jacket, bringing mask,snorkel, and find along.

We we're brought to the jetty, near shallow area, about 10metres deep. First we we're briefed about what to jot down on the Manta board,signs before the boat starts towing us,signs to stop,emergency,speed up,slow down etc...

Then, a volunteer will demonstrate how each and every member will be doing the Manta Tow.

It was exhilarating, to see Marine organism without hassle. It's an easy way to do coral survey, but too many information to remember.

By 2-3pm, we head to sea to do water quality. Each of our group member was given task, such as taking water sample using van dorn/niskin water sampler, take readings using lightmeter,CTD,ADCP,hydrolab, secchi disk, took information and jot down on data sheet, deploy kitahara net,( we we're supposed to deploy bongo net;used horizontally, but it was swept by the waves...)

We had to take data from two location, starting point and end point.

WATER QUALITY/PHYSICAL PARAMETER

Kitahara net (Deployed vertically)

After collecting sample and data, we head to wakaf Tengah to immediately prepare the sample to test for presence of ammonia,nitrate and nitrite. We took turns eating, pray,doing the samples,recording data and compiling photos the very same night..

Benthos/Plankton

Smith McIntyre Grab (Used to collect macrobenthos and meiobenthos)

A very tiring, nauseated expression after collecting samples at sea

The next day, we head on early on the boat to do benthos and Plankton collection.

Corals

Process of sorting samples

Continuation of sorting samples according to size,appearance

Weighing fish

Only a few members from each group, (boys only) head to the boat to retrieve fish trap.

When they came back, all members from every group work together.

Some will work on identifying the fish,weighing, organize the fish from biggest/longest to smallest/shortest fish.., fish trap at coral area with or without bait.

Fish trap placed at Sandy area with or without bait.

It was surreal seeing some coral fish on land.

Last day

We had breakfast, gotong royong cleaning the island area, will be cleaning different areas; toilet and sleeping area, snorkel/diving area, wakaf Tengah, dining area..

Boats will be ready at 830 and 1000 am.

Groups are split between those 2 session since there will be Session 2 students who are coming to the island the very same day.

Back to main land

SOmebody left their pants behind....

PICTURE together with group..

Right after our boats arrived at Setiu-Merang jetty, we waited for bus to arrive. Then, we immediately head to lab to continue doing chlorophyll preparation reading and observe bacteria growth on some petri dish. We counted them and record the data.

By evening, we're free.

Further analysis of sample at lab for the next 3 days.