By Scott Mills
When it came time for the Nature Divers team to construct our sediment traps, we were joined by 3 local children eager to help. The whole process took about half a day, and the kids definitely made the time fly by.
The 3 different sized PVC pipes first needed to be cut to size then drilled to fit together. After this, we taped up the bottom of the pipes and poured concrete into the largest pipe to hold the 2 smaller ones in place.
17 sediment traps we assembled (2 as back-ups), as we will soon be planting 5 traps at 3 different sites. These traps will sit on the reef collecting all the sediment passing over them. Each month they will be removed for analysis and replaced with new traps, so we can monitor the sediment that is collecting seasonally.
This was the first time any of our volunteers have made anything like this, so it was a great learning experience both in construction and scientific methodology. They now can't wait to plant these on the reef to see them in action!