IT’S TIME to say goodbye to beautiful Lizard Island for another year.

Time to pack up the instruments, secure all the samples, and re-learn how to cook for ourselves.

This trip was the second CReefs expedition to Lizard and it introduced us to new species, new scientists and new information.

For myself, this trip helped me better understand the incredible diversity of this amazing reef.

Lizard Island meant a chance to meet new species: from an octopus, to shrimp, to Phil Bock’s expanding collection of bryzoans.

It also meant we added new scientists to the CReefs family.

Molluscs, sea spiders, octopuses, shrimp, crabs and sea cucumbers all had people here to study, collect and sample them for the first time under the CReefs banner.

Hopefully that trend can continue as the project adds to the base of knowledge about Australia’s reefs.

It was a large CReefs group this time – about 25 at its largest point – and the camaraderie was excellent.

Phil Bock kept the group entertained and highly caffeinated, Molly Timmers handed out nicknames like candy, and the excitable Russian Art Anker was notable for his constant chatter*. (*This may not be entirely true.)

Now that the trip is over, everyone can get back to their jobs and leave the sun-kissed beaches of Lizard Island behind... until Ningaloo.

THEY come from three different countries but they share much more than just a lab here on Lizard Island.

The three men from the University of Florida also share a collective nickname – Team America.

Arthur Anker, originally from Russia, Francois Michonneau, from France, and Robert Lasley, from the United States, form one of the more eccentric trios on the CReefs expedition.

Apart from bringing their unique tastes in world music to the island, they also each specialise in different areas useful to the CReefs project.

Art studies shrimp and has "barely scratched the surface" of what is available in these waters.

One of the more important aspects of his studies includes the chance to take colour photographs of specimens which had either only been seen in black and white or had not been photographed at all.

Francois has been examining sea cucumbers and has found a number of undescribed species.

He said a lot of sea cucumbers looked relatively similar in their morphology and therefore hadn’t been looked at carefully enough.

Francois is hoping to be part of a large taxonomical review of the organisms, and the trip to Australia meant he was able to broaden his knowledge of species around the world.

Lastly, Rob. As the resident crab expert, Rob receives all the crustaceans found in the ARMS and coral heads. However he has a specific target – he is working on a revision of chlorodiella, a group with about 12 species described.

Rob said he has already found some specimens and has noticed interesting colour differences.

"Colour is really important and it hasn’t been used a lot," he said.

The team will continue to share a lab – and a nickname – until it is time to take their travelling show back on the road to Florida.

James said that incident in 2004 prompted him to look at "the real story of the health of the Great Barrier Reef".

He said the wider public perception of the reef was that it was in imminent danger of being wiped out, and he was determined to find out if that was the case.

While still in the research phase of the project, James said he’s come to understand the problem is a lot more complicated than it appeared on the surface.

The book is due out in the middle of 2010, but before that James has lined up half a dozen more trips to locations around the Reef.

He admitted taking on a project that sent him to tropical locations for a good part of the year could incite a bit of jealousy among those chained to their office desks.

"It’s pretty hard to convince people it’s work," he said.

However any increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can have negative effects on the algae, and therefore the coral.

Fred explains that the rhodoliths are susceptible to ocean acidification (a consequence of rising levels of atmospheric CO²), weakening the coral’s binding and making the coral more likely to dissolve.

Unfortunately not a lot is known about this type of algae and its strengths and weaknesses.

"We know so little about the diversity of rhodoliths," Fred said.

Fred and Rainbo have been collecting samples of rhodoliths, as well as other types of algae, for study.

Rainbo’s PhD project is a taxonomical review of the gene Sargassum, focusing on the North-West of Western Australia.

She is on Lizard to help Fred and to collect information for her PhD, as well as gain some knowledge about reefs outside her chosen area of study.

"It’s amazing to have experiences like this where I can go out and see the diversity and learn how to identify things," she said.

Unfortunately for Rainbo it isn’t sargassum season here on Lizard. However, she has managed to find enough samples to take back.

"That’s why it’s good to go on these trips at different times of the year," she said.

"What I’m doing is barely scratching the surface."

Late last week, Anders identified a shell that hadn’t been recorded on the Great Barrier Reef before.

His work on Lizard Island might be interesting, but Anders is actually focusing his PhD on an area a long way west of the island – the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The title of his PhD project is "The use of molluscs from the Gulf of Carpentaria as palaeo-environmental proxies and indicators".

Anders takes core samples, searches them for molluscs and then identifies them. In this way he can determine the ecology of the area at the time the mollusc lived.

But before he gets back to the University of Wollongong to continue his PhD, Anders has plenty of work to do on Lizard Island.

"I’ll make the information available for anyone who needs it," he said.

She said researchers often saw the sea spiders, identified them as A. assimilis, and then didn’t look too closely at them.

However sea spiders are not known for their ability to disperse over large areas, making it unusual for this particular organism to be so widespread.

Claudia hopes to find samples of A. assimilis so she can do genetic analyses to determine whether it is in fact one widespread species, or if there are differences between those found on the Great Barrier Reef and those found elsewhere.

"I want to know how this species is colonising so many habitats," she said.

Claudia hails from Colombia, where she was working on marine biology in the Caribbean.

She said she was looking for a project for her PhD and discovered that sea spiders were relatively understudied.

Once she started looking at them they became more and more interesting.

"They are so special. They are just great animals," she said.

Happy to help, I sat down at my tub with a collection of plastic cups and my trusty spoon.

First of all I had to catch the big crabs, as they were the most likely to bite me (I have a keen sense of self-preservation when it comes to encounters with wildlife. Just ask anyone here about my relationship with the mud wasps).

I needed a bit of help, but so far so good.

Then it was time for the speedy little crabs with one big claw. They proved more difficult.

Backwards, forwards, spinning in reverse... those crabs were making it tough for me.

After fruitlessly chasing one or two around for a while, my white plastic spoon whipping up a storm in the sea tub, I changed tack.

Let them wait, I thought.

I’ll get onto the starfishy* looking things (*not an actual scientific term), and then sneak up on the crabs when they least expect it.

I managed to separate the starfish legs and get them out (again, with some help), and then it was payback.

Goodbye, my crabby friends.

By this stage I was more proficient with my plastic utensil, and I was able catch a couple of the skittish creatures and plop them into a little plastic cup.

I cleaned out the rest of the tub, eventually getting all the crabs out from under shells and debris.

But as I was slowly moving through picking up the tiny worms and slow-moving slugs, a scuttling movement caught my eye.

Yes – one last crab had avoided my Plastic Spoon of Fury.

I chased it around the tub, swirling up the water and completely failing to catch it.

Finally, after a splishy-splashy battle, I scooped the crab up and my work was complete.

Plastic-spoon-training impaired as I was, I felt a sense of accomplishment.

I may not get the degree in Marine Biology necessary to properly operate a spoon, but I may become a slightly less-than-hopeless lab worker.

• A basic idea of how many species of parasites there are; and
• Getting enough genetic material to match parasites in jellyfish to their adult forms in fish.

Last year Jo found the digeneans on cassiopea, the upside down jellyfish, while this year she has seen them on comb jellies (ctenophores) and jellyfish known as hydromedusas.

Given that a recent study estimated there were about 20,000 parasite species on the Southern Great Barrier Reef (in just 1,000 fish species), Jo has a lot of work ahead of her.

"Where fish are being removed, jellyfish are taking over their place," she said.

"My work could be an important factor in understanding what’s happening."

Julian estimated there were about 14 species of octopus around Lizard Island, with a number of them undescribed.

He said there were a couple of reasons why a high level predator like an octopus could remain undetected in a research zone for so long.

Number one was that these types of octopuses tended to stay hidden deep in the coral and would normally only be detected if a coral head was brought to the surface and broken up.

"It’s because of the sort of sampling we can do with the ARMS that this find has been made possible," Julian said.

The other reason is that in the past, pygmy octopuses have been misidentified as younger versions of other octopuses rather than as their own species.

The new specimen has been photographed, sampled and preserved.

Now Julian and John have turned their attention to examining the rest of the reefs around Lizard Island to see what else they can discover.

"There are so many different habitats that haven’t been surveyed before," Julian said.

"Without a doubt there are more undescribed species in this reef."

Included in that 14 are species that have only been examined several times, and one that has only been identified from a single photograph.

Julian said his aim for this trip was to expand the knowledge base about the Lizard Island species.

"We want to collect enough specimens to really understand the species, but also for other things like genetic analysis," he said.

Unfortunately for Julian and John, octopuses like dark crevices and safe hiding spots – which coral reefs offer in abundance.

Thus the night reef walks.

Hoping to catch an octopus strolling across a reef at night isn’t the only weapon at Julian’s disposal, however.

He and John have also laid light traps, which attract octopus larvae, and octopus pots, which offer the creatures a place to hide.

But what works in temperate waters doesn’t always work in the tropics, as the cephalopods have less reason to wander into a trap.

"In a coral reef system they’re generally hard to find because of the amount of cover [available]," Julian said.

Still, Julian and John have found some of what they’ve been looking for and have set up some tanks with their finds.

They’ve so far targeted the inter-tidal octopuses, which come out at night during a low tide, but will continue to look for all 14 types.

Julian said he hoped to be able to continue the research into the cephalopods across the rest of the CReefs sites.

He said the three sites – Lizard, Ningaloo and Heron Island – had 39 recorded species of octopus, with 19 of them undescribed.

So far Molly has seen a large number of galatheids (aka squat lobsters) collected from the ARMS, but more would be known about what was living on these structures once the mass genetic sequencing of this material was completed.

"I’ve never dived in Australia, so I am unfamiliar with the biodiversity in this area," she said.

"I’d be stoked to come back."

The experience Molly gains on the island in examining the ARMS will no doubt come in handy as she spends the next two years travelling the Pacific and recovering the ARMS from across the ocean floor.

Mark admitted it was a tough choice.

"It was an opportunity I couldn’t knock back, even though I was very keen to go on the CReefs expedition," he said.

He went to the Chinese city of Quingdao, and ran the torch "about 40 or 50m" before handing it on.

Mark eventually made it to Lizard Island and has spent the past week getting involved in a variety of projects.

He said he enjoyed having a chance to interact with the researchers and see how passionate they were about their individual fields.

At first, Mark said he wasn’t sure what he could do to help, but once he realised that everyone was happy to have an extra pair of hands he dived right in.

From helping bring in the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) and sorting through their contents, to going out snorkelling on the reef and looking through specimens, Mark has thrown himself into the program.

As part of his work at Cannington, 700km west of Townsville, Mark has become involved with several marine-based environmental groups and stewardship programs.

Since coming to Lizard Island, Mark said he had developed an appreciation for why BHP Billiton chose to sponsor the program.

"I think it lines up with our global charter on the environment and sustainability," he said.

Mark thanked project leader Julian Caley and project manager Shawn Smith for making it easy for him to get involved in the program.