ULTRA CORAL AUSTRALIA RESEARCH

"I had the opportunity to spend a month in Mackay working with Ultra Coral Australia on independent research for my academic program. At UCA, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to study Micromussa lordhowensis, a species vital to the Queensland coral fishery. The focus of the study was to identify settlement rates, measure the growth of larvae, and identify substrate preferences of this species, while also attempting to raise the larvae in an aquaculture setting. During my time in Mackay I was treated by the staff at UCA with kindness and professionalism and allowed to pursue my stated research goal with freedom, with much-appreciated assistance and guidance from Dr. Ciemon Caballes, the Principal Research Scientist of their Research Department. The staff at UCA were passionate about coral and the state of the Great Barrier Reef and were eager to assist our project whenever they could step away from their own work. Many hours were spent at the facility waiting for the possibility of a coral spawning event, which would facilitate our work, and though one might assume spending a week waiting beside tanks would be boring, the atmosphere remained light-hearted and fun. Though my time was brief at UCA I gained so much in the form of knowledge, applicable skills, and friends. In the end our experiment showed much about the early life stages of Micromussa lordhowensis, and I hope to continue to use the skills I learned to research coral reef ecology in the future."