Date: November 30th	TI: 1200	TO: 1245	Max Depth: 15m
Divers: Heather, Michel, Orla, Riley, Jen

Date: December 1st	TI: 1400	TO: 1450	Max Depth: 18m
Divers: Heather, Orla, Michel, Riley

Date: December 1st	TI: 1530	TO: 1615	Max Depth: 15m
Divers: Carol, Orla, Eibes, Jen

Date: December 2nd	TI: 0800	TO: 0900	Max Depth: 5m
Divers: Kitty, Heather, Orla, Jen

On most of the dives in this channel when the current was setting NE we sighted very few predatory fish; a few jacks and small schools of fusiliers, two tarpons and one sweetlips with a few juvenile groupers in the shallows. An interesting fish sighting was four longnose filefish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris) swimming together in the shallows. During the transect dive, early morning, the current was setting SE. At this time, there were larger numbers of fish than we had seen on our other dives here when the current was running in the opposite direction. There was a healthy diversity in damsels, butterflyfish and angelfish. Also a reasonable number of groupers and fusiliers, plus several jacks and a bumphead parrotfish.

We drifted over three small areas where plate coral formations had been broken. The damage was not recent and could have been caused in some cases by dynamite fishing but in one case it appeared to be a dragging anchor track. Up to 10 crown of thorns were observed on this reef. A significant number of table Acropora spp. colonies were suffering from disease; white band disease and possibly white pox disease. Dense dark grey filamentous algae is overgrowing the diseased patches swiftly and there are many table Acropora spp. colonies which have been entirely overgrown by this algae. Two sections of old fishing net snagged on the reef a while ago were sighted. One was about 1.5 metres long, the other about 3 metres.

Two turtles were sighted; one 80cm hawksbill and another too far away to be identified. We saw no sharks at Penjalin. The reef in the shallows, at about a metre deep, is very dense and very diverse in terms of hard coral coverage. Some areas are particularly colourful and diverse.

Just off the SW point of Penjalin Kecil there is a sand bottom which becomes increasingly populated by coral bommies as you move NE towards the channel. Here there are large coral colonies, especially massive Porites spp., foliaceous Montipora spp. and Porites rus. We found one very large colony of foliaceous Turbinaria spp., approximately 15 by 10 metres. This colony marked the end of one section of the reef. We then passed over a 15 metre deep sand channel with a single anemone in it. After a few minutes we came to another section of the reef which had an extremely different population of hard corals and 100% hard coral coverage as we moved further northwards along the reef; massive Porites spp., extraordinary formations of Montipora spp. with foliaceous layers surrounding the base of the colony, extending upwards in fingers. Some of these Montipora spp. colonies were approximately 10 metres in diameter. Also some Diploastrea heliopora colonies in very good health. Our dive here ended over a monospecific area of a branching Acropora spp., approximately 50 by 50 metres.

Date: December 6th	TI: 1000	TO: 1050	Max Depth: 15m
Divers: Heather, Michel, Orla, Jen

Date: December 6th	TI: 1400	TO: 1500	Max Depth: 5m
Divers: Eibes, Orla, Riley, Fred

The shallow areas (depth 2 to 4 metres) are aesthetically striking, for example a bright blue branching Acropora spp.colony, two metres in diameter, surrounded on all sides by colonies of Porites rus. The reef crest has 100% hard coral coverage along much of its length. The scleractinian corals are generally in excellent condition. We observed seawhips at about 10 metres depth growing between large fields of foliaceous Montipora spp. just after we rounded the reef tip. The reef crest of the outer edge has dense coverage of Porites rus colonies. Close to the rock, on the backreef of the tongue, there is a shallow slope, from 1 to 5 metres, on which there are lagoon-type scenes of coral bommies on a mostly sand substrate. Many of the corals break the surface at low tide, including several large massive Porites spp. boulders. The sand continues down into the channel.

There is an abundance of small reef fish in the shallows. One delightful sight was a firetail dottyback (Labracinus cyclophthalmus) in a digitate section of a Montipora spp. colony. As we moved around the tip and to the outer edge of the tongue, we came across a denser population of fish including an enormous great barracuda just below the surface who kept returning to hang over us, fusiliers, one bumphead parrotfish and about ten groupers. Michel observed a shark and an unidentified sea turtle at about 20 metres depth. On the backreef, juvenile white damselfish (Dischistodus perspicillatus) lie in the sand just below the edge of the shallow reef while the adults dwell around the hard corals a few metres further up the slope.

We sighted just two corals with white band disease and saw no signs of crown of thorns damage. There was an old 5 metre length of fishing net snagged on corals at about 10 metres depth on the point of the tonge. We passed over one rubble area, about 5 metres wide, which is possibly traces of a previous bomb blast. However, new colonies of Montipora spp. and Acropora spp. are growing in it. Some of the smaller Porites colonies in the shallows were suffering from edge damage, a condition in which filamentous algae traps sediment on a coral’s surface, encroaching gradually over live tissue.

Date: December 10th	TI: 1400	TO: 1450	Max Depth: 25m
Divers: Heather, Riley, Jen

There are several very large Porites spp. boulders, one 10 metres in diameter, also some large monospecific areas of foliaceous Montipora spp. There are also significant amounts of branching Acropora spp. The corals are diverse and vibrant between 1m and 6m depths. When the reef drops off below 7m, coral coverage dwindles to very little. On the southern tip coral colonies become few and scattered at 20 metres. There is sedimentation in the water column and some has settled onto the corals. There are significant amounts of macroalgae between 10 – 15 metres, growing predominantly in between corals but beginning to encroach on live tissue. There is a vertical wall section on this reef which was interesting as his is not common from what we have observed in the Anambas group. In the shallow zone, 1-6m, are healthy Acropora spp., Porites spp. and Montipora spp. colonies.

Several jacks were sighted on the outer reef of the east side. We were surprised by how few fish we found in the current on the S tip. On the SE tip we observed a large 80cm reef ray resting in the sand, several lone jacks, many parrotfish and a vibrant population of small reef fish. Inside the lagoon strip on the NW side, we saw one large bumphead parrotfish and a school of about 200 small parrotfish close to the beach. Inside the central lagoon, several juvenile blacktip reef sharks were sighted.

We observed no crown of thorns seastars at Bawah, nor evidence of previous dynamite fishing episodes and very few traces of coral disease.