What another eventful day! It began early, with a 5am wakeup to prep for a trip out with the fish team. We made our way into town and spent a couple of hours purse seine netting in the water in front of the yacht club, hoping to find some Gobies for fish expert Dr Michael. The nets are dragged along with a person at each end, in any area that might yield a good catch. The nets were about 6m long, with weights at the bottom and floats at the top. Dragged by a person at each end, they yielded a big variety of small fish. The team carefully chose a variety of habitats so we could get a good representation of the biodiversity that was present. Shallow sandy, shallow weedy (less than 1m), then deeper sandy and deeper weedy. Some species were common to every habitat and other species only found in a particular habitat. The team were quick to sort through the catch, and some specimens were saved for the Community Day. My favourites were the flounder, perfectly camouflaged to a sandy bottom, and a tube fish - long and thin with a tubular head that looked well-suited to playing a trumpet.

Changing out of our wetsuits and waders (big waterproof overalls with attached wellie boots), we headed over to the Scout Hall for Community Day. We were overwhelmed by the number of people who came to have a look at the specimens and chat to the scientists, and I was delighted to see so many Esperance Primary School students, staff and parents. The kids really enjoyed making pooters, and looking at the fish, frogs, reptiles, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, spiders and scorpions and seeing the pressed plants under the microscopes. As the last person left the Scout Hall I was whisked off with the botany team to meet local environmental consultants and volunteers with the Wildflower Society at the Esperance Herbarium. I had no idea that such an extensive collection was housed in town, and it gave me plenty of ideas for lessons and excursions.

Heading back to camp I reflected on the success of the day, and how much I have learnt already and it’s only the third day. I was looking forward to a yarn around the campfire and a bit of relaxation, but there was no time to rest. The herpetology team arrived with a snake I’d never heard of – a Bardick with pretty orange/grey colour. While I took a photo (from a safe distance, thank goodness for the zoom function!) we were surprised to discover a Crown snake less than a metre from us in a pit, who was also looking for some attention. So, I have had my fill of snake encounters for the week, check out the photos!