Camera Gear
Olympus (OM) TG-6 Tough Camera
The Olympus Tough TG-6 is a compact point and shoot underwater camera known for it's macro capabilities.
No survey underway Nothing is being surveyed right now. If there is gear here anyway, the rest of this page still applies.
What I am doing
I survey Tasmanian shorelines and shallow water, photographing and filming the species I find and writing up what is living in and around each location.
Those records become the species and location pages on this site — a free, public catalogue of what is actually out there, built up one site visit at a time. A survey means a lot of slow, quiet time face-down in the shallows. From the shore it can look like nobody is there at all.
I am closer than I look
Most of this work happens in shallow water within sight of where the gear is sitting. If you cannot see me, I am probably under the surface, or around the next point of rock.
Why it is on the shore
I work alone, and I can only swim with what I can carry. Everything else — dry clothes, keys, spare batteries, the bag it all travels in — has to wait above the waterline until I am done.
It is all working kit
Cameras, housings, lights and dive gear, most of it not easily replaced. If it goes missing or gets moved, the survey stops and so does the record of this location.
Where the records go
Everything I photograph is identified and published here, free to read, with no account needed. The work in front of you ends up as pages anyone can use.
Photographed on these surveys
If something seems wrong
If the gear is genuinely in the way, if it has been sitting there far longer than it should be, or if you are worried that somebody is in trouble in the water — please act on that.
In an emergency in Tasmania, call 000. You will not offend me by making that call. I would far rather explain myself to a surf boat than have somebody walk away from a real emergency because they had read this page.
For anything that is not urgent — a question, a concern, or to let me know something has happened to the gear — the contact form on this site reaches me directly.
Lending a hand
You are welcome to join in
Field surveys are open to help
None of this needs a biology degree. Most of what a survey actually involves is looking carefully, writing down what is there, and taking a usable photograph of it. An extra pair of eyes on a shoreline is worth a great deal, and a second person in the water is safer than one.
If you snorkel, dive, rockpool, or just walk the same stretch of coast often enough to notice when something changes, there is a use for that. Get in touch and I will let you know what is coming up and where.
Where the records end up
Everything goes to iNaturalist, and on to the ALA
The observations from these surveys are not just published on this site. They are uploaded to iNaturalist, where the wider naturalist community can confirm or correct an identification — which matters, because a record nobody can check is not worth much.
From there, research-grade records flow through to the Atlas of Living Australia, the national biodiversity database that researchers, councils and conservation groups draw on. So a photograph taken on this shoreline ends up somewhere a scientist in another state can find it, and gets counted in the national picture of what lives where.
That is the real reason the gear matters. It is not the cost of replacing a camera — it is that an unphotographed species is a record that never existed.
The gear I use
If you are curious about what is in the bag — this is some of what comes out on a survey, and why.
Some of the shop links above are affiliate links. If you buy through one I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not change what I recommend — the gear listed here is the gear that actually goes in the water.
See what comes of it
Species Guide
Every species recorded, with photographs, habitat and distribution.
Locations Guide
The places surveyed so far, and what was found at each one.
Surveys
How a survey is run and what gets written down.
Thanks for reading this instead of walking off with my fins.