To give a taste of the types of educational talks URG provides at our general meetings have a look at the snapshot below:

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• February 2025: This month we were in for a treat as local legend and founder of VIZ – Sydney Diving Visibility Reports Marco Bordieri gave us an insight on what goes into his Divability Forecasts: wind, swell, fetch, aspect and local topography among other things, that influence how accessible or adventurous a particular dive site will be for shore diving. Marco also provided a brief overview of weather forecasts we all rely on daily and how local and accurate they might be.
   

• November 2024: This month the focus was on protection and restoration of the marine environment. We heard about the decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure and coral restoration projects in Australia and Bali. Dr Elisabeth (Libby) Tondl from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation presented current research that will guide decision makers on environmental protection during the decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure. Elisabeth, with Elaine Kwee, also presented on the 2024 Scientific Trial: Active Reef Rehabilitation (STARR) expedition to Les Village, Bali for restoring the coral reef after it was severely damaged by cyanide fishing practices during the 1980s and 1990s. Elisabeth participated in the program as a PADI AWARE Young Scientist Expedition Scholar, while Elaine, a co-founder of Sea Communities,  described what she learnt about human intervention in coral restoration through STARR and other sites in Bali and Australia.
   

• October 2024: In the lead up to the Sydney Sea Slug Census in November, URG hosted a nudibranch facts night. Peter Barford provided an entertaining presentation about sea slug facts that kept everyone entertained and sent them home thinking about these underwater clowns in a new light. 

• September 2024: Dr Penny Berents shared details about the research on board a number of her deep sea expeditions studying invertebrate biodiversity in the Great Australian Bight and Western Australia. If you ever wondered what it would be like to live on board a research vessel for 6 weeks at a time, looking through a microscope in 6m swell, you would have been amazed at the information shared. 
   

• August 2024: An evening to promote our exciting citizen science projects. Hatty Conwell shared details about Reef Life Survey - a fantastic project that started in 2008 and encourages trained divers to collect information about specific locations to track changes over time. The Reef Life Survey methods involve divers recording fish and invertebrate species seen along sections of underwater reefs. Divers must be trained to recognise by sight a large number of species, so if you love taxonomy maybe you could get involved!? The club also provided updates on the Weedy Sea Dragon research, Grey Nurse shark research, and introduced the upcoming Sea Slug census.
   

• July 2024: Spare a thought for seaweed. So easy to overlook but as we discovered in this fascinating talk given by Claire Marie You, seaweed has a lot to offer to the marine environment and can harness the potential to save the planet.
   

• June 2024: David Booth and Gigi Beretta gave an interesting thought provoking talk about Weedy Seadragons and the concerns from the 2022 La Nina events that saw a large number of dragons washing up dead on shore. There was a call for support to help collect data on the numbers sighted at dive sites and a reminder to share photos with SeaDragonSearch.org. We also had a short update from the team at Spot a Shark to share updates from recent shark surveys.​

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• May 2024: Hatty shared information about a recent club trip to Palau and described the various marine life spotted. She also shared photos of the wonderful little mandarin fish that she managed to capture!  There was also an update from Spot a Shark of recent research about the grey nurse shark and updates of future shark surveys planned in Forster and Bushrangers Bay.

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• April 2024: Sarah Han-de-Beaux on behalf of Spot a Shark, shared research about the critically endangered grey nurse shark and how photos can help save the species. Since the last meeting the club had conducted two surveys in Bushrangers Bay and had a number of future talks planned. 80% of sightings were juveniles, 15% were new to the database, 15-25 sharks

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• March 2024: Harry Rosenthal gave a very engaging talk and enthusiastically shared his reasons for why hegot into citizen science. This includes sharing photos on a platform that will serve as adatabase for future generations. Harry reminded us that it was not that long ago thatscience was not considered a profession and it was only conducted part time byhobbyists, including by famous scientists like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.The Australasian Fishes project of iNaturalist, has almost 300,000 observations, from 8,000 observers, covering almost 3500 species. Harry also shared lovely stories about the sorts of people who behind the scenes are helping to review photos for science and how it is giving them a sense of purpose. Reminder for all members to share their photos with iNaturalist.​

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• February 2024: Jess from the University of NSW shared exciting details about the Posidonia project. This project focusses on helping restore the endemic sea grass of Sydney (Posidonia) that is a critical habitat for many species, including sea horses. The project provides a solution to help slow the decline of sea grass habitats through the collection of dislodged shoots and replanting. ​

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• December 2023:To round off the end of the year, the URG team also put on a marine related trivia game which proved both a success and a bit of fun!​​

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• November 2023: John Turnbull gave a very interesting presentation about the hard and soft corals of Sydney including the coral that was discovered by the club and known affectionately as the URG Coral. 

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• August 2023: Nicolas Remy gave a presentation about underwater photography and his tips on how to take good photos of marine life. He shared specific information about an elusive fish that often can only be studied in the lab, but through patience and good diving and photography techniques he was able to capture some beautiful and rare photographs of the fish in its natural environment.

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• July 2023: Laura La Motta and Jennifer Matthews from UTS gave a presentation about Pocillopora Aliciae, Sydney’s first Branching Coral. Studies are underway to improve our understanding of why this tropical coral species is settling in Sydney, likely due to climate change. A great presentation to consider how we might learn more about coral health and resilience under changing environmental conditions.​

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• June 2023: Dr Juliette Tariel-Adam spoke about the use of tools in fish, such as wrasse who are using tools, specifically this is likely to be wrasse picking up shells and hitting them against a stone or ‘anvil’ to open them.

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• May 2023: Mike Scotland gave an interesting presentation about wrasse, their different habitats and the multitude of different wrasse that live across them. In summary, there is always something new to discover in diving and finding a new focus can invigorate your dives and totally change your focus.​

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• April 2023: Ana Gaisiner shared research on Cardinalfish, in particular the Australian species including Woods Siphonfish, Pinkbreast Siphonfish and the Wedgehead Siphonfish which have rare bioluminsence. Ana shared the studies into the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria and the fish, and explaining how little is really understood about these rare creatures. Her call out was for sharing photos of these species that can often be found in Clifton Gardens and Shelley Beach so that scientists can further understand their behaviour and distribution.​

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• March 2023: ​Dr Joseph DiBattista gave a talk on eDNA research in Sydney Harbour and how much we can understand about the species that exist within a body of water simply from samples taken of the water. Graham Short gave a talk about the Syngnathidae family (seahorses, seadragons, pygmy pipehorses, and pipefish). Not only are they undeniably beautiful marine creatures, with many endemic to Australia, but they are also at risk of extinction.