I'm having the same problem. Non-mermaid sim. Tried survey from a snorkeling buoy in a different area but it doesn't give an update for the daily task and there is no snorkeling buoy in Mua Pel'am. I found the swimming vortex of tiny silver fish show up in coral but it was un-clickable. Have yet to see any turtles there and my sim actually lives there in Mua Pel'am on the uninhabited island lot. This is disappointing. I wanted to play this Sim with a career that could be done here at home, but it seems to be the daily task all the time so I'm stuck having to force her to rabbit hole into work.