Our class traveled on boat to perform some examinations of the patch reefs on Glover’s Atoll today! Using our transect tapes and quadrates again, our class decided toe analyze the relationship between the density of sea urchins and percentage of live and dead coral on both marine protected reefs as well as unprotected reefs. We discovered that although our methodology seemed sound that with the shallow waters, strong ocean currents, and the presence of millepora alcicornis or Branching Fire Coral that was present on both reefs. Jasmine got stung by this hydrozoan unfortunately :(, but the stings will go away with hydrocortisone! We did discover that the marine protected reefs were deeper and had healthier and more abundant corals and fish!

In the marine protected area I saw many solitary Christmas Tree worms of all colors!Right next to it is some Magnificent Feather Duster worms!

I also got to see my first split crown feather duster! You can tell by the how the radiole splits perfectly in half mirroring itself.

I believe I also got to see my first Christmas Tree Hydroid which was very exciting!

I even saw three lobsters with Faith all lined up in a row! Incredible!Right after I saw my biology professor, Dr. Solomon, spear a lionfish which is an invasive and harmful, yet delicious, species to the Caribbean. Lillian was very excited! 😀

Earlier in the day we collected all sorts of sea creatures for examination in the wet lab room. There was: green algae species, brown algae species, glass shrimp, conch species, anemones, mantis shrimp, several crab species, sea urchin (Caio picked it up with a net), and even a lobster!

I can’t wait to go to see more on the outer reefs tomorrow! Peace out!

~ Maegan