Today we got to do the first of many research projects for our class, during which I was finally able to spot some jellyfish out on the reef! As a group, we got to design a research question, collect data in the field, and analyze and present our results in poster form to our professors! We investigated the changes in density of a species of green algae as we swam farther away from shore, and it was super interesting to collect data and draw conclusions for our question all in one morning!
While we were out on the water collecting data in the seagrass beds, we spotted so many jellyfish! Specifically we spotted a variety of sizes and colors of the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) resting on the sea bed right near the dock! It was really surprising how many of them there were considering none of us spotted any yesterday, but we were also distracted getting used to snorkeling at the time. Here are some good pics!
In the afternoon, Dr. Correa showed us one of her favorite spots on the island which is a super rare coral cemetery, where there were tons of old coral which had been exposed to air and mineralized. Their skeletons were so well preserved and it was breathtaking to see so many corals, some of which are extremely rare now due to diseases. We spent a lot of time organizing them and identifying them by species, which was fantastic practice for our future excursions.
