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Rihanna is a winner

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Daily Blog 11

We went out to the fore reef this morning. We got on the boat and went outside the reef crest, and the current was pretty strong. The waves were making it difficult to swim, but Scott and Javier said that the conditions were surprisingly tame. I now understand the importance of atolls and corals on wave movements. I was exhausted swimming and keeping up with everyone, but I got to see a yellow tail sting ray before it quickly swam away.

In the afternoon we went out to the reef to collect sea urchins! At first, I was scared of getting their spines in me because I’ve seen my friend get a spine stuck in his foot, and it looked painful. I found so many sea urchins but I only used the tongs to pick them up. I got to put them in my hand while counting the urchins and measuring their length. We then moved outside the Marine Protected Area (MPA) to collect urchins and I got more comfortable picking the urchins up, so I got a few with my hands. They were so cute and didn’t stab my hand except my thumb got scraped up. I used the tongs to catch the Diodema Antillarium, which was absolutely ginormous compared to the others. I had no idea that their spines are venomous so I’m glad I used the tongs. While swimming in the afternoon, I managed to get hurt by a fire coral though. While navigating my way through the coral, I made a sharp turn and the small patch of skin on my ankle that wasn’t covered by my water booties or lycra dive skin hit the fire coral. I was glad that it was only a small patch of skin and how much better my ankle felt after Javier, the water safety officer, poured vinegar over my ankle.

At night we finally got to do our dermit (hermit crab derby) race. I cheated and caught a Caribbean blue crab instead of a hermit crab. I named mine Rihanna. Rihanna was very feisty and had a hard time not attacking me and staying on the race course. She ended up trying to climb the wall of the dining area in the second heat and eventually escaping, ultimately disqualifying her. She’s still a winner in my heart though.

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Hermit Prisons and a Beach Vacay

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Day 14: May 28th 2018, Glover’s Atoll 

Not going to lie, today was a nice break and conclusion to our time at Glover’s Atoll.  We’ve done and seen some amazing things here, but I don’t think anyone complained about the extra time to nap and get organized for the trip home tomorrow.  We woke up again for breakfast at 7 and lounged around until 9.  Do you still count it as a nap if you sleep again right after breakfast? 

At 9, we pulled out the lionfish that Scott had speared over the last few snorkels (lionfish are an invasive species). It was time to dissect them!  We measured weight, length, standard length, mouth height, and mouth length. We also determined sex, reproductive capability, and the stomach contents of each lionfish. The idea is the data can be provided to NOAA to be referenced by anyone who needs it in the future. It can be used to determine the current status and spread of lionfish, as well as predict future population statistics.  

After we dissected all the lionfish, Scott and the kitchen made ceviche from the fillets which we all got to try.  It was surprisingly good, especially since we had just dissected it.  After that, we rested until lunch which was chicken, pasta salad, and salad.  We then cleaned up the areas we had been working in as to prepare for tomorrow.  After that, it was free time.  While some people went to snorkel, a few of us stayed back and dug a hole in the sand. We then proceed to place about 25 hermit crabs inside along with an empty shell.  I actuality, I was hoping to see a shell exchange, but it was more like a hermit crab prison.  We eventually let them go, and we laughed as it appeared to be a scene from the Exodus as they all fled as fast as they could in the opposite direction from us.  Its odd, but I was so happy that I didn’t realize how happy I was until we filled in our hermit prison hole.  I guess I’m just in my happy place here.  

After, we boated out to Southwest Caye to explore another island and fulfill a final Ebio 319 tradition.  We all signed a rice shirt and placed on the wall of the bar hut on the island.  After plenty of talking and exploration, we boated back home to catch dinner before it was over.  After, Scott led meditation on the pier and we placed our dive lights in the water to observe any fish that were attracted to it (although we didn’t see much).

Today was more like a vacation than anything.  We’ve all been so tired, it was a reward for us all after a long and challenging last two weeks.  Unfortunately, it also makes us want to leave even less.  

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Day 13: Sharks are actually really boring

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Today after breakfast we talked about Andressa’s presentation on marine debris, and we decided that we wanted to find out how much and what types of trash washed up on the island. We decided to look at two areas on opposite sides of the island: the windward side, which is the direction facing the wind, and the leeward face, which doesn’t face the wind. So we went over to both spots and pick up as much trash as we could within a time frame, noting how much of each types we picked up (i.e. hard plastics, glass, wood, etc.…). Unsurprisingly, we found that found plastics made up a large percentage of what we found on both sides. It’s pretty upsetting to know that despite the fact that this island is cleaned up regularly, we were still able to fill up three large bags full of washed up trash, and there was still so much that we weren’t able to get.

We later went snorkeling at three different sites, the first and last being pretty shallow (around 4-7 ft deep at most), and the second being the deepest (around 20-25 ft). I noticed several patterns concerning the distribution of the fish I was able to recognize. For example, all the stoplight parrotfish like to hang out, usually alone, closer to the benthos, at the bottom of the coral structures that they feed off of. Side note: I also saw the initial phase of parrotfish (pretty much a young adult parrot fish) that was silver and red, which is surprising since the adult from is blue and purple. I also noticed that most of the smaller fish, such as the blue chromis and four-eyed butterfly fish like to hang out, usually with each other, towards the top of the coral and rock formations.

The red and grey fish is a juvenile stoplight parrotfish
Adult Parrotfish

I learned in my research that a type of fish called the Sargent Major was a curious lil fella who would swim up to divers instead of swimming away for cover like most other fish. These little guys like to hang out at the top of coral structures, are a little smaller than the palm of your hand, have a white body with yellow and black stripes, and have a face that can only be described as cute. However, this was WRONG. I saw many, many Sargent majors in all three sites and they all swam away from me. Utterly disappointing.

Shy Sergeant major fish

In the deeper site, we saw a HUGE nurse shark (around 7-8 ft) that was just laying on the benthos, partially covered by a rock/coral structure. Once everybody came to see it and were diving down to see it, it moved a little more under the rocks. I would have probably been annoyed too if a bunch of undergrads came to disturb my nap. We left after we realized that it wasn’t on planning to move anytime soon.

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Day 12: You guys made me ink

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Today rather than going on a boat out to a further part of the reef, we went snorkeling right off the shore off the island. The water was very shallow, waist deep at most. At first, it was mostly a “lawn” of sea grass, and we found many conch shells (some with live conch inside!) with anemones growing on top of them. We also found a large sea cucumber that is called the donkey dung cucumber. It is appropriately named. Elena found me an urchin, since I missed our urchin collecting expedition yesterday because I wasn’t feeling well. It was a very interesting experience to have something that looks sessile moving across the palm of your hand.

I found an aggregation (aka school) of four eyed butterflyfish, which were a little smaller than the palm of my hand. They have an eye-looking spot on their tail fin called a ocellated spot. I think that these fish have this feature in order to distract potential predators from attacking the fishes’ actual face, or might think it’s a larger, scarier fish. I was told later by Claire that this tactic actually worked because she actually fell for it. I don’t know if she was actually trying to attack it, but that’s besides the point. Nature is amazing.

A four-eyed butterfly fish

We then collected many creatures and organisms and took them back to the wet lab at the research station, which is basically a long sink with taps full of sea water, so it could keep the organisms alive while we studied them. We accidentally collected a cocoa damselfish that was living inside one of the sea anemone-covered conch shells, as well a tiny octopus, who inked after we poked it too much. After identifying all our respective taxa, we released them back into the water.

Damselfish stowaway

After dinner, our marine safety officer Xavier gave us a presentation on the History and Culture of Belize. We learned a lot about all the different types of people who have lived here, including Mennonites and the Amish. We also learned that the common thread that keeps people of all the different backgrounds and cultures together is the language Creole, which everyone speaks. Also, I found it amazing that Belize never fought in a war, and didn’t need to fight for their independence. Not only is this country’s landscape beautiful, but the ideals of peace and unity in diversity make this country so much more.

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ANGUS crab

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Day 3 of Beach Days

Today’s activity definitely took a toll on us — but our Dermit Rab made it all better.

Me and Aungus prior to the start of the race, 3rd and 4th from the right.

We woke up, ate, and swam to the edge of the thousand-feet-drop in the benthos (sea floor). On the way, the supposedly calm waters rocked us to differing degrees of sea sickness. In the water we went in all different directions with regards to the waves, on which we bobbed up and down while we looked in the deeper ocean for interesting life forms. One of the forereefs we explored was geographically filled with canyons of corals. Centuries of wave engergy shaped the current-day grooves filled with hard and soft corals, among other life forms. We observed an especially problematic species of fish, called the lion fish, camouflouging in the corals today. Their presence in this region, which is far from their native rainge, has caused up to 70% decline in native fish populations. Obviously, we speared them and brought them back to dissect, fry, and eat. Which is a prospect even the “vegetarians” are supporting.

In the afternoon, we quanitified the degree of biodiversity of Echinoderms (particularly sea urchins) in a protected and an unprotected marine area. Which means we spent an hour spotting and picking off the spiny sea urchins from dead corals and algae on which they are grazing. While searching for sea urchins, I saw two types of brown algae, specifically, they were two types of white-scrolled algae. One has a darker base and the other a lighter color, but both have a characteristic curly shape that resembles a scroll. In addition, we came into contact with Sargassm seadweed again, which is more or less impossible not to come into contact with due to their prevalence and distribution on the ocean surface. In addition we observed many blister saucer algae, both attached to corals and floating on the surface. Interesting, they too, like the Sargassum, are able to keep some air within their chambered body so that when squished air bubbles are released. Although they do not have a characteristic air bladder like the sea weed, these saucer algae had triangular bulbous organs to hold air.

In the evening, we had one of the best meals we’ve had yet — consisting of flan, spiced chicken, banana bread, lemon cookies, homemade bread, and mashed potato. After our lectures, we collected blue crabs and hermit crabs to race in the sand. Among 5+ competitors, one travelled in the opposite direction, 1 paused, and 2 finished close to each other. It seems like the large hermit crabs are the best for Dermit Rab. Also obvious that blue land crabs are not the best as they walk side ways and are prone to going to dark places to hide. Angus, me and Claire’s contestant, although big, did just that. :/

The communal nap I have been predicting and advocating for — also happened today! Our tiredness has come to an all time high, but with proper rest, i.e. communal naps, we seem to be a very resilient group.

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Brown Algae, Red Algae

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Day 4 of Beach Days

Today occured in sort of a reverse order: we processed sea urchin and coral data from yesterday, presented our finding, taught ourselves about tropical biology taxonomic groups and went to the ocean.

One of the interesting interactions in marine life is one between the chub crab and brown algae. Chub crabs depend on epiphytes (organisms growing on alga) for their diet and the algae benefit from having epiphytes growing on its thallus (the entire body of an algae). While in the ocean, near a reef crest on our island, I was surprised to see this interaction in play. While looking for crustose coralline algae (a red encrusting algae that grows on corral rubble), I turned over rubbles and saw this interaction before my eyes: a tiny 2 cm blue-greenish crab picking off green dots of epiphytes living on top of red algae the size of my palm. Another aspect of crustose coralline algae is that it supports a number of animals that utilizes algae as habitat. Within mounds of these algae are 2 E. Leu sea urchins and 1 brittlestar that hid within pyramids of algae.

Back at the wet lab of our research station, I presented to the

Live Sargassum fluitans floating above sea grass

class 12+ species of red and brown algae, many of which I did not expect to see here, and many of which I realized were different species only after I had collected and viewed the specimens with greater detail and attention at the lab. After an incredible dinner of shrimp and rice, we heard our wonderful marine safety officer talk about Belizean culture. Despite its current political situation with Guatemala, Belize has been one of the most peaceful countries in the region and has been a destination for many victims of civil wars in the surrounding area. By the end of the class, we learned a couple phrases in the common unofficial language of Belize: creole. To say “what are you doing?” you would say “wat yu d do?”.

Instead of “yes” you would say “yeh mann”.

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When life gives you sharks, you swim as fast as you can and take a selfie.

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The nurse shark below me

When life gives you sharks, you swim as fast as you can and take a selfie.

It hit us today that some of the things we did today were among the last things we will do. We gave our last taxonimic briefings and made our last poster. Although it is surely sad, we did contribute to our island in a real way. We picked up trash that has been washed up on Middle Caye, on two sides of the island, one windard and the other leeward. Yesterday, we learned that humans have contributed immensely to the amount and type of debris in the ocean. Depending on the trash (whether it is very or not very transportable, bouyant, and degradible), it can have variable amount of presence on our environment. Plastic like size of a shoebox, for example, can be broken up to millions of smaller pieces, called microplastics. Their degrability is extremely low and can last for thousands of years.

We set out to see what kind of trash we will find on the island and found that the leeward side of the island received more individual pieces of trash and more kinds of trash, including cloth, metal, and paper. However, the windward side received less of the more transportable debris like hard plastic and styrofoam. The transportability differential likely contributes to the leeward side’s receiving more pieces and more kinds of trash because easily transported trash are more likely to end up in areas that do not receive as much wave energy and hence have a higher chance of being stuck there.

After trash collection, we went out to a portion of the reef inside the atoll called “the aquarium” due to its abundance and diversity of marine life. Huge mounds of coral and human size sharks are found here, and when we found nurse sharks, we all kicked our fins as hard as we could toward the shark. Don’t worry, if you are worried, because nurse sharks are not known to be actively aggressive to humans. Their main response to humans is to flee, if they notice close human presence. In other news, we tracked down schools of blue, silver fish as they travel through and sometimes knock themselves into coral. Our excited tracking of the fish caused the fish to swim fastly before us, as if we were herding them. When surprised of our presence, some reacted by fleeing so quickly that they scraped against coral rubble in the process, with their collision audible to us.

Another unexpected encounter was when I observed a large fat parrot fish eat a handful of the wrinkled brown algae. It was so disproportionally big to the fish that I laughed out loud underwater. Fortunately, this reef was covered in this type of brown algae, in addition to a lot of crustose coralline algae and blistered saucer-leaf algae. A lot of y-branched red algae also grew on other types of algae, which often grew on limestone deposited by corals. Life on life on life has been a big theme of this trip and it has really come to a culmination in today’s trip to reefs and channels in the atoll. The geography of the water also lent very well to my practicing diving to the benthos, and I am very happy to say I am not only comfortable in the water, but extremely fond of being in the water, and not to mention swimming with sharks. That is one thing I owe to this place, my new relationship to water, going from barely able to swim to doing all sorts of tricks 15-20 feet underwater all the while avoiding the burning fire coral.

Shout out to my swim instructor Mahdi!

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Do you feel Debris(e)?

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Day 13: May 27th 2018, Glover’s Atoll

Today we woke up to pouring rain and grey skies. After running to escape the rain, we ate breakfast at 7 and then decide to push up lectures while we waited out the rain. Today was our final day of lectures to our delight and Professor Solomon’s disappointment. The lectures were on Crustaceans, Sponges, and Mangroves and Seagrass.

Once there rain slowed to a drizzle, we were off to our morning activity. We designed a project to ask and answer a question about marine debris on the island. We decided to ask about the amount and composition of trash on the windward side of the island vs the leeward side of the island. Essentially, the breeze tends to blow towards the windward side of the island and not the leeward (opposite side); hence, we hypothesized that we would find a greater amount and different types of trash materials on the leeward side.  We essentially wen collected trash fro 15 minutes on each side recording the types and number of materials as we went.  After we had collected our data, it was time for lunch and we were all hungry.

After lunch, we had our last official snorkel trip. I saw sooooo many types of hard coral. I can only hope that I correctly identified them and will not bring shame upon Adrienne haha. I saw Mustard Hill Corals, Lesser Starlet Corals, Symmetrical Brain corals, Grooved Brain Corals, Smooth Star Corals, Elliptical Star Corals (mostly in the sea grass), Club Tip Finger Corals, Lettuce Corals (surprisingly hard to spot on the lower sodden of rocks),… (heavy breathing…) Great Star Corals, Knobby Brain Corals, a large Acropora palmata (Elkhorn Coral), and a tiny Acropora cervicornis (Staghorn Coral).

I also saw several types of parrot fish, a Queen Triggerfish, an Eagle Ray, and a Nurse Shark that was about 6 ft long (very large for a nurse shark). The sad part was that the shark had a plastic bottle attached to it. Why do humans litter? We don’t even see how much we hurt out environment.

Speaking of debris, after dinner, we analyzed the data from the marine debris project. What we found was actually the opposite of our hypothesis. While we found more trash in weight on the windward side, we found a greater number of smaller trash pieces on the leeward side as well as a greater variety of materials. This is because lighter, transportable trash can be pushed away from the windward side towards the leeward side while larger, heaver materials like hard plastics remain on the windward side. Its was an interesting conclusion, but I think we all could agree that it was sad to see so much trash in such a beautiful place.

Big take away: we need to be more conscious our our human impact, especially in first world countries.

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Day 13: It’s a Dinglehopper!

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Blog Post #13

Day 13: It’s a Dinglehopper!

Written 10:03 pm on May 27th

 

Today started with a HUGE thunderstorm. The ominous clouds loomed overhead while I sat in the hammocks, then the wind picked up, fiercely blowing my hammock and rocking me. As soon as I moved inside, the storm down-poured! Since it’s not the rainy season, and we are on an island, this was not an anticipated weather pattern.

Since it was raining, we did our lectures in the morning—I gave my presentation on sponges, and everyone appreciated my SpongeBob fun facts 🙂

When we finished the lectures, we set out to collect some data (and trash) from two different sides of the island. Marine debris is a HUGE problem, no matter how remote a place is, you can find trash in some form, such as whole pieces, parts, or microplastics. We wanted to compare the trash levels on the windward and leeward side of the island. We found that the windward size had larger pieces that were less transportable (like floating/moving with the current), and the leeward side has more general pieces in smaller size.

I did find a fork, and it made me think of Scuttle. I also found an entire bottle of Sprite unopened in the mangrove bed. Pictures weren’t taken because my hands were either busy holding trash or swatting as mosquitos.

In the afternoon, we headed out to do adventure snorkeling, a chance to explore the reefs around us and see our taxon on a different side of the atoll. We visited a patch reef that was 10-25 ft deep, and there we found the biggest nurse shark I (and the MPOs) had ever seen!! We decided it was a she (no idea why), and she had a bottle with a fishing line stuck to her fin. We tried to figure out ways we could free her, but there wasn’t any way we could do it without hurting both her and us since we didn’t have scissors.

For context, this shark seemed to be at least 10 feet long! (at least so it seemed to me…) 

The best experience of Glover’s Reef was getting to snorkel over the reef crest. Normally no one can swim the reef crest because the waves are big, powerful, and overwhelming. But today, the ocean was so calm we could explore. Seriously, this is almost unheard of in a marine ecosystem. The coral were gorgeous, fish were huge, there were fry schools, a blacktip reef shark, filefish, trumpetfish, triggerfish, cowfish, and so much more. I noted that there were many encrusting sponges and a few vase sponges, and my new favorite sponge, the stove pipe sponge.

This is a cowfish!
This is the teal variation of stove-pipe sponges

Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there.

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Day 13: sharks are the snakes of the sea

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Today was the best snorkeling by far. We went to three separate sites to swim around, no project, no plan. The first was pretty and also marked the first time I properly dove down, and I was totally unaware that diving makes the snorkeling experience ten times better.

The second site was a lot deeper, probably an average of ten feet down, and that made diving a lot easier and more rewarding. The sheer amount of fish and my newfound ability to snorkel correctly made the experience a lot of fun. The most significant find at this site was a huge nurse shark, probably 6 or 7 feet long, sleeping in a coral cavern right beneath us. We could see the whole length of the shark, and we noticed a plastic bottle tied to a string attached to the shark’s fin. It was difficult to tell if the string was tied to the fin or not, but at one point the shark moved and the bottle went along with it. It honestly broke my heart, and we discussed removing the bottle  but we didn’t have scissors and pulling the bottle might hurt and anger the shark. We had to let it be, but the image of such a majestic shark with a bottle attached was horrible.

Me attempting and failing to take a picture with the sleeping shark below. PC: Chloe

The third site, though, was the real jackpot. It was a good mix of deep (10 feet and sometimes more) and very shallow (literally touching the rocks without reaching out), but the water was also insanely clear, almost transparent. I could see everything, and I swam with schools of fish, and above the most colorful parrotfish I’ve ever seen, and then swam right behind a black tip reef shark that went right up to us then turned away. Meanwhile, the sun was setting right above us, light streaming through pink clouds, and it suddenly hit me I was in the Caribbean sea swimming with sharks. Middle-school me would be so proud.

One of the beautiful reef patches we snorkeled at. PC: Claire
A pic of the third site we were at. PC: Claire

I saw a lot of green algae, but no new species. I only saw Halimeda tuna, Halimeda incrassata, Rhipocephalus phoenix, Penicillus pyramidis, and some species of Caulerpa. Yesterday was my green aglae today—I spent all of today enjoying the fishes and sharks. As you probably know by now, snakes are my favorite thing on land, and sharks are effectively the snakes of the sea.

Me posing with trash we found again, at the first site. PC: Sami

 

 

 

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