Sunrise + Lionfish + Tourist Tiki

Hi everyone! The sunrise was absolutely beautiful today. The 4:45 am wake-up was definitely worth seeing the sun peeking through the clouds on one side of the island and a perfect rainbow in the sky on the other. I’m going to try and watch it again tomorrow before we leave. 🙂

The rainbow  gently curving out of the clouds
The rainbow gently curving out of the clouds
A sensational sunrise
A sensational sunrise

This morning was spent in the back reef collecting as much biodiversity as we would find and analyzing the health of some corals that had been measured last year to see if the number of live colonies had increased. While we were at the back reef, some exciting things happened. I identified both some live red heart urchins (Meoma ventricosa) and their empty tests in the sand among the seagrass as well as a few more donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria mexicana). I also saw a chocolate chip sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus); all of these sea cucumbers were also in patches of sand between coral colonies. The other news I have to share from the patch reef was my sting from an anemone, which burned like fire for a while but now has reduced to a dull throb (tip from the locals: soak stings in vinegar).

What once housed a red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa)
What once housed a red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa)

After lunch, we dissected some lionfish to examine their stomach contents and watched one of our marine safety officers, Herbie, make ceviche out of it. We then took a boat to a tourist island with an adorable tiki hut on the water. All in all, it was a really great day.

A lionfish, captured for dissection and ceviche
A lionfish, captured for dissection and ceviche
Beautiful view from the dock
Beautiful view from the dock just outside the tiki hut

Day 14?!

I can’t believe that this trip is already coming to an end. It seems like just yesterday we were 16 people crammed into a 14 passenger van, filled with excitement and ready to begin our adventure.

We spent today wrapping up a variety of projects from the week. In the morning, we went out onto the fore reef to collect samples to take back to the wet lab. We found many types of algae, crustaceans, mollusks, and other species. As far as red algae, I saw tubular thicket algae, Galaxura rugosa, and Amphiroa fragilissima. I also found crustose coralline algae growing on the back of a hermit crab. It looks like I’m not going to find a tunicate on this trip.

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In the afternoon we dissected the lionfish we caught earlier in the week. Ours was a male with a surprisingly large fish in its stomach. After the dissection, we made lionfish ceviche.

This evening we visited a resort on a nearby island. It was really interesting to hear the stories of other visitors on the island, and we got to watch a spectacular sunset from the dock.

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So Long, Glover’s

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Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus).

Our time in Belize has nearly run its course, and while I’m excited at the prospect of a hot shower, I can’t believe how quickly two weeks have passed. For our final day at Glover’s Reef,
we set out to find as much diversity as possible in the back reef close to the shore of Middle Caye. In my final snorkel here, I found a
huge number of herbivorous fish. Ocean surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus) and doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus) swam right past me in pairs and groups, and I found an abundance of cocoa damselfish (Stegastes variabilis) in between the corals. I also saw several French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru), a large black and yellow fish that feeds on algae, as well as some invertebrates.

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Cocoa damselfish (Stegastes variabilis).

We also collected a number of species from the shallow seagrass beds by the shoreline and sorted them by taxonomic group. Using just nets, we were able to catch two yellowtail damselfish (Chrysiptera parasema) and another fish that I believe was a species of goby. We ended the morning by presenting a colorful array of macroalgae, echinoderms, jellyfish, and mollusks.

 The afternoon’s activity was our long-awaited lionfish dissection. We were only able to capture four specimens of the invasive species, but each one was dismembered and analyzed by its stomach contents. Hopefully, the more we can learn about the lionfish, the better we can manage its invasion of the Caribbean.

For the perfect ending to our last day on the reef, we visited Southwest Caye, another island inside of the atoll. From the comfort of the dock, I watched the sun set on my Belizean adventure (at least for the time being).

Day 14: Sometimes the Things You Most Wish for are not to be Touched

Just when I thought my efforts were futile in finding the elusive jellyfish and ctenophores around Glovers, this afternoon my colleagues managed to find for me six box jellyfish wash up on shore! And as a bonus, the whole group was preparing for a taxon group exhibition where we have specimens to display and explain to each other. I was able to harvest the 6 jellyfish, being wary to not touch the notoriously venomous tentacles. In most cases, handling a box jellyfish by the head (bell) is harmless, though some species are known to contain stinging cells on their head, but those variants only occur in parts of Australia.

 

The species of box jellyfish found was Alatina alata, the same as the jellyfish first found. Their stings are known to cause something called Irukandji syndrome, a life threatening condition that manifests in symptoms like headache, body pains, vomiting, a sense of impending doom, and hypertension. Pretty scary. A scary fact about jellyfishes is that even though most of the specimens were dead they could still sting. During my presentation, a large sign hung over me saying, DO NOT TOUCH! I hope I didn’t worry my instructors too much!

Beached Alatina alata sample in a fish tank. Beware of sting!
Beached Alatina alata sample in a fish tank. Beware of sting! Would you be able to spot this dangerous creature in the  water?

Even though these guys were scary to handle, I had so much fun looking at these dangerous creatures close up. I was able to show my class the tiny complex eyespots embedded in the jellyfish. One question I have is why these 6 jellyfish all beached at Glovers at the same time? Were they traveling as a group or was it just coincident beaching? If they were traveling as a group, are jellyfish capable of social behaviors? Questions abound, but this has definitely been an exciting turnaround in my jellyfish adventures.

 

One thing I should point out, box jellyfish aren’t in the same class as “true” jellyfish. They have different complexities of their nervous systems in spite of sharing a similar body plan. Let’s see if I can find anymore jellyfishes on our trip to the mangroves this next morning!

 

Other than the amazing box jellyfish beaching, we dissected some lionfish that we captured a day before to analyze their health and stomach contents. Lionfish are invasive species and eat basically anything, so our info may shed light into how these guys are doing in the Caribbean. Once we finished dissection, we made ceviche out of them! Delicious science and an interesting way to end our last full day at Glover’s.

Day 14: It’s the final countdown

Today was a very busy day. This morning we went out to the back reef again, this time while collecting algae and other things that were safe to bring back to the wet lab. I saw my same anemones I have been seeing (Giant Caribbean and Sun anemones). I did see something that was sort of new though. I think I saw a purple morph of the giant Caribbean anemone. We ended up collecting a sea cucumber, razor clam, crabs, so much red, green, and brown algae, and egg pods that hatched into hundreds of baby shrimp after we collected them.

The other happen stance with my groups today was that a student accidentally put her hand down on an anemone and it stung her pretty decently. Luckily, no one got stung by the box jelly fish (Carybdea alota) that were found today.

We also dissected the lionfish (Pterois volitans) that had been caught previously. The lionfish I worked on was a mature male who had recently consumed a 4-5 cm fish. It had begun to digest, but we could tell that the fish had had yellow scales.

After some relaxation, we will still need to pack up and prepare for tomorrow. We may be getting back tomorrow, but we are not done yet.

Day 14 Already??

I can’t believe that today is our last full day in Belize. While I am excited to take a warm shower and have clean clothes, I am also incredibly sad that this amazing experience is coming to an end.

Today’s activities began with a snorkel in the sea grass beds and back reef on the left side of the island. Even before the swim started, I saw two species of piscivorous fish at the dock: a small nurse shark swimming about, and a school of needlefish. Once on the back reef, I also saw French grunt, bluestriped grunt, squirrelfish, and a very cool houndfish that was about two feet long.

A larger nurse shark seen earlier in the trip on the fore reef
A larger nurse shark seen earlier in the trip on the fore reef

During this morning snorkel, we also collected a bunch of samples of different organisms in order to be able to look at certain species more closely. The only piscivorous fish collected was a poor French grunt that had accidentally been speared during an attempt to catch an invasive lionfish.

After analyzing some coral monitoring data from yesterday, we got to dissect lionfish! My group’s lionfish was quite small, but still cool to look at. The fish are being made into ceviche as I write this!

We ended the day with a visit to another island of Glover’s atoll, Southwest Caye. It’s amazing how little of this amazing environment we’ve been able to see, even with a whole week of exploring. Guess we have to come back!

Traveling to Glover’s, Day 9

I drank freshly brewed coffee for the first time this morning since leaving Houston and it was amazing. Never underestimate the power of real coffee. (Instant was very nice to have in the forest and I was happy we had it, but the real deal is pretty sweet). We headed to the zoo this morning for a bit. Charlie, the scarlet macaw, spoke to me! He said “hello” three times and only talked to me. I saw the spider monkeys and howler monkeys and then we had to leave. Our van was late again, but only by 15 minutes this time instead of 5 hours.

We drove into Belize City, had lunch, and then headed out to Glover’s on the boat. It took about three hours and I am so happy to say I did not get seasick. We quickly put on our snorkel gear and headed out to a small patch reef that was close to the dock. I saw so many stony corals: Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella annularis, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Pseudodiploria labrynthiformis, Porites astreoides, and Porites porites. I saw many fish as well, like the Threespot damselfish and blue chromis. Afterwards we had dinner and then had a few lectures.

There are hermit crabs and land crabs everywhere! The sand flies are horrible and leave these weird markings on my skin. But falling asleep to the sound of the waves is great. Check back in tomorrow!

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Photo has been rotated left for some reason. Spider monkey perfectly showing off his or her prehensile tail!
Belize Zoo
Belize Zoo
Middle Caye
Middle Caye

Quadrats and Transects, Day 11

Today we woke bright and early and headed out to a patch reef in the lagoon on a boat. We laid out transects with partners and used quadrats to gather data on the live stony coral cover on a reef located in Glover’s Marine Protected Area. We also did another experiment and gathered as many sea urchins as we could in 25 minutes. We repeated all of our experiments on other patch reef that was outside of the MPA.

So today I did see some new corals. I saw an Acropora cervicornis!!! It was very beautiful and I was thrilled when I saw it. I also noticed that some of this coral was infected with white band disease. There was a patch of recently dead white skeleton on a branch and also old dead skeleton that had been overgrown with turf algae. I also saw a Montastraea cavernosa today, which does in fact look like a mat of zoanthids but I could tell the difference between the two.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we are learning about reef zonation and heading to the reef crest. Hopefully I will not get seasick.

Acropora cervicornis
Acropora cervicornis. Notice the larger, white apical polyp on the ends of the branches.

First Full Day at Glover’s, Day 10

Today we had a scavenger hunt on the reef. So I saw all of the corals I saw yesterday but today had some new surprises. I saw a few parrotfish. I only recognized the initial stage of the spotlight parrotfish and then I saw a parrotfish in the terminal phase but I was so excited I forget to actually look at its distinctive markings.

Quick side note. At lunch today we had a vanilla cake for desert and I kid you not that it was the fluffiest, softest, most wonderful cake I have ever eaten. Okay, moving on. We designed a study and went out to the seagrass beds. We quickly realized how difficult it was to lay down a transect and quadrats in six feet of water and count halimeda and penicillus green algae. This required multiple dives down the bottom, which was difficult not because I ran out of breath, but because I kept floating back up.

After that we went to a coral skeleton graveyard. I finally learned how to distinguish the skeletons of Pseudiploria strigosa, P. clivosa, and P. labrynthiformis apart. We also saw huge Acropora palmata branch shards, which made me a little sad. Back in the heyday of the Caribbean, before the Acropora genus was largely wiped out by disease in the 1980s, these corals formed forest-like structures throughout the reef. I cant help but think how amazing that must have been. We also saw a piece of Pillar Coral, a coral I didn’t think we would see because my sources said it was rare to occasional with few concentrated areas. But apparently it is here!

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EBIO 319 crew at the graveyard.
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Dendrogyra cylindrus!

Beach cleanup and backreef

Beach cleanup was on this morning’s agenda, and, being Rice students, we also weighed and separated all the types of marine debris and analyzed the results. The amount of garbage on the shore was astounding; we filled 6 garbage bags in an hour, and this is on a beach that is in a protected area and cleaned weekly. We only made a dent in the amount of debris accumulated on the island’s shores. I guess the take-home message to anyone reading this would be to limit your use of plastics as much as possible, stop using styrofoam, and be very careful about where your waste ends up (even properly disposed of trash often ends up in the ocean).

We went out to the backreef again today to document some coral colonies. I saw some more split crown feather dusters, spaghetti worms, a christmas tree worm, a teeny tiny star horseshoe worm, and finally a free-moving worm (as opposed to the others, which are tube dwelling). The fireworm is a marine worm that belongs to the same class as the feather dusters and fan worms but looks more like a caterpillar. It is red with white tufts, and, true to its name, will sting you if you touch it.

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Sophia Streeter

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Rice University