Tag Archives: mangroves of death

First Day of Snorkeling: The Mangroves of Madness

Today was our first day snorkeling out on the reef! We started the day by getting our fins wet in the patch reefs right near the dock  in front of the station. This was so exciting, we got to see the reef in person, and start to identify some of its organisms.

After this initial excursion, we decided to see more patch reefs through a different access point on the island which led us through a mangrove landscape. Mangroves are very cool, the trees have such strong and graceful looking root structures, but getting through this area was miserable because they are host to hordes of mosquitos! We quite literally ran to get in the water to keep them from swarming us, and none of us left unscathed.

But once we were out in the water, we saw so many cool things! It was really interesting to see the diversity of 3D coral structures that can be visible from even a small little patch. Some organisms of note include  a sea cucumber, conch shells, and I even spotted a small shark in the seagrass! Unfortunately, I still have yet to see any jellyfish or ctenophores, but I am still hopeful that we will see some when when we get into deeper waters.

First Reef Day!

Hey y’all, It’s Michiel again : )

Today was so much fun! This morning was absolutely beautiful and I loved looking out over the island during breakfast. Just after breakfast, we saw an iguana. It was very pretty and we kept seeing iguanas (or perhaps the same iguana) throughout the day.

After breakfast, we put on our snorkel gear and dove off the dock. The tropical waters were very inviting with how warm they were. We saw huge schools of tiny fish which we could not identify. Once my partner (Ava) and I made it to the patch reefs, we could not get enough of our taxonomic groups. They were telling me all about soft corals and I returned the favor by offering them  facts about herbivorous fish. In this reef, I saw a lot of herbivorous fish, but I didn’t have my taxon ID sheet so I was only able to identify a few. We definitely saw a lot of Threespot Damselfish (Stegastes planifrons) and Cocoa Damselfish (Stegastes variabilis), and I believe we may have seen an Ocean Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus). I noticed that it’s really hard to get good pictures of a lot of these fish because they hide as you approach, so I stayed a good distance from them and zoomed my camera in as much as I could.

Once we got into the water, we went to the wet lab to make quadrats and set up a scavenger hunt. Soon after this, we decided to explore the reef near a different part of the island, but to access that area we had to go through the Mangroves of Death (MOD), which were filled with mosquitos that chased us and bit through our lycra dive skins as we ran through the forest. Finally finding safe haven within the water, Ava and I went off again to look at more soft corals and herbivorous fish. While there, I saw many Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis) and Beaugregories (Stegastes leucostictus). We also saw a lot of competition between corals, and we saw two stingrays! Ava and I were very grateful that we had decided to swim over the seagrass instead of walk through it when we saw those.

Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis)
Stingray hidden in seagrass

After this second reef excursion, we had wonderful presentations given by Rusty, Ava, Maegan, Phoenix, and Michael who presented on hard corals, soft corals, coral reef framework, ctenophores and jellyfish, and sponges respectively. Now, the day is over and I am posting this blog before getting some rest.

Also, I’ve included a group photo of some of other TFBs and I hanging out in the wet lab! See you guys soon!

Still itchy

The tropical rainforest and coral reef are similar in that they both survive on very nutrient-poor soil and ocean water respectively. This is because there’s very rapid nutrient cycling in the leaf litter of the rainforest and the mangroves near coral reefs.

I also noticed a lot of interesting interactions between species in these environments outside of simple predation. In the rainforest, there were organisms like ticks (which surprisingly don’t bother me anymore) that act as parasites and the Azteca ants that live symbiotically in Cecropia trees. And in the coral reefs, there were organisms like Christmas tree worms that extend deep inside the corals and stay there for life and clownfish that live symbiotically in anemones.

It’s hard to remember what I expected from the course after I already experienced it, but I guess that’s why we wrote our pre-departure blogs. In mine, I wrote that I was “anticipating a fascinating (but incredibly busy) two weeks.” I’d say this was pretty accurate to the trip, except it was even more fascinating and busy than I imagined.

One thing I certainly didn’t anticipate was our incredible experience at the ATM cave, which was most definitely my favorite part. I had no idea tourists were allowed to cave like that (i.e. swimming through small spaces and even scaling a small wall at one point). My least favorite part was probably running through the Mangroves of Death on our first day at the reef. The amount of mosquitoes there is unbelievable, and I was pretty impressed when three other students volunteered to go there for our marine debris collection.

One thing that I learned that I won’t forget is the Mayan history that we heard about. I was fascinated by the elaborate rituals performed by the priests. Another thing is that the only way to kill a tick is to sever its head from the rest of its body (which you can use your fingernails to do). The third thing that I learned and won’t be forgetting is to avoid fire coral!

Rainforest species seen: Homaeotarsus pallipes, Enema endymion, Pyrophorus noctilucus, Euchroma gigantea, Calopteron discrepans, Hegemona lineata, Eburia pedestris

Reef species seen: Millepora alcicornis, Millepora complanate, Millepora squarrosa, Kirchenpaueria halecioides, Dentitheca dendritica, Cassiopeia xamachana, Aurelia aurita

22/05/19 I’m not popular with boys, but I’m popular with mosquitoes!

After 6:00am breakfast at the Tropical Education Center, the class drove an hour and half to the marina, then three hours (in a boat) to Middle Caye in Glover’s Reef. The three-hour boat ride was quite exciting because of the high winds and choppy waves—it felt like a roller coaster. Every time the boat ascended a wave, my body would fly out of my seat; then, when the boat crashed back down into the water, my body would smack against the seat. Arriving at the research station was exciting! The view is beautiful up above and all around, and on the ground there are adorable hermit crabs scuttling about everywhere. One of the more interesting hermit crabs that I observed had a snake-like pattern on its shell with banding and scale-like coloration.

Hermit crab with snake-like shell

We tried our gear out in the ocean for the first time. While circling the patch reef, I saw several yellowtail snappers (piscivorous fish!) I also saw an upside down jellyfish and a sting ray hidden in the sea grass. The class migrated to the leeward side of the island in the hopes that the wind and currents wouldn’t be as overwhelming. To reach the leeward side, we had to run through the ‘mangroves of death’. Today, we truly experienced what the ‘mangroves of death’ mean. As soon as we reached the area, Scott took off running with little warning. We were confused, then we started feeling the bites. At one point, I had 7 mosquitoes attached to my body. These pests were swarming all over and biting through the dive skin. I have bumps all over my legs, arms, and face, and my skin feels like Braille. I don’t know Braille very well, but I believe that my right arm spells O U C H. My skin is red, blotchy, and very, very angry at the mangroves of death. We made it to the other side of the island though, and I saw fire coral, Christmas tree worms, what I believe are young grunts, and a slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus).

Unfortunately the only path back to the research station was through the mangroves of death. We were aware of the danger this time, but it turns out that not even speed, mad flailing, and slapping can save us from the mosquitoes. Back in my room, I saw a common house gecko crawling on the ceiling above my bed. He was unusually large—at least 15cm in length and 3cm in width (very, very fat). I spooked him and he fell from above the top bunk to the floor with a thud.
The class ended the night with lectures on corals, sponges, and reef microbes.