Tag Archives: Porites astreoides

Day 10: Getting our sea legs

This morning we met after breakfast at 7:45 to use a quadrat measurement method in a coral graveyard (a rocky shore composed mostly of coral fragments). We measured coral density at the crossections of the strings in our quadrats, then computed a density of around 30% (A rough measure of exclusively recognizable corals, as most fragments were originally corals). We then brought some dead corals back to the wet lab (area beneath a building on stilts) to identify. We were able to identify Siderastrea (possibly radians), Mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata), Symmetrical brain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa), Golfball coral (Favia fragum), Pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus), Lettuce coral (Agaricia sp.), and possibly Mustard hill coral (Porites atreoides), and Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis).

A note about identification of the corals above: Orbicella spp. have grooves between polyps, while Siderastrea spp. has a smooth surface.

We went after lunch to try quadrat measurement in the water. It’s difficult because you are trying to maneuver this square made of a square of pipes with a women net of string while the current moves you, the quadrat, and the seagrass we were trying to count to quantify the difference in seagrass coverage between a seagrass patch and one of mixed seagrass and algae. When we try a similar procedure on the coral, it may be easier because at least the coral won’t wave back and forth.

Seagrass, quadrat and transect method

After that practice, we swam out to the patch reef and saw corals! Some others saw a nurse shark, but I was unfortunately too busy struggling with my foggy mask. I did see the Spiny Lobster, though. You can recognize them because their antennae are long and poke out from under rocks.

Also sand flies. They are essentially little biting gnats. They invaded our dorm. And we (mostly Cassia and Anna) spent a good hour trying to kill them all by slapping them with a notebook while they were still around the ceiling light, knowing they would disperse and spend more time biting us when we turned the light off. Lesson learned: close the door quickly. The sand flies are everywhere.

Day 9: Not ideal conditions, but coral!

Today we left the Tropical Research Center and took a 3 hour boat ride to Middle Caye on Glover’s Reef. As soon as we got here, after an orientation and lunch, we got in the water (around 2pm). The problem: The water was a bit choppy. We could tell on the boat ride over. One of the crew said he’d seen worse, but it got pretty rough after we passed the barrier reefs (a good demonstration of the sheltering effect of reefs!). The boat ride was actually kind of fun in this weather, but snorkeling, not so much. I ended up breathing in some seawater in an area where I couldn’t stand because we just jumped right in.  Fortunately we dove from the dock, so we weren’t far and one of the safety officers helped me and a few others get back to shore. In case you were wondering, and without too many details, breathing seawater is a bad idea. I was fine after recovering on shore for at least an hour.

Instead, we went to the shallow wade-able reef at the other side of the caye. We finally saw coral! Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides) was on several of the clumps of coral we tried to avoid stepping on. We also saw several brain coral, which I think were all symmetrical brain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa). There were several sea fans, though I’m not sure yet what kind. The most likely options are Venus sea fan (Gorgonia flabellum) or purple sea fan (Gorgonia ventalina). Most of these corals looked healthy. We tried not to kick sediment on top of the reef formation.

Shallow side of the island (Middle Caye)

We started a scavenger hunt which will be ongoing. Here, we found Christmas Tree Worms, Scleractinian (stony) corals, Gorgonian (soft corals), endosymbionts (corals) and several other items on the list.