Tag Archives: zoanthids

Reef-tastic last day at GRMS!

Today was the last day at Glover’s Reef, and we made the most of it! Soon after breakfast, we all got into our snorkel gear to spend the morning finishing our coral/urchin quadrat and transect experiment. When I went into the snorkel shed, I noticed that my dive suit was gone. I asked and looked around, and it came to my attention that Caio (Dr. Correa’s ten-year-old son) wears the same size suit as me. When I found him, he was comfortably suited up in my “NeoSpo” suit. Instead of switching, I put his on, and we got this cute photo!

The last site of our experiment was a non-MPA reef, and Liliana and I zoomed through our data collection. We have gotten to be really efficient! I saw a lot of my taxa here! I spotted a num anemone and warty corallimorph, and I got pictures that clearly show the anemone’s inward mouth (first picture) and the corallimorph’s upturned mouth (second picture). 

I also so another red beaded anemone! This one was fully red/brown, and it had bumpy tentacles (the other one had smooth tentacles).

NEW TAXA SIGHTING: I saw a corkscrew anemone! This is a tiny anemone, and I git a photo! The one I came across was less than a centimeter in diameter with thin tentacles ringed with white, making them appear like corkscrews. I was so excited to find one of these attached to a piece of rubble!

Going back to the boat, we found seven Caribbean reef squids lined up in a row! They were such interesting creatures to see.

We then went on a fun snorkel (the last one), where I got to see so many beautiful fish! However, the water conditions were very rough, so it was a bit like being in a washing machine.

I did spot sponge zoanthids! These <1cm yellow/orange polyps were colonial across the surface of a green branching vase sponge! I was so excited to get this last sighting in 🙂

After lunch, we analyzed our coral/urchin data and made a poster! If you’ve noticed, all of our reef posters have a special heart <3

After dinner, we measured and dissected the three lionfish Dr. Solomon caught over the days at the reef. My group named our fish Appetizer. We then ate the lionfish in ceviche! I was glad to do my part in removing these invasive species but also putting their meat to good use, and I’m so happy that Liliana’s lionfish-eating dreams finally came true!

With my incredibly tanned hands, I will wave Glover’s Reef goodbye tomorrow morning. I’ve had an amazing time here and have learned so much, and I can’t wait to continue this journey in other ecosystems! Tomorrow’s destination = savanna!

– McKenna

Fire Coral – What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger (Reef Day 4)

Today is the day that my hand, neck, and snorkel mask tans are so defined that they are becoming obvious. We started the day fast and strong TFB-style by hopping into a boat to collect more data for our coral/urchin experiment in two different MPA patch reefs.

The first MPA reef we went to had the best conditions for data collection by far for me and Liliana. The depth (5-6 ft) was perfect, the current was light, and the non-outrageous amount of sea fans helped tremendously with the quadrats. However, I did encounter a challenge at this location. When I was floating and writing on my clipboard, I drifted into a !!*FIRE CORAL*!! It brushed against my elbows and forearms and caused a burning sting. It wasn’t unbearable and went away after 30 minutes, but I have learned to always be on the watch for these vengeful creatures.

^ This is the culprit coral 🙁

The second MPA location was a little more shallow, so this made data collection harder, but the urchin collection led to so many cool finds. One of which was a new taxa discovery! When turning river pieces of coral rubble in search of urchins, I found a red beaded anemone! I was so excited to find a new anemone, and I got a picture of it (the urchin next to it was shortly collected).

I also got to hold a West Indian sea egg! This hedgehog of the sea was named Sally, and she was very adorable and spiny.

Later in the day, we went on a swim just for fun on the lagoon side of the reef crest. This was anemone haven! I saw so many Giant Caribbean anemones; sadly, some of them were bleached. On a happier note, I also got a new taxa sighting here! Encrusted on the side of a mound coral, I found a mat zoanthid colony! The tiny polyps (<1cm) were blue/green and curled up into domes when disturbed. Yay zoanthids!

After dinner, we listened to two guest lectures from the Belize Fisheries Department and Belize Coast Guard. I have so much respect for all that is being done to protect and conserve the ocean and its resources.

Today was extremely productive to the point where I am struggling to finish writing this blog. I look forward to going to bed and having my recurring dream (only started a few days ago for some reason) of going snorkeling and turning into a mermaid. Maybe my dream behind-the-scenes is super inspired by mermaid Ruth!

– McKenna

Reef Day 3: Lionfish = Speared

We started today with an experiment! We spent time forming a question, hypothesis, and methodology regarding percent coral coverage (live v. dead) and sea urchin abundance in MPA and non-MPA patch reefs. In the time we had before lunch and before we went out onto the boats, we did a taxa collecting activity, where we waded in shallow water and collected tons of organisms and specimens.

Once back in the wet lab, we organized them all into tubs and presented our “expert” taxon group. One cool find of note was a Diadema annularis sea urchin (DO NOT TOUCH).

After lunch, we headed out on a boat (!!) to perform our experiment (at least getting it started). We went to West Reef (non-MPA) with our transects and quadrats. After collecting data on corals, we had a timed urchin-collection period. I found three!

We went to a second patch reef (MPA) to explore just for fun for the sake of curiosity. Such an amazing experience! I spotted a cyan-colored (WOW!!) corallimorph and a white encrusting zoanthid (oooooo)! I finally added some variation in my spotting of my taxa.

The highlight of the day was Dr. Solomon SPEARING a lionfish and capturing it! (This is a good thing because lionfish are an invasive species in the Caribbean)

This was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I know that my reef buddy Liliana (who has a passion for one day eating a lionfish) was beyond thrilled!

This experiment will be continued over at least the next day to collect more data on different patch reefs, and then I will have another picture of a poster to attach in my blog.

Here comes another night of much-needed sleep, with a slightly higher chance of having lionfish for breakfast tomorrow 🙂

– McKenna

Pre-departure Blog

Tomorrow morning I leave for Belize, where I will spend a week at Las Cuevas Research Station to explore the tropical rainforest and a week at Glover’s Reef Research Station to explore the coral reef. Even though I started getting everything I need around a month ago I still had to run to the store for the last item today. Now I finally feel like everything is reading to go for my time in Belize.

I have spent many hours researching different aspects of Belize to prepare for my trip including Orthoptera, Zoanthids, Corallimorphs, Anemones, and the geological and biogeographic history. I will hopefully be able to share this knowledge with others and use it as a base to learn more while I am there. It would be extremely exciting to have learned about something sitting at my desk at Rice and then be able to see it in real life. I am worried that I have missed some important Orthoptera species during my research and will not be able to identify the common species that I find in Belize, but even identifying one species will be exciting. 

My previous experiences in the tropics were family vacations to Panama and Costa Rica. These trips were not dedicated to researching and learning about my surroundings like I expect this trip will be. I am particularly excited and nervous for the week at Glover’s Reef Research Station. I am excited because it will be a completely new experience. I have snorkeled when I was younger, but never paid close attention to what I was seeing. I am nervous because I have never snorkeled much below the surface and sometimes have trouble equalizing the pressure in my ears. I am sure I will have plenty of practice throughout the week, so hopefully I’ll feel comfortable by the end.

No One Leaves Belize Scott-Free: My Love Letter to Belize

It’s hard to imagine that a country as small as Belize can contain such vastly different environments, which we were lucky enough to experience. The rainforest and the reef are both such fascinating views into the diversity of life, each with their own unique organisms that we humans depend on. Every time we saw something we didn’t recognize, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were the first people to ever come across it, since the sheer number of organisms in the rainforest and reef make that a possibility each time we stepped out onto the field. Even though I’ve always known how important both of these ecosystems are, I never really understood the impact they have on us until I experienced them through the eyes of a biologist.

Despite this similarity, these ecosystems were still so different. We faced unique problems in each environment that often required us to think outside of our comfort zone to answer the questions we posed. Each time we tried to solve a question, we encountered multiple other problems that we had to come together to find a solution for. In the rainforest, this was often because of just a lack of knowledge about all the organisms that were there, like in To Pee or Not to Pee with our vast number of insect morphologies. In the reef, the main problem was learning how to collect data while snorkeling. Communication became so much harder underwater and making sure that you were identifying the right organism became more complex. Despite these challenges, we always worked together to find the best solution.

I came into this course with pretty much no idea what to expect, which I think was a good thing because I never would’ve been able to guess the crazy things we’d experience. I expected to learn about the rainforest and the reef, but we also learned so much about living in research stations, caring about the environment, and working together as a group. At first, my least favorite part about this trip was how isolated I felt being in the rainforest with no internet and no way to contact anyone outside the group. However, this became less and less of an issue as the days went on and actually became something that I enjoyed. We became really close as a group and I felt like I learned so much about everyone because of how close we were to each other. Working in such a close knit group became my favorite part of the course because we were able to joke and talk with each other so comfortably. I’ll always remember this group as some of the greatest people that I’ve met at Rice.

There are a lot of things that I learned from this trip that I’ll remember for years to come. One was that despite how much you think you know about conservation and protecting the environment, there’s always more to learn and experience. Our marine debris project really showed me just how much more work we have to do to clean up the reefs and protect them for future generations. The second one is that there’s always more to an environment that you don’t always see at first. From the leaf cutter ants to the camera traps we set out, we were always finding out about hidden worlds that, even though we didn’t see them at first, still hold such importance. The last thing that I learned comes from something Andressa mentioned to me in Las Cuevas. She said it was crazy how this trip had shown that literally anyone can become friends. Despite our different backgrounds and experiences, all it took was a love for nature for all of us to become close friends. I was surprised by how true this was but extremely grateful that it was.

Overall, this course was everything I hoped it would be and more. I’m extremely impressed that everyone was able to put up with my terrible jokes and lame stories for two weeks, so kudos to all of you guys. Everyone on this trip and everyone we met in Belize played such a huge role in making this trip so memorable. There’s really no way to end this but with a culmination of my worst joke this trip:

Day 15: Once Upon A Time Not Long Ago, I Was a TFB

We woke up at our earliest time here on Glover’s to finish up the last bit of packing and get our stuff down to the docks. It was pretty sad to clean up after all the time and memories that we’d made here. We had a special early breakfast with our last bits of Maria Sharp’s Mango Jam before getting on the boat to sail off. Bye Middle Caye!

Last Belize Sunrise!

We sailed for about an hour before landing on Carrie Bowe Caye to tour the Smithsonian Research Institute. The station manager, Clyde, ha actually lived in my hometown Midland for a while, which was really cool! We also got a tour of one of the labs where they were looking at the heat stress effects on hybridized corals. The research station was a really cool place with some great views of the reef crest.

We got back on the boat for a short sail to Twin Caye, where we jumped off the boat to snorkel among the mangroves. The water was pretty murky so it was hard to see much but we still got to see the fish and sponges among the roots. Javier saw a manatee too but the rest of us didn’t get to see it. We hopped back on the boat and sailed for an hour until we reached Belize City. We rinsed off and changed and ate lunch at Calypso’s by the dock. We said bye to Javy and Rose before bussing ourselves to the airport.

Being in the airport was odd because it was weird seeing tourists who had experienced a completely different side of Belize from us. We shopped for quick souvenirs and chilled until we got on the plane, where Claire’s dad was the pilot! After we landed, we went through immigration and customs and everyone who was leaving gave their gear to Scott. We took one last photo before I said goodbye to everyone, which was really sad to say the least. It’s hard to imagine not waking up to everyone every day and not going on crazy adventures with these people. I flew home and was picked up by my Mom, who was predictably distressed by my bites and dark skin #tookoolieforyou. I tried to explain everything that we did on this trip, but it was hard to condense two weeks into a just a few words. It’s hard to realize that this is the last normal blog I’ll be posting but get ready for some exciting music in my reflection!

Day 14: I’d be Lion if I Said Today Wasn’t Amazing

I woke up this morning at, surprise, 6, before getting ready and eating breakfast. Scott brought out the lionfish to thaw before we began our dissection. Elena and I had two pretty small ones, names Bambi’s mom and Mufasa that we weren’t able to glean too much info from, but the dissections were still pretty cool. After, we had a really great time chilling in the hammocks and playing with the volleyball while Scott prepared the fish. We all took a taste of the lionfish ceviche after, which was pretty great.

Lionfish Dissection!

We ate lunch then I took some time to pack up my stuff, which was difficult because I managed to put stuff in every building. Afterward, we all packed up on the boat for one last outing to a resort on Southwest Caye. There, we chilled in the Tiki Bar, took photos, and danced with Rose. We all signed a t-shirt that would stay at the bar with little drawings of our time here. Overall, it was a really great way to celebrate all that we’ve done.

My Husband And I

We came back an ate a quick dinner before going to the dock for some Scott led meditation. We spent ten minutes mediating with the wind and the waves in the background, which was really nice. After, we put the dive lights into the water off the dock and worked on our notebooks. We all sat on the dock and chatted with some of the guys on the island, which is where I learned that I’m a koolie gial so life goal made. Afterwards, we went to sleep for the last time on Glover’s Reef ☹No corallimorphs, zoanthids, or anemones seen today

Day 13: A Shore so Trashy that You’d Think We Were in Jersey

I woke up to thunder and rainy skies, which was a surprise since last night was the only clear night we had had. I went to the lecture hall to work on blogs before traversing the flood to go to breakfast. We all came to the lecture hall for our last round of lectures by Claire on crustaceans, Jessica on sponges, and Elena on mangroves and sea grass beds.

Scott gave us our topic for today, which would be to look into marine debris. We decided to look into the different compositions and amounts of trash on the windward and leeward sides of the island. We headed out to the dead coral graveyard to start collecting the trash for 15 minutes. The amount of trash was really disheartening, but we tried our best to pick up as much as we could in that time. We sorted as we went, with Andressa writing it down. We finished up the windward side and moved to the leeward side where we repeated the process. We were all pretty sad after, but lunch cheered us right back up again.

After lunch, we geared up for our last boat snorkeling trip. We went to the Aquarium, which was an area of patch reefs with a bunch of cool fish, a deeper spot above a coral reef, then a shallow sea grass area. We got to see a lot of great species, like a reef parrotfish an eagle ray, another donkey dung sea cucumber, a starry eyed hermit crab, and, most appropriately, a nurse shark with a plastic bottle attached to its fin. We swam around for a few hours before getting in the boat and heading back for dinner.

A Giant Caribbean Anemone Peaking Out

 

We finished working on our poster of our findings from this morning, titled Talk Dirty to Me, and presented to Scott. Afterwards, we all hung out in the lecture room to finish up our blogs and notebooks and listen to everyone’s surprisingly great taste in music.

Multiple Anemones in the Patch Reef

Corallimorphs, Zoanthids, and Anemones seen: 4 giant Caribbean anemones, all larger than the ones yesterday at over 15 cm and hidden in the crevices of the shallow coral reefs. 1 flower anemone on the side of a reef in the 1st dive spot, next to fan coral at about 5 cm at the opening. 1 yellow polyp rock seen on top of a piece of dead coral, about 50ish polyps on it. 2 White encrusting zoanthids, both on the bottom of the benthos, not surrounded by anything. One was about 75ish polyps and the other was a few hundred.

Day 12: We Shore Love Snorkeling

I woke up at 3:45 this morning to prove that I was able to naturally able to wake up at whatever time I wanted before waking up at 6:00 to actually start my day. We ate breakfast before moving to the hammocks to work on our poster on our findings from day 10 and 11 about the hard coral coverage and sea urchins. We spent about three hours analyzing our data and writing up our poster before presenting to Scott and Javier. Afterwards, we started lectures with me giving my presentation on corallimorphs, zoanthids, and anemones. We ran out of time and had to break for lunch but came back and Sam gave his lecture on brown and red algae and Jessica gave hers on invasive species.

After lectures, we geared up sans fins and waded out off the shore into what felt like boiling water. As we got deeper, the water became colder and more and more organisms came out. We picked up conch shells to look for any small creatures that we put into Scott’s bucket. I focused on finding anemones and corallimorphs but I stumbled across a few cool green algae and conchs. We swam farther to the barrier reef, where the corals contained a ton of really cool critters. We saw two nurse sharks, a puffer fish, plenty of damselfish, a giant lobster, and some really cool corals. We swam around for about an hour and a half before heading back to the shore to analyze our creatures.

2 Sun Anemenomes, Chilling on a Conch Shell, 5 cm apart Cuz They’re not Friends

We took our buckets back to the wet lab and began sorting out our taxons. We found a big surprise with two small octopi that had been hiding in our shells and a small wrasse that seemed terrified of us. I took all of the anemones and the medusa worm into my bucket and worked to identify them. Sam, Jessica, Andressa, and Claire identified their critters as well before we presented to the rest of the class.

After we ate dinner, I showered and we all sat on the dock to watch the sunset, which was really nice. After, Javier gave us a presentation on the history and culture of Belize, which was super interesting, We all chilled by the hammocks after to work on notebooks while listening to music.

Corallimorphs, Zoanthids, and Anemones found: 7 giant Caribbean anemones seen in the shallow reef of both color morphs. They were either on conch shells or in the crevices of hard corals in the reef. They were mostly alone but a few were in close proximity to each other. Sun anemones, saw 3 10cm ones, 2 20cms and 1 40 cm one, either on the benthos or attached to rocks in the reefs. Many of these grew close to each other. Brown sponge zoanthid found in the coral near the barrier reef, hidden in a crevice. It formed a small mound near the floor of the coral.

Day 11: Not the Three Reef or the Five Reef but a Journey to the Fore Reef

I woke up at 6 this morning and worked on my blog post from yesterday before having a great breakfast of fryjacks and mango jam. This mango jam is actually my favorite thing on the island. We went to the lecture hall where Lindolfo gave us a great presentation about the marine protected areas and what the officers here do to take care of the reefs in the area. After that, we geared up for our first snorkeling excursion of the day.

We took the boat out onto the fore reef near Long Caye and dove into the deepest water we’ve been in yet. The currents here were pretty strong, which made it hard to swim a little but the view underneath the waves was worth it. We also took some great photos of each other under the water here. We saw a southern stingray on the benthos right before coming back into the boat to go to another spot on the forereef, where we saw parrotfish, fire coral, and other organisms that I had a little trouble seeing in the water without my glasses. Everyone started getting pretty queasy after this though so we got back into the boat and headed back for lunch.

A Slightly Blurry Ringed Anemone

After a great lunch, we all took a communal nap by the hammocks before getting ready again to go urchin collecting. We decided to use the sea urchins as a measure of the health of the MPA vs non-MPA zones so we headed out in a boat to the MPA zone from yesterday to collect first. Collecting the urchins was hard since they were spiny and stuck to the rocks but we managed to round up 74 in total, including a West Indian Egg and a Diadema. We headed to the non-MPA zone to do the same thing, this time collecting a ton of huge diadema and 76 urchins in total. After we caught them, we measured them and released them back into the ocean.

After coming back and showering, we had dinner and headed into lectures, where Ceyda talked about herbivorous fish, Elena talked about piscivorous fish, and Andressa talked about Marine Debris. Afterwards, it was off to the races for the Dermit Crab Races!

THE DERMIT CRAB RACES

We went around the island to find our chosen steeds, with everyone getting a hermit crab except Sam and Elena who raced with Caribbean Blue Crabs. We made two lines in the sand and put coconut on one end to entice them. The Caribbean Blue Crabs were fast but ran off the track, which left the spot open for my large hermit boy, Alejandro, to steal the spotlight and win the races. My crab won and everyone else’s was trash. Afterward, we all watched the storm roll in and worked on our blogs and notebooks.

Corallmorphs, Zoanthids, and Anemones seen:

A Giant Caribbean anemone seen in the MPA zone, at about 3 ft in depth on the side of a rocky outcropping. The tentacles were the purple morph and was about 20 cm in length.

A Ringed Anemone hiding under a conch shell in the MPA zone at about 3 ft in depth. I couldn’t see the base, only the tentacles that curled up out of the side of the shell.

2 sun anemones in the non-MPA zone, both fairly close to each other on the side of a rock, about 1 ft from the surface. One fan coral close by but nothing else around them.