Day 3 is just getting better! We spent most of the day in the water, so I was extra happy.

We started with a small practice experiment in the sea grass just off the island. My favorite part was when Mikey and I’s transect took us into a minefield of upside down jellyfish. There were hundreds of jellies sitting on the seafloor!

After a delicious lunch and some much needed down time, we graduated to the patch reefs by the Southwest Caye. There, we did some more advanced snorkeling, and we practiced one method for assessing coral reef health.

The stony coral presence here was amazing! Adrienne took me on a whirlwind coral tour, and I saw several new corals from my taxon card that I had not seen yet, including Eusmilia fastigiata and Acropora cervicornis.

I think my favorite part of the day was sea urchin hunting. Because urchin diversity is a good measure of reef health, we collected as many as we could in 25 minutes, and we will count and size them tomorrow. We’re going to compare the urchin population from a protected marine area to that of an unprotected area. I’ll let you know what we find!