Today was packed. The day started at 6:45AM for me, with breakfast at 7AM and discussion and testing for crab density on the Middle Caye starting at 8:15AM- we basically chose a certain portion of the island (Isaac and I chose a trail) and test for the number of crabs in that specified area using the quadrat we made yesterday.

After that was done, we did the same exact type of testing on seagrass beds next to port. This time, we were looking for the density of species diversity in a certain sector of the seagrass beds. Unfortunately, my partner and I did not find much- we were only able to report an upside-down jellyfish, a small crab, and some sea anemone in our area of the bed. That did not discourage us though, because those kinds of results are common within the confines of this experiment. I snorkeled around a bit after the species density testing and managed to see a family of piscivorous yellowtail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus) and a lot of upside down jellyfish about 100 feet west of the dock. Adrienne told me that a lot more piscivorous fish should be available out in the fore reef region of the Caye as opposed to the back reef, so I’ll patiently wait my turn until that day comes.

Crab density quadrat project

We came back to land, ate lunch, had some free time, and then jumped on the boat Koolie Gial to the back reef located in the Marine Protected Area. We again performed quadrat testing (this time looking for species diversity of coral in the back reef) and collected urchins which we’ll test tomorrow as a part of our ongoing lab on reef health. In the 25 minutes we had to find urchins, I managed to snag two under a rock and inside a coral crevice. Tomorrow we’ll collect more urchins from an unprotected area and compare the health (size and shape) of the two samples of urchins we had.

Me with a Diadema antillarum urchin

I’m tired, but content. In the words of Vivekanudeep, good night.