5/23/19: Today was our first full day at Glover’s reef. I must say waking up every morning to our view on our front deck is something I can’t get over. It just seems unreal! The crystal blue water and the palm trees swaying in the wind are worth the 12848923988 bug bites that come with staying on a remote island.

Today, we were tasked with our first research project.  We were looking at how the seagrass beds and algae interact on the reef flat.  We named our group the decorator crabs because her taxon group is crustaceans and mine is algae; decorator crabs decorate themselves with algae (similar to the “shiny” crab in Moana), so we thought it was a perfect fit.

The highlight of today getting a glimpse at a patch reef nearby and being able to see all of the amazing diversity for the first time. It was a larger patch reef, so it was teeming with life. A spotted eagle ray swam right next to me and I literally felt like I should have been Aquawoman in that moment: I was one with the fishes.

With the abundance of life on the reef, I was overwhelmed just looking at it, so I did see many types of algae. I saw various patches of Halimeda opuntia and Halimeda incrassata today in cracks between hard corals or in the sandy patches. I also saw those algae and some Pink Segmented Algae or Jania adherens dried up in the coral graveyard (place of washed up carbonate skeletons). I also saw various types of coralline crustose algae (CCAs) on the hard substrates of the reef. On a final note, I am hoping at least one time on this trip to see a sea star.

Wish me luck!

-Bella