I must say today has been my favorite day so far, yet I am sure that will be replaced soon. We snorkeled two different patch reefs (one in a marine protected area and one which was not), in addition to examining many organisms up close in the wet lab. For the wet lab activities, we collected a variety of life from the shallow waters which surround the island. Crabs, lobsters, damsel fish, mantis shrimps, corallimorphs, a ton of algae species, and many more organisms were transferred to buckets and trays of seawater. Much like I experienced with stony corals, seeing an example organism with your own eyes provides a far different picture than the unrealistically perfect images of textbooks. We did collect a few pieces of Porites divaricate, which we were then able to look at under a microscope and see the small polyps in much greater detail. I will say when I was out in the shallows, I saw a small Nurse Shark! Which was a very cool find. This was definitely a fun activity overall.

However, my favorite part of today was snorkeling the two reefs. Packed with a multitude of stony corals, soft corals, sponges, fish, and much more, snorkeling these reefs was incredible. I saw my first patch of Acropora cerviconis, which is critically endangered due to a few devastating diseases (which I also presented about during my topic lecture tonight). I saw a vast number of Orbicella, Porites, and brain corals. By fanning a light current onto the Porites divaricata, I could see the polyps retract and the fuzzy texture of the coral become smooth. I believe I also saw a few colonies of Siderastrae radians scattered around. Also as you may have seen in other blogs, a Lionfish was found and speared. Something I had not seen until today.

This may not be everyone’s ideal “beach vacation spot,” but being here on the atoll is probably one of mine. It was discussed briefly on the boat (while shivering in our still wet dive suits) that fun doesn’t always have to be comfortable, and that was a very applicable and true point.

~Rusty