Monthly Archives: June 2022

2022

Day 5 – Close call with fire sponge and a good sunburn

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Today we continued our project monitoring urchin populations and live coral cover in the Marine Protected Area (MPA). We started the morning off taking the boat our to a patch reef near Long Key, where we collected our first set of data. This went much more smoothly than our first attempt at data collection yesterday, as the reef was a bit deeper and the waves were much calmer. While we were here I saw lots of diseased common sea fans, but also a bunch of other healthy looking soft corals. Today was the first day I was able to see and recognize sea plumes (a type of soft coral) although I couldn’t quite figure out the species! The largest contrasts between this patch reef, and the one we visited yesterday outside the MPA, was that this reef had far more macro algae and also a lot more fish!

Here is a picture of the sea plume!

Here is a picture of my snorkel partner taking data!

We also surveyed a second patch reef inside the MPA this morning, although this one was a bit more difficult. The water was quite shallow, so we were attempting to float right above the reef as we lay down our tools and measured live coral cover. However, there was a ton of bright red fire sponge all throughout the reef! As we’ve learned over the past 4 days, if it says ‘fire’ in the name, its probably best to avoid touching it!! So we had to do some tricky maneuvering to avoid touching the reef floor and possibly some fire coral while floating just slightly above it! Luckily both Michiel, my snorkel partner, and I survived unscathed. After collecting coral cover data, we collected urchins, and today I was able to find 2 little ones hiding underneath some coral rubble!

Although I avoided the fire sponge, I found out upon arrival back at Glover’s Reef Research Station that I had sunburned my scalp on the boat! Also both Michiel and I had accidentally tanned our hands at least a shade darker than the rest of our bodies (that were covered by our Lycra suits).

Tomorrow, I will definitely remember to wear my hat!

– Ava (here’s a good underwater selfie for the fans… common sea fans and otherwise)

 

2022

D-5 Barracuda:1, Maggy:0

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Hi everyone!

I’m so glad to say that our team has actually gotten so much better at using our tools out in the field! We went out today to two more coral reef patches and were able to collect data the first time it took 40 minutes and the second time it took 30 minutes, both of which are a great improvement from yesterday’s hour long data collection at a single patch! I was also super glad to see some of the Tunicates Sophie talked about in her taxon lecture last night. Considering how small they are I thought I wouldn’t spot them, but the second patch we visited actually had a ton laying around in many of the corals. Our group also saw and captured a second lionfish today. This one was much smaller than the one collected yesterday. But mostly everyone in the group seems very excited to have lionfish “ceviche.” Regarding our sea urchin collecting we were able to find a lot more than at the patch we visited yesterday! That either means we were at patches today with lots more, or that we are getting better at finding their hiding spots. Today I also happened to (for the first time) slightly rub against some fire coral. It hurt a bit right after I came in contact with it but it got a little more painful once I was out of the water. Thankfully the burning sensation subsided in about half an hour! Another new experience I had today was seeing a barracuda for the first time! It was actually huge and really intimidating. I was kinda shocked by its behavior as well, but I could see how it is fitting of a piscivorous fish! While most fish I have encountered so far on this trip tend to see any of us and turn and swim the other way, when the barracuda and I made eye contact instead of swimming away it began swimming towards me. Let me tell you as soon as I saw that I started swimming the other way! After seeing that barracuda I had no idea I would see another one, but I happened to see yet another at the Glover’s reef gift shop!

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Day four: Dreaded Data Collection

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Today we went out on a boat to visit a patch reef to try to determine what percentage of coral was alive and what percentage was dead. It was not fun. At least, the data collection was not fun. The water was very shallow and the winds and waves were very strong. Our transect line kept getting dragged away and tangled up, and I was thrown backwards onto sharp and hard corals several times. It will be a miracle if we can somehow salvage usable data from today.

After data collection, we decided to take the boat to another patch reef (where we could snorkel purely for fun). I felt freezing cold and was shivering after the previous snorkeling ordeal, so I decided to stay in the boat instead of doing a recreational snorkel.

In retrospect, I regret that decision and I should have gone snorkeling again. I ended up getting wet and freezing cold on the boat ride back anyway, and from what I heard, the group saw some pretty unique organisms (including an invasive lionfish, which they promptly speared and captured)!

Even though we focused on data collection today, I still was able to see (and be thrown into) some pretty cool sponges.

Sponges seen today:

Scattered pore rope sponge (Aplysina fulva)

Erect rope sponge (Amphimedon compressa)

Fire sponge (Tedania ignis)

Brown variable sponge (Cliona varians)

 

P.S. The power has been going out (the island is having some generator issues), so I will have to post this blog a day late

2022

i thought the urchin was my friend…but it was anemone

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Unfortunately, the day did not begin with urchins, but they will enter the scene soon, don’t worry!

We started off the morning by planning out another experiment. We knew we were going to be visiting preserved reef patches and non-preserved reef patches and collecting some sort of data with the quadrats, and that we would be doing urchin scavenger hunts. From there, we developed a research question that we could answer by gathering this data. We decided to investigate the correlation between live coral coverage and urchin prevalence, and how the amount of each changed between protected areas and non protected areas. We did not finish collecting data, so stay tuned!

Before we went out to the reefs, we waded in the sea grass bed and collected specimens to look at more closely in the outdoor lab. Some notable finds include a Caribbean spiny lobster, mantis shrimp, damsel fish, several varieties of crabs, lime urchin, anemone, corallimorph, conchs, and our favorite-brown algae! We found some sargassum natans, and some of the saucer leaf algae!

Afterwards, we went to the reef patches. We went to the non-protected area first to collect our data. It was difficult conditions, since the waves were strong and it was hard to stay in place. The urchin hunt was also difficult, since they like to hide in little burrows, so one could not easily get them out without harming them. We then went to the protected reef to snorkel for fun.  Entering the protected area, I felt like I had died and gone to brown algae heaven (although maybe that wasn’t a great sign for the corals). There was saucer leaf algae, white scroll algae, and sargassum everywhere! They were intermixed with another type of algae, although I couldn’t identify it. The algae was growing all over the old, dead corals so densely I couldn’t even see the sand. Exciting stuff!

We also found a damsel fish garden, which was super cool. The damsel fish have little gardens where they cultivate their favorite algae, and protect it from other fish. And finally, the group spotted a lionfish, which was promptly speared (lionfish are invasive, and their capture is actually encouraged!) and brought aboard so we can use it for activities later this week.

When we got back, we counted, IDed, and measured the diameter of the urchins we collected, and then settled in for the night! Tomorrow, we are going to be collecting more data for our research, and maybe we’ll even have an answer. See you all then!

-Elena

some of the algal friends we collected
a slate pencil urchin
the damsel fish garden ft. the gardener itself
saucer-leaf algae and the unknown algae
free the homie
…but like don’t cuz they’re invasive 🙁
2022, Uncategorized

Lobsters and Lionfish

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To start the day we designed a study that we could execute on patches of coral reefs inside the lagoon. What we came up with was to see how density of sea urchins would effect the percentage of coral that was alive vs dead! However, we needed to go out on the boat to collect data and we didn’t have time before lunch, so before hand we collected organisms from a shallow sea grass area behind the kitchen.

What we found was incredible! We brought back punching mantis shrimp, a lobster, a poisonous sea urchin, conchs, damsel fish that grow and protect algae gardens and so much more!

There were also an insane number of algae species. One’s I hadn’t found before include Chaetomopha linum (sea hair) Caulerpa sertulariodes(green feather Algae). Acetabularia caliculus (Green Mermaid’s Wine Glass) Halimeda , Caulerpa ashmeadii (also feathery), and Halimeda monile.

After lunch we went to collect our data on a patch reef, but it was very shallow and very windy, so trying to count how much coral we were seeing while being pushed around and trying not to hit anything felt impossible!

After that adventure, we decided to go into the marine protected area just to snorkel for fun, and we found much more fish diversity and varied topography. Dr. Solomon also speared and invasive lion fish we plan to eat tomorrow. I also saw a pine cone algae of genus Rhipocephalus and some Ventricaria ventricose (which look like bubbles and are all one cell… they are super fun to explode) both fore the first time!

 

 

2022

Day 4: A Field Aquarium

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Starting a new experiment today, the group came up with the research question “What is the correlation between the percentage of live coral and the sea urchin prevalence? How does this change in a protected versus unprotected zone?” We will be collecting data for this experiment over the next couple days, starting with today. After coming up with the experiment layout, we had some extra time before lunch so we went to the shallower sea grass area on the North side of the island to try to collect as many organisms as we could find into buckets. We were able to find conch, mantis shrimp, a lobster, a Diadima antillarum (a venomous urchin), corallomorphs, anemone, and even some Crustose Corralline red algae! One cool fact that I learned today is that spiny lobsters don’t have claws, unlike the ones that we see in the US. It was like our own little aquarium (which releases the animals back into the ocean of course).

After lunch, we went out on the boat to begin collecting our data. We first went to a patch we went to wasn’t a Marine Protected Area and was pretty shallow. Here, there was a lot of coral rubble and diseased coral, and it was pretty difficult to keep still with the current. To estimate the number of sea urchins in the area, we were all given 10 minutes to collect as many as we could. I was able to find a couple, but they were both underneath rocks that I couldn’t break. We ended up finding 20 different urchins! Also Dr. Correa picked up some Galaxuara spp. (a red algae) that was actually all over the sea floor. We then moved onto a MPA and got to snorkel around, just to explore. There was a huge difference in the landscape (obviously there were topography factors involved in the difference but still) with an abundance of health coral, super diverse grouping of fish and coral, and it was absolutely stunning. Here, I was even able to identify Jania spp. (a red algae) which was actually everywhere throughout the reef. I also was able to identify  Fire Coral, Sergeant Fish, Dusky Damsel Fish, French Angel Fish (maybe one of my favorites now), White Scroll Algae, Boulder Star Coral, and Whitestar Sheet Coral. AND Dr. Solomon was able to spear a Lion Fish so we will be making that into some delicious Lion Fish ceviche tomorrow or so!!

– Sophia

Eucidaris tribuloides
Crustose Coraline Algae!
Possibly another variety of Crustose Coraline aglage!
Diadema anitllarum
Carribean Spiny Lobster
2022

Day 4: Never Seen a Reef, Never Seen one Atoll

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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

Porites divericata close up

2022

Research? More like reef-search!!! (Day 4)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 4 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we started our attempt to answer our new research questions: “ What is the correlation between percent live coral and the sea urchin population?” and “How does that correlation change between mpa and non mpa reefs?”

Our hypothesis are as follows:  we think that areas with moderate amounts of sea urchins will have the highest percentage of live reefs. Additionally, we think that the unprotected reefs  will have an abundance of sea urchins and therefore have less live coral. We think this because unprotected reefs are susceptible to overfishing, which reduces the amount of creatures that prey on sea urchins.

Our methods were to lay out 50ft of transect tape in random, radial direction s from one central point. Then, at every 5 meters we would count the squares of live coral and dead coral using a quadrat. Our final part, would be collecting as many sea urchins as possible in 10 minutes, which we would identify later.

This method sounds easy in practice, but let me tell you. Counting. The. Corals. Was. Hellish. Don’t try to tell me,  “Corals are delicate, don’t touch them because they’ll get hurt.” * I now know the truth. They will cut you, burn you, and make you lose your quadrat to the current. If I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit, I would be covered in the wrath of a fire coral right now. So, yeah, getting the data from the West patch reef was very difficult, but collecting the sea urchins wasn’t easy either. Most of the time, the sea urchins were 1cm-2inches burrowed in the remains of hard corals (specifically the ones with a little algae overgrowth). They were hard to see at first, but after awhile they were easy to find. I saw many types, and as the echinoderms expert, I knew exactly what they were (mostly). The most common find was a Common reef urchin, Echinometra viridis, identifiable by the dark body, orange spikes, and small white rings on their spines. We saw a few reef burrowing urchins, Echinometra lucunter, and 2 pencil slate urchins, Eucidaris tribuloides. We found so many urchins that I could hardly count the ones in the wild, but we brought back 20 to classify.  My three favorite finds of this trip were a Flamingo tongue snail, a lobster trio(featured picture), and the donkey dung sea cucumber (Holothuria mexicana). I found the sea cucumber under a coral, and I got to hold him, he was very squishy and started molding to the shape of my hands. I couldn’t identify any particular behavior that he was doing, but maybe he just needed a nap.

Our other daily activity was making a taxa showcase! We gathered lots of creatures from the seagrass beds behind the kitchen. We found one Spiny Sea Urchin, Diadema antillarum, and Kaiu graciously scooped it up for me to talk about. He hardly stole the show though because we found so many types of green algae, a lobster, and two mantis shrimp!

Oh, and did I mention that Prof. Solomon speared a lionfish? Looks like we might have ceviche tomorrow!

Till then!

QOTD: “You made the *dumb* graph, this is on you”

The first mantis shrimp I’ve ever seen. Everytime I go to an aquarium they don’t have them, and they are supposed to be really hard to find. I finally accomplished my life goal (twice in one day!!!)
Me and the Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber, Holothuria mexicana
Black long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, somehow being carried in a tiny net
Some of the guides we used to identify the sea urchins. I made the one on the left!!!
My teacher speared a lionfish in front of me … I LOVE BIOLOGY

* please do not intentionally touch corals its a) illegal and b) bad for corals

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Collecting Specimens: Lionfish Spearing

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Today we spent our morning collecting specimens in the shallows near the island and identifying them in our wet lab before releasing them! We were able to collect a surprising amount of organisms, including lots of green algae, a few crabs, a spiny lobster, and some mantis shrimp!

We were also able to generate a new research question and go farther out from shore to see some more patch reefs within the atoll and collect data to answer our question. We are interested in how sea urchin abundance correlates with the percentage of coral cover that is dead, and how this relationship might be different in areas of the reef that are protected and other unregulated areas. Data collection today was very challenging due to strong current and some equipment malfunctions, but we made it work! We should be working on this project for a few days so hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow!

We also visited patch reef that is a marine protected area (MPA) which was much deeper and more complex than we have seen so far! Although I didn’t spot any more jellyfish today, I saw so many magnificent coral structures and colorful fish. I saw an entire school of what might be blue tangs pass by, and some truly massive Orbicella corals. We even spotted a lionfish, which is a very venomous, very invasive species which Dr. Solomon was able to spear and catch for us to eat tomorrow! It was so exciting to watch!

2022

Day 4: Patch Reef Health + Sea Urchins

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Our class traveled on boat to perform some examinations of the patch reefs on Glover’s Atoll today! Using our transect tapes and quadrates again, our class decided toe analyze the relationship between the density of sea urchins and percentage of live and dead coral on both marine protected reefs as well as unprotected reefs. We discovered that although our methodology seemed sound that with the shallow waters, strong ocean currents, and the presence of millepora alcicornis or Branching Fire Coral that was present on both reefs. Jasmine got stung by this hydrozoan unfortunately :(, but the stings will go away with hydrocortisone! We did discover that the marine protected reefs were deeper and had healthier and more abundant corals and fish!

In the marine protected area I saw many solitary Christmas Tree worms of all colors!Right next to it is some Magnificent Feather Duster worms!

I also got to see my first split crown feather duster! You can tell by the how the radiole splits perfectly in half mirroring itself.

I believe I also got to see my first Christmas Tree Hydroid which was very exciting!

I even saw three lobsters with Faith all lined up in a row! Incredible!Right after I saw my biology professor, Dr. Solomon, spear a lionfish which is an invasive and harmful, yet delicious, species to the Caribbean. Lillian was very excited! 😀

Earlier in the day we collected all sorts of sea creatures for examination in the wet lab room. There was: green algae species, brown algae species, glass shrimp, conch species, anemones, mantis shrimp, several crab species, sea urchin (Caio picked it up with a net), and even a lobster!

I can’t wait to go to see more on the outer reefs tomorrow! Peace out!

~ Maegan