Today we started our time on land! While most of the morning and early afternoon was spent traveling from Glovers Reef to inland Belize, this evening we got to hear a very interesting lecture and visit the Belize zoo after dark to see the nocturnal animals. (Side note: We learned today that the Dramamine we took for the forereef boat ride was actually just ginger pills, so that’s why it didn’t work at all, luckily I had real Dramamine for today.)
We heard about Scarlet Macaw’s nesting and habitat selection from a scientist named Dr. Boris. He focused a lot on the functional aspect of science (researching in order to conserve nature) which I found very exciting! Aside from a wealth of knowledge about the Scarlet Macaw, he also gave us a lot of good advice on being a researcher and the difficulties it sometimes presents.
Also, I figured out pretty quickly that you need to keep an eye on where your walking at night, as leaf cutter ants are nocturnal and we saw a few large lines of them hard at work right across our path! Snakes are also a good thing to keep an eye out for late at night.
After dark, we got to go on a night tour at the zoo! Here I was able to meet a Tapir named Indy (who loves carrots).
We also saw a lot of predatory cats which was super cool! Since it was night (and our guide Carlos had chicken livers) they were very active. We met a jaguar, that had been trained to roll over, as well as an ocelot, puma, and margay.
I also saw the first individual from my jungle taxonomic group today, a tiny brown moth I had no hope of identifying! I am looking forward to seeing more moths/butterflies over the next week that I will be able to identify (and I’m sure many I wont!).
There was a lot to do today, since it was our last day!
We started out by going to a non-MPA to collect our last data set for our research question from three days ago. We used the transects and quadrats for the last time, which was very bitter sweet. The reef was very sparse, with very few live corals. There was a decent amount of brown algae, mainly the saucer leaf algae, covering the rubble. We saw some Caribbean reef squid though! There were six or seven of them, and they were all in a row in the seagrass bed that surrounded the reef. Doing what, I don’t know.
Afterwards, we went to a reef in the MPA, which they call “The Aquarium.” There were tons of fish, including parrot fish, angel fish, damsel fish, and others that I couldn’t identify. There was also a lot of brown algae! Yay! It was mainly saucer leaf algae and funnelweed, intermixed with some white scroll algae and y-branching algae. I saw a really cool blue variety of the y-branching algae, which I believe to have been dictyota menstrualis. It was right in the middle of a patch of saucer leaf algae.
dictyota humifusa with saucer leaf algaesquids in a row! (to the right)
After lunch, we compiled and analyzed our data, and presented it to the professors. You can read about it below! The poster doesn’t include in the discussion that there may have also been a difference in the non-MPA sited due to environmental factors that we couldn’t take into account, such as differences in the amount of fishing in each area.
We enjoyed some presentations from our fellow classmates, and then had a lovely dinner, which included friend conch! It was actually quite tasty. But it wasn’t until after dinner that the real fun began! We performed dissections on the three lionfish that were caught by Prof Solomon this week, and added our data to the list of lionfish data from the previous years of the BIOS 319 trip. Once we were done, Prof Solomon filleted the lionfish, and put them into a mixture of lime juice, tomato, and onions to create a ceviche. It turned out quite delicious! I would definitely recommend eating lionfish! Although I think I still smell like fish.
their names, from top to bottom: Main Course, Appetizer, and Snack
Anyways, today was the last day on the reef! It’s amazing that the time passed so quickly! Tomorrow we will be taking a boat back to the mainland, and starting the land portion of the class. See you all then!
-Elena
Prof Solomon fileting the lionfishPerforming the dissection on Main CourseSophia and I
Today we finally finished our sea urchin/coral health correlation study. Unfortunately the last reef we surveyed was not the healthiest, with very little reef structure or live coral. However, there were Sooo many urchins. We collected over 170 of them. I remember turning over a rock and seeing both the rock and the sand under it simply covered in urchins. I had to get someone next to me to come help me collect them because I couldn’t carry them all.
We also saw reef squid for the first time. There were seven of them right off the boat, and they seemed to be all in a straight line in the middle of the water column. I didn’t see any new species of green algae, but I did see some very unique looking individuals. One was a a green bubble algae (dictyospaeria cavernosa) that looked way more yellow than any I had seen before. When I lifted it up it looked like the inside of the bible had been completely filled with sand!
I also saw a Ventricaria ventricosa (sea pearl) that looked like a deep shade of blue that really stood out from the dark green I usually see. I am not sure what caused this appearance but it was really pretty!
When we finished collecting and analyzing our data, we found a that more sea urchins were correlated with a lower percentage of coral cover being alive. However, our conclusion was highly suspect as for example, we got better and better at finding urchins each time we collected data.
Finally, at the end of the night we dissected the lion fish we had speared over the course of the week. It was a little gross, but it was also really cool to open up the stomach and find the little fish the lion fish had been eating still inside!
Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 7 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!
Today we woke up and gathered our last non-mpa reef data. The waves were brutal; McKenna described them as, “being thrown in a washing machine.” The reef was about 5 feet deep, and it was mostly sand. The winds made this data collection positivelyhorrendous! It was really hard to keep our quadrats in place, and the transect tape kept coming undone. I EVEN GOT FIRE CORALED (or “fire hydroided” since fire corals are actually hydroids). Nevertheless, we powered through.
The urchin collecting went surprisingly well. Today we collected 177 E. viridis (Reef boring urchins). per usual, we found them burrowed in tight niches of branched hard corals and under rocks. We found some exceptionally large ones today being 1.25 inches + !!! Even though there are always urchins we can’t grab, I usually notice more species variation on the reef. However, this patch reef only had E. viridis; there were no pencil slate urchins or boring urchins in sight!
Outside of the urchin hunt, we didn’t find any other echinoderms. I’ve really enjoyed being the urchin- identifier on the urchin counting team for the past few days. I realize I haven’t described it much, but that is because we usually only find Reef urchins and the occasional sea egg. Today, however, I got to throw the urchins back into the sea. They look like little soot sprites as they float to the bottom.
After the data dive, we went on a recreational snorkel. I was also fire coraled here, but I’ll forgive it. This reef had significantly less urchins than the non-mpa reef we had snorkeled earlier. The ones I saw were E. viridis and they were burrowed in coral crevices. Even though we didn’t do a formal collection, the reef had a visibly lower urchin count.
This reef also surprised us with 2 Caribbean reef squid (the only squid in the Caribbean), 2 spiny lobster, and a lionfish! (I found the lionfish btw)
Back on land, Caio showed me how to catch lizards so that I would be prepared for seeing them in Las Cuevas. (I think he likes me more now that he knows I’m the reptile taxon). According to the Caio technique, you have to cup the lizard with your hands when they can’t see you. Then, you let the front legs perch on two fingers while you press (lightly) on their torso with your thumb. I put a picture of me holding one below! The lizards we caught we brown anoles (A. sangrei), and they were climbing the trees behind the kitchen.
Later in the day, we analyzed our data about corals and urchins, answering the question, “how does the sea urchin population correlate with the live coral count, and how does this change across mpa and non-mpa reefs?” Our data was mostly inconclusive because of our improved ability to find sea urchins and environmental factors.
Last but not least, we dissected the 3 lionfish we hunted! Liliana got to dissect the big one; meanwhile, Maegan, Michiel, Ava, and I dissected “Snack,” the small 23.6g immature female. We didn’t get much data besides that, but she did eat a tiny fish in her limited years. Snack, Appetizer, and MC (main course) made a great ceviche. Also MC was a giant lionfish weighting 680g!
Anyways I’m about to enjoy some ceviche, till tomorrow!
QOTD: “Surchin af”
“BRB I’m gonna go rub this book on my head”
E. Viridis from urchin hunting!Ceviche Prep!!!Dissecting Snack, the small lionfishMe holding an Anolis sangrei, brown anoleCaribbean Reef squid I found
Our last full day at Glover’s 🙁 We started it off with our last data collection for Sunday’s research question about coral cover and sea urchin abundance at a non-MPA site. This was pretty quick as we have all become really efficient with our methods and were even able to collect 177 (!!!) sea urchins, all Echinometra viridis. It was pretty sad how dead this reef was but I still saw an Amber Pinshell mollusk and some Common Sea Fan. We were also able to go to a protected area where there were so many different reef fish and I got to dive down a lot to observe them closer. The water was pretty rough but it made it all the more fun! I saw lots of Branching Vase Sponge, saucer leaf brown algae, Jania spp. and Amphiora fragilissima red algae, a parrot fish, more French Angel Fish, a puffer, and some stag horn coral! Also, Dr. Solomon secured us our third lion fish of the trip, a small but the perfect addition for our collection.
“Surchin for Urchins: The Correlation Between Number of Urchins and Percent Live Coral”
After finishing up our poster for the experiment, we had a few topic lectures so we would have more time for the lion fish ceviche!! After dinner, we gathered in the wet lab and first dissected the fish. We had three different sized ones: Snack, Appetizer, and Main Course. This was of course based on their sizes, and I got to work on Main Course, and it was hugeeee. We first took the 680g (!!) fish and measured the gape width and length which was about 3 cm and 3.25 cm respectively. Then, we sexed it and found out that it was a male before cutting open it’s stomach to see what was inside. It had these two little pieces that were pretty digested but we think it may have been some kind of invertebrate. It was super cool to be able to analyze the food that we were about to eat, especially something that is harmful to our environment. After all the fish were gutted and cleaned, Dr. Solomon made it into a delicious ceviche that we enjoyed with some plantain and corn chips. Highly recommend, 12/10 experience and a great way to end the first part of our trip.
We went on our last snorkeling trip to collect data from a non marine protected reef. There is saw a significant amount of bladed fire coral. I also saw a Christmas tree worm that appeared to have bored inside of fire coral which I thought was very interesting because I thought, since fire coral was an athecate hydroid colony and a hard coral, many marine organisms would avoid them due to their stinging capabilities, but they seem to support many life forms.
I also saw and photographed this Caribbean Reef Squid which was very cool! I saw some color changes on the squid when two were together so I wonder if they were communicating.
Later we dissected three lionfish ( named snack, appetizer, and main course). Our group dissected snack the smallest of the three. After collecting data we made our lionfish into ceviche dish! Muy delicioso!
Although I am sad to leave Glover’s, I have grown and learned so much. I’m so excited for the rainforest and to stay at Las Cuevas!
I’m sure you guys already know that the day started with everyone waking up and getting breakfast by 7. After waking up this morning and getting breakfast, everyone quickly put on their snorkel gear, got their transects, quadrats, and clipboards, and boarded the boat to go out to a non-MPA reef. There, we collected data for the research question I talked about on June 11. The reef was a pretty good depth, not to shallow or too deep, but it had a lot of fire sponge and fire coral. Thankfully, I managed not to touch any while I was there. It also had a lot of dead coral and there were very few fish. I remember seeing two Cocoa Damselfish (Stegastes variabilis), but I can’t remember seeing any other fish I could identify. After, Ava and I laid out our transect and counted alive and dead coral in our quadrat, the entire class began collecting sea urchins for 10 minutes. This place was full of sea urchins; I ended up getting 11, but some people were able to find a lot more. We ended up with 177 sea urchins after only 10 minutes.
After this reef, we went to a much nicer, deeper reef where the class had a chance to snorkel without the pressure of collecting any data. This was our last time to snorkel on the trip, and I’m really happy with the reef they ended up taking us too. The coral in the area was beautiful, and I saw so many fish. In terms of herbivorous fish, I saw a bunch of Cocoa Damselfish (S. variabilis), some really large Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis) – they were about 20 cm – Threespot Damselfish (S. planifrons), and Bicolor Damselfish (S. partitus). I also saw a Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) and a male Bluelip Parrotfish (Cryptotomus roseus), both of which I followed for a while to get a good picture. I got some fine-ish pictures of the Blue Tang, but I couldn’t get any good ones of the parrotfish because the parrotfish kept going all over the reef, moving through coral so fast that I could barely keep up with it. All of these fish were really hard to get pictures of because they tend to hide within the coral whenever you approach them.
Huge Abudefduf saxatilis
After we left that reef, we compiled all of the data we’ve collected over the past couple of days. We were able to conclude that there is a correlation between a high percentage of live coral coverage and less sea urchins. However, we didn’t see any correlation between the amount of urchins and whether we were collected at an MPA or a non-MPA. We think this may be due to our ability in collecting sea urchins improving as we went from reef to reef. This would explain why we collected so few sea urchins from the first non-MPA site we went to, which probably skewed our results. After determining all of this, we put all of our information on a poster and presented our project to Scott and Adrienne.
Later in the day (after lectures and dinner) we dissected lionfish. My group was given a really tiny lionfish, which was challenging, but my confidence in my dexterity skills skyrocketed after I saw how well I did on the dissection. The most interesting part of the dissection was opening its stomach to examine its content. We were able to see some invertebrate organism within it that measured about 2.1 cm. After dissecting the fish, Scott took them, fileted them, and made ceviche. The ceviche was delicious, and we were all happy that we were simultaneously having a wonderful snack and contributing to the betterment of our marine environment.
After the ceviche, we worked on our assignments and got ready for bed. This was the last day of the reef! I’m sad it’s over – I had so much fun snorkeling – but I’m excited for everything I’m going to learn in the rainforest.
The best photo of the blue tang I could take : (A photo Sophia took of the blue tang!
Today was our last day on the island :,( we did our last snorkel this morning, and tomorrow we head back to the mainland for the second half of our expedition. Each day feels like many, but then the week passed in the blink of an eye.
At 8:00AM, after breakfast, we suited up for the last time in our snorkel gear to head out on a mission to collect our last data point in the ongoing TFB research question: what is the association between live coral cover and the abundance of sea urchins on patch reefs within and outside of the Marine Protected Area of Glovers Reef Atoll?
We headed to the second non-MPA patch reef for our last transect/quadrat data collection. Our last reef science hurrah. Scott caught one more lionfish (making 3 in total of the invasive species soon to be ceviche). After our data collection was done, we went to one more MPA reef within the atoll for one last free snorkel. While the wind and waves were intense, it was a nice experience. I came across a handful more queen conchs (Strombus gigas), one milk conch (Strombus stratus), and one Amber penshell (Pinnea carnea). Everyone but me it seems got to see one or multiple Caribbean reef squids (Sepioteuthis sepioidea).
We made a poster with our analyzed data (see picture), and then after lunch, I presented my taxon lecture on mollusks (on the last day, after we’d seen all the mollusks we could have possibly seen). For dinner, they had fried conch, meaning I got to taste my taxon! It tasted like crab cakes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After dinner, we dissected the 3 lion fish we had collected through the week, identifying the sex, weight, length, and last meal. (Ours was named appetizer)! And then Scott filleted the fish and we ate them as ceviche. It was my first time trying ceviche, and it honestly just tasted like lime. Would eat again!
This time on the island was honestly remarkable, and I can’t wait for the rainforest half of the trip (although I can’t see how it could be better than this)
From our last snorkel to lionfish ceviche, today was a great day overall. We started off by heading to our final patch reef to finish collecting data on the relationship between coral cover and sea urchin abundance. The wind and waves were strong, but overall, it was a fairly smooth experience. However, the boat ride was more akin to a rollercoaster. The relationship between urchins and live coral was an interesting concept to investigate. Our data reliability may be a bit questionable (as we are far from experienced in this type of research) but the patch reefs we visited all had significant growth of brown algae, which colonizes the dead stony coral skeletons along with a multitude of other organisms. The battle between stony corals and macroalgae is constant, yet it’s clear that human-driven environmental factors have swayed many reef regions in favor of more prolific algae growth at the detriment of stony reef builders. In theory, this may bolster the local urchin population because of an increase in available algal food.
That doesn’t mean these reefs aren’t teeming with life though. I was able to see several colonies of Orbicella faveolata (some with small fish resting on the surface), tons of Porites, and even several Caribbean reef squids.
We ended the night by dissecting the invasive lionfish we caught over the past few days and then turning them into ceviche. A tasty snack to end a wonderful time on the island. I look forward to the forest, and hopefully the opportunity to spot an amphibian or two.
Collected urchinsPorites sp. (hard to tell)Orbicella faveolata
Today marks our last full day at Glover’s Reef Research Station. Tomorrow morning we will be all packed up and piling into a boat back to Belize City after breakfast.
This morning, we fittingly started our last reef day by snorkeling and collecting our last data points on the patch reefs. The data collection went smoothly enough, but I think the real highlight of my day was seeing TWO Caribbean Reef Squid (during our last for-funsies snorkel). Huge shoutout to Ruth for calling them to my attention.
After dinner, we dissected the three (invasive) lionfish that were speared during the week. I never thought I would be excited about digging through fish guts, but I was actually giddy about seeing three tiny in-tact fish in our lionfish’s stomach (lionfish engulf their prey whole)!
Even though these fish are invasive, and removing them from the reef is a positive service, we still can’t be wasteful. So, of course, we made lionfish ceviche for a late-night snack! The fish is currently curing in the lime juice, and the taste is TBD. Will update soon. 😉
