Hi Blog,

Today was Day 11 in Belize and our second full day at Glover’s Reef. The day started at 7 AM as per usual with breakfast. Then at 8 AM, the class met in the wet lab to discuss the project for our day, which was to examine the feeding behavior of parrotfish. Our class split into several groups, with typically 2 groups examining one species, such as spotlight, red banded, red tailed. Lily & I and Sadhana & Adam were responsible for surveying the seagrass patch near the dock to look for red tailed parrotfish. Sadhana & Adam took on the left side, while we took on the right. We snorkeled from 10 AM to 11 AM, but Lily & I were unsuccessful in finding redtailed parrotfish. However, we were able to see swarms of the smaller fish and a shark lurking around the seagrass which was astonishing! We did see a couple of vertically striped fish swimming around though, but they did not look like parrotfish. We got pretty desperate and started chasing them around and recording footage though. Also, since the fish were quite translucent and a little far away, all of the video footage did not turn out too well.

When everyone returned from their respective surveying area, we washed all of our gear, rested a little bit, then headed into lunch. During the transition period to lunch, Sadhana, Elise, Claire C, Ian, and I went out into the dock and had a relaxing time. However, random items (such as Sadhana’s peanut cap, my Haribo jelly wrapper) kept being blown into the ocean, and Sadhana kindly kept taking one for the team and jumped into the ocean to fetch those items. Next time, I promised to be the one jumping into the water to retrieve something.

Although I was feeling fine initially before the snorkel, my nausea emerged immediately again after lunch. Since the class was meeting back up at 1:30 PM for snorkel part 2 (way longer, on a boat), I informed Dr. Evans of my condition, and then napped for an hour to see if I would feel better enough to go out to snorkel again. Spoiler alert: I did not make it to the second snorkel because my nausea stayed at a constant level.

From 1:30 PM to 4 PM, I slept to recover while the others snorkeled in two spots for 45 minutes each on a boat ride. I’m sad I missed it, but I really don’t think I could have physically made it through the 2.5 hour session. I’m really hopeful for the future activities though. I will be drinking plenty of water and electrolytes to manage my physical state.

On the positive side though, I got to observe the dissection and freezing of the lionfish that Dr. Evans and Dr. Solomon had spearheaded from the snorkel while we were analyzing the footage we had collected. The mature one was pretty wrangled with the spear, as Dr. Evans had speared the fish through the head. The juvenile one was still flopping around, so we put them both into the freezer. Dr. Evans said we will be eating them sometime, so I’m intrigued by that. If I see a mystery fish in the menu at one point though, I will know what it is.

After dinner, we had a presentation from the manager of Glover’s Reef regarding WCS (Wildlife and Conservation Society) and subsequent presentations from the residing marine biologist and the Coast Guard. I was intrigued to hear about Glover’s Reef’s history and the conservation work associated with WCS and Glover’s. Also, I was fascinated by how Glover’s serves (though at a lesser extent than other islands) as a nesting site for sea turtles due to the availability of sand.

Then, we dove straight into class presentations, starting off with my taxon presentation about surgeonfish. After, Sam briefed the class about his taxon, which was wrasses, and Noelle presented about the ecology and evolutionary biology of surgeonfish. I was fascinated by how although I thought surgeonfish changed colors primarily for mating, Noelle found that the surgeonfish changed colors to transition between day and night.

Although I did not get to see surgeonfish today, it was really fun to talk to my classmates about surgeonfish and listen to Noelle’s topic lecture about surgeonfish as well.

Tomorrow, we are planning to do a seagrass hike and visit the coral graveyard. Well then, I will see you guys tomorrow!