Our first day snorkeling! The ocean looked super pristine and calm above water. Jumping in, however, was a whole different story. As soon as I hit the water at 10 am though, I panicked. Mask flooded and fogged, legs weakly kicking back against strong surges of waves, I opted to be on a life raft instead. Tugged around by lifeguards Domenique and Adrian, I followed along, and ended up spotting a  nurse shark, varieties of angelfish, parrotfish, and damselfish, and a plethora of colorful coral. By the end of the session, I was ready to be back in the ocean.

But first, I needed a quick (2 hour) nap on our wet lab’s hammock. Sleeping in the hammock amidst the hot, humid climate was a life altering experience. After that and lunch, it was time for another snorkel at a series of patch reefs at Glover’s Reef Research Station (GRRS) known as the Aquarium. Testing out my phone camera and video, I was able to spot so many parrotfish, as well as a barracuda, some really pretty sea urchin, and beautiful coral. From the fire and maze corals to the purple sea fan, the diversity within singular patches was amazing to see. It really made me realize the reason Belize’s coast is called the largest “living” reef. 

After snorkeling, we analyzed all the images we got. Sam and I spent an especially long time looking at the parrotfish and wrasses around the area. Interestingly, we both saw an initial phase female striped parrotfish transitioning into a male, or terminal phase parrotfish! These are distinct in that the female typically exhibits duller, red-warm colors, while the male is more vibrant, exhibiting blues and greens. Seeing this transition was super cool and definitely a highlight. We also identified a bunch of striped parrotfish and stoplight parrotfish, both in their initial phases. What was most interesting though, was the behavior we saw, from chasing females across territorial boundaries, to grazing and excretion. Fun fact–parrotfish excrete sand!

An exciting, but tiring day for sure. More to come soon!