Hi everyone! Today is the last day on the reef! We started it off with a trash pick-up around the island. We noticed quite a lot had washed up on the beaches during our “coral graveyard” visit and I was glad that we could work together to clean some of it up. However, this was not just any trash pick-up. In tropical field biologist fashion, we turned it into a project on the distribution of trash on protected vs. unprotected parts of the island. We used quadrats to sample various parts of three different beaches and recorded the abundance and types of trash found. We spent the rest of the morning creating a poster to summarize our results. What we found was inconclusive and answering the question of the impact of marine protected status on trash abundance would require further study.

After lunch (pasta), we headed to the wet lab. When we arrived, we were greeted by 5 lionfish and some forceps and scissors, and we completed a comprehensive dissection to learn more about their diets and body structure. Ian, Sadhana, and I were unsuccessful at determining the age of our lionfish based on a small bone in its inner ear, but we learned that our fish was male and was hungry (it had very little in its stomach).

Then came the best part of any dissection — eating what’s left over! Dr. Solomon and Dr. Evans cooked the rest of the lionfish meat into a dish called ceviche. It was delicious, and was especially great with the coconut water one of the staff members obtained for us.

I’m not looking forward to leaving tomorrow because this trip has been so fun and exciting. However, I would not say no to an ice cream sandwich when I get back. That’s all for now! – Elise