May 29, 2025

GRRS Day 5

Our last full day at GRRS and in Belize did not disappoint! You may remember that I remarked that parts of Middle Caye, the island Glover’s Reef Research Station sits on, is covered in trash. Our morning began with a proposal from Drs. Evans and Solomon: find a research project that can include picking up trash! We decided to see how currents on each side of the island affect trash deposition and percent coverage. The island, because it sits on the edge of an atoll, is exposed to both the protected waters of the atoll, the open ocean, and the barrier between the two. We decided to use quadrats to measure how much trash was on a protected area (the mangroves,) an exposed area (the coral graveyard,) and an area right in between (the beach outside the dorms.) Our results were inconclusive due to our small sample size limited by time, but we may have been on to something! As always, the research poster is pasted below. 

In the afternoon, we had another super fun activity: dissecting a Lionfish. There were 5 available, so Claire and I got out own small one. However, regarding consumption, looks can be deceiving. As the wrasse man, I surely must bring wrasses into my blog. I wasn’t the one to bring the wrasses here though, the lionfish did. The invasive species not only wreaked havoc on the coral reef ecosystem, they (the sex of our lionfish was unknown) wreaked havoc  on the juvenile yellowhead wrasse population as well. I found not one, but TWO juvenile yellowhead wrasses in our lionfish. And a couple unidentifiable fish that could have been wrasses as well. Our lionfish wasn’t the only one though, as Adam and Sadhana’s ALSO had a juvenile yellowhead head wrasse in its belly. Deplorable. Thankfully, these invasive aliens are no longer wreaking havoc on the coral reef ecosystem of Glover’s Atoll. While I was sad to see the contents of their stomach, seeing these lionfish up close was such a treat and a great way to end our time at GRRS and in Belize! 

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