Beach cleanup was on this morning’s agenda, and, being Rice students, we also weighed and separated all the types of marine debris and analyzed the results. The amount of garbage on the shore was astounding; we filled 6 garbage bags in an hour, and this is on a beach that is in a protected area and cleaned weekly. We only made a dent in the amount of debris accumulated on the island’s shores. I guess the take-home message to anyone reading this would be to limit your use of plastics as much as possible, stop using styrofoam, and be very careful about where your waste ends up (even properly disposed of trash often ends up in the ocean).

We went out to the backreef again today to document some coral colonies. I saw some more split crown feather dusters, spaghetti worms, a christmas tree worm, a teeny tiny star horseshoe worm, and finally a free-moving worm (as opposed to the others, which are tube dwelling). The fireworm is a marine worm that belongs to the same class as the feather dusters and fan worms but looks more like a caterpillar. It is red with white tufts, and, true to its name, will sting you if you touch it.

Sophia Streeter

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