Last day of the trip. I don’t want to leave, there’s a lump in my throat. We got packed breakfast because we were leaving Middle Caye at 7. I ate mine immediately. The first thing we did was take the boat to another island called Carrie Bow Caye. On it was another research station. The island itself was smaller than ours but their facilities are more geared towards research. It was run by the Smithsonian Institute. The stations managers Clyde and Liz took us on a quick tour. I learned that you can volunteer to be a station manager for 4 weeks at a time. Maybe I can come back here as a volunteer. Who knows. But I sure hope so.

After the tour we went to another set of islands called Twin Cayes. The two mangrove islands was separated by a channel. We snorkeled up and down it to look at what was hiding in the mangroves. I saw a couple sea stars and some ginormous feather duster worms, but that was about it. I didn’t get to see a Mangrove crab in its natural habitat. Other people said they saw a barracuda. Getting out of the water for the last time sucked. We got back into the boat and we were off. Back to Belize City, then back to Houston.

“This land is unbelizeable, you gotta see it to belize it.” I hope I’ll see it again.

-Randy

This morning we got to go back out to the back reef again. Except this time we came armed with ziplock bags and buckets to collect samples of our taxonomic groups. It was a pretty exciting time for me when we took our catches back to the wet lab to examine and ID because there were a lot of crustaceans. There were about 5 Mantis Shrimps, some were green and some were brown. One was almost 3 inches long. There were also a bunch of different crabs. There were loads of Reef Hermit Crabs, a couple of Stone Crabs and maybe a Mangrove Crab. We found two Blue Crabs, they didn’t like each very much. We couldn’t put them together in the same trough.

In the afternoon we got to dissect the 4 Lionfish that Scott caught. For a fish that is supposed to be able to eat a lot it didn’t have a lot of guts. Its organs were a lot smaller than I expected. We only found a tiny little fish under 2cm in its stomach. Everyone else’s fish stomaches only had mush in it. After we gutted the fish, the guys from the fisheries department took the meat to make ceviche for us. Still waiting to eat it.

Late in the afternoon, we took a boat to Southwest Caye. As the sun was setting and I was sipping pina colada, it dawned on me that today was the last full day we have. Time is, as always, paradoxically slow and fast. The past two weeks seemed to have disappeared. I’m not ready to go back to the real world. I’m not ready to leave this paradise. This experience is more than I could have asked for and more than I ever expected. So yes my vacation is going good, and yes you’ll be getting postcards from Randy.

-Randy

Started out the day with some good old community service. We went to a rocky beach on the other side of the island outside the reef crest to pick up trash and debris that’s washed ashore. It was actually quite depressing how much of it there was. I could pick any spot and sit down and spend over 30 minutes picking up trash only in arms’ reach. All of us were out there for an hour and picked up over 30 kgs of trash, yet I don’t know if we made a significant impact.

In the afternoon, we measured some coral. To get to them we had to run through the “mangroves of death” on half of the island. Adrienne and Scott calls it that because in past years it’s been completely infested with mosquitoes. Even though this year wasn’t bad at all I still got bit quite a bit. Saw a reef hermit crab today. They are different from the land hermit crabs thats all over the island, bigger too.

At night we went out for a night snorkel. Saw a lot of lobsters. There were a bunch of spiny lobsters out, more than I’ve ever seen before. Some of them were in pairs. I couldn’t tell if they were mating or fighting. They can shoot themselves so far with one flick of their tail, it’s super impressive. We also saw the elusive slipper lobster. It looked really weird, almost like a really large bug. Everyone turn off their dive lights for a bit. The darkness revealed all the bioluminescent animals hiding in the sea grass. It almost looked like a greenish static on a black screen. Really awesome.

-Randy

My class issued camera is officially out of commission. I checked the battery last night and it leaked acid. I’m pretty upset, I’m finally getting better at diving down and there’s so much to see. But I have nothing to capture the images except my memory. At least I have that I guess.

Today was probably the best and worst day of the marine section of the trip all rolled into one. We went out to the fore reef in the first part of the morning. It was really cool, probably the deepest waters I’ve ever been in. We saw a ginormous Spotted Eagle Ray, it was swimming around on the ocean floor. I finally got the hang of diving, which was good because out here there’s not much to see near the surface. After we went outside the reef crest and did some drift snorkeling where we let the current carry us. We saw a pretty sizable Nurse Shark that was over 6 ft. The motion of the unbroken waves started to make me feel a little queazy in the water, and only got worse when I got back onto the boat. I was pretty out of it for a while.

In the early afternoon, we did some data analysis and a presentation session. This gave me some time to recover from the sea sickness. Later in the afternoon, we went to the back reef right off the island. There was so much diversity in what was out there. Scott, Adrienne, and the water safety instructors were out catching Lionfish, I helped spot two of them.

I’m starting to like the water more and more. Boats not so much. I’m pretty bummed out by the camera thing, but oh well.

-Randy

Today we surveyed reefs for live coral coverage and urchin presence. We went to two separate places in the morning and afternoon. I enjoyed today much more than yesterday. We actually got to see corals and a lot of fish, instead of trying to dig through a thick layer of sea grass. I pretty sure I got better at controlling my body in the water today as well.

While we were collecting urchins in the afternoon, I got stabbed by an urchin spine. A pretty substantial piece pierced flesh, broke, and lodged itself in my left middle finger. It stung a lot in the salty water. I hope it gets better before tomorrow, supposedly we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

The ocean may have won this battle but the war is not over yet!

-Randy

Did another practice snorkel in the morning. We went out to a couple of the patch reefs and did a scavenger hunt. It was a bit of a struggle. Not only am I not the most graceful person in the water, I didn’t recognize most of the things we were looking for. I had a good time nonetheless, and I think I’m getting better bit by bit.

In the afternoon we did a mock quadrat exercise. We investigated the density and abundance of two different types of algae. But mostly it was just to practice snorkeling and diving a little. Our group unfortunately didn’t find any algae. I’m pretty sure it was because there actually wasn’t any algae along the area we sampled but the tall sea grass didn’t help. I did however see a pufferfish, kind of made going out in the water worth while.

Later on we went to a coral fossil graveyard to look at different types of coral fossils to help us learn their shapes and sizes so that when we do get into the water we can spot and ID them easier. I’m officially convinced Adrienne is crazy… about corals! She seemed like a kid at the playground, with all her corals. I always feel inspired listening to someone talking about something they are truly passionate about. And Adrienne is for sure passionate about corals.

-Randy

Spent most of the day on a boat traveling to Glover’s Atoll. We are staying on an island called Middle Caye on the atoll. The place is like paradise. White sand, crystal clear waters, corals right off the shore, crabs and lizards crawling around. It almost doesn’t seem real.

We got to snorkel a little before dinner. Which fun but at the same time a little bit of a struggle. Water kept getting into the snorkel and the mask kept fogging up. I guess it’s something I just need to get used to. We swam out to a reef platform to look at corals and fish. Scott found a lobster and tried to show me but I couldn’t for the life of me see where it was hiding.

There are crabs all over the island. During the day, you can see colonies of Red Hermit Crabs crawling all over the place. After dark, the Giant Land Crabs come out to play. They’re humongous, it’s unbelievable. The larger ones are about the size of a basketball. They don’t seem to be doing anything in particular though.

I kind of wish I had a day just to enjoy the island. Then I’d really be on vacation. But science is fun too. I just hope the ocean doesn’t kill me tomorrow.

-Randy