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2022, Uncategorized

Even more things to carry!

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Today we practiced using quadrants (squares grids for making observations) and super long tape measures called transects. We did a project in the sea grass about the density of one of my very own green algae: the genus Penicillus! These basically look like lollipops with tops made of super thin calcified filaments on top of a central stalk. We studied how the density of these algae changed as we moved farther from shore, finding density peaked 80m from the dock.

We also visited a coral graveyard. Where everything on the “beach” was petrified into stone! (including conch shells and palm tree remains). This meant that we could see incredibly pristine coral structures that underly the live polyps, and Dr. Correa was filled with overwhelming joy helping us distinguish the different species and explaining their characteristics.

Now, onto green algae. The sea grapes (Caulerpa Racemosa) I saw yesterday I am pretty sure were of the peltata variant based on the shape of the disc like cups. However, I found on the edge of a reef flat in a pretty sandy and sunny area, which makes me think I may have the wrong ID as the peltata variant is supposed to found in shade. 

Today I also found Udotea Flabellum in sandy shallow areas between sea grass. It had the distinctive sea fan shape and was in a pretty large group in close proximity to one another. 

Also, our Penicillus project brought us to lots of penicillus. The species my group found I believe to be either Penicillus capitates and Penicillus lamourrouxii based on the almost spherical cap shape. They also tended to be around one another and among the sea grass, though preferring areas of less seagrass density.

Finally, I think I saw green feather algae, Caulderpa sertulariodes on one of the posts of the dock, but I want to get a closer look tomorrow to be more sure of my ID!

2022, Uncategorized

Day 3: The Coral Graveyard

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Much like I am assuming most days on this trip will be, today was full of many new skills both in and out of the water. As a class, we seem to have graduated past simple scenic observational snorkeling and were tasked with developing and testing a research question for our afternoon snorkel. Utilizing a quadrat and a transect tape, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of the macroalgae penicillus as we swam out away from the dock to closer waters. I must say, this was easier said than done. We thought the algae would be relatively easy to find, yet finding the marine equivalent of a green Truffula tree among a dense forest of also green seagrass did not go as smoothly as first thought. Yet, we managed to find a few, and created a poster outlining our results.

However, after lunch is when the truly exciting action took place. We went on a small walk (this time well protected from the ravenous mosquitoes) and ended up on the seaward side of the island where there is a graveyard of coral fragments. If you have seen the graveyard scene from The Lion King, it had similar vibes, yet in this case, the graveyard provided an unprecedented opportunity to look at the skeleton of stony corals. For my cards and presentations, I did a significant amount of research regarding the different stony corals of the Caribbean, yet many of the ways to tell the species apart is by the skeleton (which you would hope to not see on a healthy reef). This graveyard of coral provided the perfect opportunity to see these unique characteristics which are typically obscured by tissue. Porites divaricata, Pseudodiploria stigose, Acropora palmata and cervicornis, are just a few of the many of species that we saw and discussed. I also happened to find a piece of Eusmilia fastigiata, which was a rare and cool find.

After sadly leaving the coral graveyard, we wrapped the day up with several presentations covering Lionfish, herbivorous fish, piscivorous fish, and a fantastic yet kind of depressing presentation illustrating the future of our coral reefs. Another incredible day.

~Rusty

Favia fragrum
Eusmilia fastigiata
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Day 3: Itching and Experimenting

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This morning I woke up at 6 AM and immediately felt itchy. A closer inspection revealed dozens of bug bites all over my arms, legs, and back. (Now I’m starting to regret trekking through the Mosquito Mangroves yesterday!)

Today we started familiarizing ourselves with the process of drafting, designing, and conducting experiments and data collection while snorkeling. We decided to determine how the density of green algae changes as we move away from the shoreline. We found the most green algae about 80 feet away from the dock.

By far the highlight of today was visiting the ‘coral graveyard’ on the other side of the island. While it sounds macabre at first, it’s actually amazing and super helpful as a crash course in identifying corals! (It helps to have a couple of coral experts and guide books with you, of course!)

I didn’t see any sponges today, but I definitely soaked up a ton of useful information about identifying common coral species for the next time we snorkel a reef.

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Day 3 – Time to start measuring things

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Today we started learning how to take measurements and collect data underwater. We made quadrants yesterday (pvc squares with string tied on to make a grid), that we will be using this week to answer questions about the reef that we will come up with! Today, as a large group, we tried to see if the density of the Penecillus sp. algae changed with distance from the shore. We ended up having a completely wrong hypothesis (that it would be denser near the shore), but at least we got a good handle on using the quadrants. It is harder than you would think to be holding onto a camera, quadrant, and a clip board underwater! There weren’t any soft corals in the sea grass area, as they tend to prefer live coral patches and reefs.

While taking our measurements, we found a sea star! Holding it felt very cool, as it started to grip your hand with suction cup like appendages. I got a great picture of my snorkel buddy Michiel holding it!

This afternoon, we got to visit a beach with countless coral skeletons that had been turned into more lasting rock, preserving them immaculately. This was a super cool way to see what the inside of corals look like, especially because when we see them in the water they are often obscured by either live coral tissue or algal overgrowth. I tried to identify a few species using guide books, but didn’t have too much luck. Now that I know what they look like though (thanks to Dr. Correa and everyone else with better identification skills), I think they will be much easier to recognize on the reef!

At the coral graveyard, I also saw a dead dried out soft coral, a common sea fan. This wasn’t calcified like the hard coral skeletons however, it was just a common sea fan missing its polyps! 

– Ava

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Cool Coral Cemetery!

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Today we got to do the first of many research projects for our class, during which I was finally able to spot some jellyfish out on the reef! As a group, we got to design a research question, collect data in the field, and analyze and present our results in poster form to our professors! We investigated the changes in density of a species of green algae as we swam farther away from shore, and it was super interesting to collect data and draw conclusions for our question all in one morning!

While we were out on the water collecting data in the seagrass beds, we spotted so many jellyfish! Specifically we spotted a variety of sizes and colors of the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) resting on the sea bed right near the dock! It was really surprising how many of them there were considering none of us spotted any yesterday, but we were also distracted getting used to snorkeling at the time. Here are some good pics!

In the afternoon, Dr. Correa showed us one of her favorite spots on the island which is a super rare coral cemetery, where there were tons of old coral which had been exposed to air and mineralized. Their skeletons were so well preserved and it was breathtaking to see so many corals, some of which are extremely rare now due to diseases. We spent a lot of time organizing them and identifying them by species, which was fantastic practice for our future excursions.

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First Day of Experiments!

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Hey guys! It’s Michiel; I’m glad to write to y’all again : )

This morning I woke up and had an amazing breakfast (as always here). After breakfast, Adrienne and Scott wanted us to practice using our quadrats and transects, so they sent us out to collect some data on the island using these tools. Ava and I decided that we wanted to see how much of the island sand was disturbed by crab lines. We set up a 50 yard line from our transect, set our quadrat on either side of the transect, and counted the amount of squares covering sand that was disturbed by crab lines. We ultimately determined that about 9% of the sand in the area we studied was disturbed.

After this riveting experiment, we got to put our tools to use out on the reef! Our professors left us in the wet lab with only instructions to come up with a research question and methodology. As a class, we asked “How does the density of Penicillus green algae change as we get further from the dock?” To test this, each buddy group lined up in the water near the dock and spread out horizontally so that there was at least 10 ft of space between us. Then each of us went off, placing our quadrats at every 10 foot marking on the transect to count the number of Penicillus organisms. Unfortunately, Ava and I did not see a single one (we did see two sea anemones and a starfish, though). We also did not get to see any herbivorous fish since we stayed pretty far away from the patch reefs : (. They’re really only found over there because their diet consists mostly of algae that grows on the reef, so it would be unwise for them to go too far.

Thankfully, the other groups did find some Penicillus, so we pooled our data and determined that the organism increases in density as one goes further from the dock. We believe that Ava and I did not see any because the lush sea grass in our area may outcompete or cover it.  After discussing our results, the class put together a poster and presented our research to Scott and Adrienne.

After these presentations, we went to a very cool area of the island that was just a huge fossilized coral reef. Adrienne showed us lots and lots of different, very well preserved, corals. She identified some of the most common corals we have been seeing in the reef and told us about their importance and history. She even showed us a couple species that are currently rapidly dying off in coral reefs.

After the fossilized coral area, we had a presentation, then dinner, then I presented on herbivorous fish (I hope you all enjoyed), then there were a couple more presentations.

Overall, today was full of activities and it was our first time conducting research in the water! We all had lots of fun and I’m sure we’re all excited for the upcoming days of research in bigger coral reef systems.

Also, here’s a picture Ava took of me holding a starfish (thank you Ava!)

2022, Uncategorized

First Snorkel!

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After naturally waking up to birds and sun, we got our snorkeling stuff ready for our first trip on the water. Right on the dock, I was struck by the number of fish I could see! There were large fish in close proximity to one another with their fins out of the water, and their was an enormous school of small minor sized fish everywhere! When I got in the water I felt like the whale shark in the aquarium with all the sardines parting around it.

In the reef, we found astounding and dynamic “patch reefs” or structures of chorals, sponges, fish, etc, among the sea of seagrass in the lagoon of the atoll. I was struck by the 3-dimensional variety of shapes and sizes of organisms! Some highlights included seeing a lion fish and a small barracuda.

Dr. Correa also helped me pick a green algae from among the sea grass. I had seen the type of algae she picked but had been initially confused as I thought they were fuzzy spheres on sticks like lollipops. However, they were actually Bristle ball brush algae with rounded tops, a genus called Penicillus I did have on my taxonomic card when we got back! I was able to use the guidebook in the station to identify it as Penicillus Dumetosus mainly through the shape of the top which was much longer than wide and flat on top.

I also saw lots of Halimeda green algae mostly on top of the patch reefs characterized by long chains of roundish segments. Again using the guide books I think it was Halimida goreari as the segments seemed to match the shape and size description best of flattened 2.5-6mm wide segments.

After that we also did a scavenger hunt to practice being in the water with clipboards and cameras in another part of the atoll that was much shallower and sandier. I saw some green algae that appeared to a type of Caulerpa (sea grapes) and Udotea (Mermaid’s fan), but I plan to look at the pictures more closely to get the exact species tomorrow!

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First Day of Snorkeling: The Mangroves of Madness

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Today was our first day snorkeling out on the reef! We started the day by getting our fins wet in the patch reefs right near the dock  in front of the station. This was so exciting, we got to see the reef in person, and start to identify some of its organisms.

After this initial excursion, we decided to see more patch reefs through a different access point on the island which led us through a mangrove landscape. Mangroves are very cool, the trees have such strong and graceful looking root structures, but getting through this area was miserable because they are host to hordes of mosquitos! We quite literally ran to get in the water to keep them from swarming us, and none of us left unscathed.

But once we were out in the water, we saw so many cool things! It was really interesting to see the diversity of 3D coral structures that can be visible from even a small little patch. Some organisms of note include  a sea cucumber, conch shells, and I even spotted a small shark in the seagrass! Unfortunately, I still have yet to see any jellyfish or ctenophores, but I am still hopeful that we will see some when when we get into deeper waters.

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First Reef Day!

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Hey y’all, It’s Michiel again : )

Today was so much fun! This morning was absolutely beautiful and I loved looking out over the island during breakfast. Just after breakfast, we saw an iguana. It was very pretty and we kept seeing iguanas (or perhaps the same iguana) throughout the day.

After breakfast, we put on our snorkel gear and dove off the dock. The tropical waters were very inviting with how warm they were. We saw huge schools of tiny fish which we could not identify. Once my partner (Ava) and I made it to the patch reefs, we could not get enough of our taxonomic groups. They were telling me all about soft corals and I returned the favor by offering them  facts about herbivorous fish. In this reef, I saw a lot of herbivorous fish, but I didn’t have my taxon ID sheet so I was only able to identify a few. We definitely saw a lot of Threespot Damselfish (Stegastes planifrons) and Cocoa Damselfish (Stegastes variabilis), and I believe we may have seen an Ocean Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus). I noticed that it’s really hard to get good pictures of a lot of these fish because they hide as you approach, so I stayed a good distance from them and zoomed my camera in as much as I could.

Once we got into the water, we went to the wet lab to make quadrats and set up a scavenger hunt. Soon after this, we decided to explore the reef near a different part of the island, but to access that area we had to go through the Mangroves of Death (MOD), which were filled with mosquitos that chased us and bit through our lycra dive skins as we ran through the forest. Finally finding safe haven within the water, Ava and I went off again to look at more soft corals and herbivorous fish. While there, I saw many Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis) and Beaugregories (Stegastes leucostictus). We also saw a lot of competition between corals, and we saw two stingrays! Ava and I were very grateful that we had decided to swim over the seagrass instead of walk through it when we saw those.

Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis)
Stingray hidden in seagrass

After this second reef excursion, we had wonderful presentations given by Rusty, Ava, Maegan, Phoenix, and Michael who presented on hard corals, soft corals, coral reef framework, ctenophores and jellyfish, and sponges respectively. Now, the day is over and I am posting this blog before getting some rest.

Also, I’ve included a group photo of some of other TFBs and I hanging out in the wet lab! See you guys soon!

2022, Uncategorized

Day 2 – Finally on the Reef!

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This morning we finally got in the water and out on the reef! We left the dock and swam out to some nearby patch reefs around 8 AM. Jumping off the dock we were immediately surrounded by a large school of tiny fish! The patch reefs were covered in soft corals, most notably the common sea fan and corky sea finger. We also saw lots of other creatures, like lobsters and invasive lion fish.

Common sea fan (Gorgonia ventalina):

Corky sea finger (Briareum asbestinum):

After lunch, we went out for our second snorkel trip on the reef. This time we had to walk (run) through a mangrove forest that was very infested with mosquitos! Luckily I was able to avoid the worst of the bug bites, but no one got through unscathed. Once we got to the snorkel area, the bites were well worth it!

On these patch reefs, we found a sea cucumber, which I got to hold (see blurry picture not well transferred from my camera…)! It was very leathery and pretty hard, although it softened up where I was holding it.

 

My snorkel partner and I were also able to see a few instances of coral on coral warfare! We found a common sea fan that was being overtaken by an orange fire coral!

On the way back to the station, we opted to swim around the island instead of facing the corridor of mosquito massacre once again. We swam over a sea grass bed most of the way with tons of cool creatures hidden inside. I was able to spot a small sting ray, some sponges (maybe fire sponge?), very long-thin fish, and several anemones. Back at the station I am still salty and exhausted, but excited to see something new tomorrow!

  • Ava