Today was our last day in Belize. We started off the day bright and early at 5 am where we prepared for our boat ride over to Belize city. We left at 6 am and spent about 3 hours boating over. Along the way we crossed the boundaries of the atoll and saw a sea turtle. The boat ride was mostly uneventful except for the occasional sea sickness.
When we docked the boat we took a bus directly to the airport. Here we checked into our flight and went through security. Once through we explored the airport a little. A few of us sat at a pizza restaurant and reminisced on our trip. From there it was just a 2 hour plane ride home!
Hello! Today was our last day in Glover’s Reef!Today we began the morning by picking up trash to give back to the island. I was amazed how much trash we found and picked up. We only had 6 garbage bags which unfortunately put just a dent in the amount of trash we found washed up. While we were doing a trash pick up, we came up with a research project. We were looking at the amount of trash and trash distribution around the island. We were curious how the type of beach (mangroves, sandy, or dead coral) would contribute to the amount and type of trash that was on the shore. We didn’t notice a significant difference in this, but we noticed that the unprotected side of the island facing open ocean had more trash then the atoll protected side.
We then dissected a lion-fish! Lion-fish are invasive to Belize so our professors had speared some that we had found snorkeling.We opened up the lion-fish and looked at the sex and stomach contents. Our fish had three digested fish and one whole shrimp!
We ended the day with free time where me and a few others went for a last swim at sunset! While I didn’t see any eels personally, Dr. Solomon and Dr. Evans saw a couple green moray eels over the duration of our stay!
We packed up bright and early today and I had my final plantains of Belize. We got onto the boat at 6 am to begin our 3 hour boat ride back to mainland.
It was very weird getting back to mainland and seeing populated areas again. It was also very sad leaving Glover’s Research Station, I will miss that dock very much.
We headed straight to the airport from there. A lot of us were very excited to do some shopping at the very touristy shops, I definitely did some damage myself. Then we all hopped on the plane and took some much needed naps.
Goodbyes felt unreal and very sad after having a spent the last two weeks together 24/7. But getting back to a warm shower and AC was very nice!
We started the morning by making a research project that we could complete while we picked up trash on the island. We decided to compare the trash density in 3 different areas with different currents and protection due to the atoll.
In the afternoon we dissected 6 lionfish, all of whom were caught by our very own professors. After a little exploration we used the remaining parts to make a ceviche. Although slightly disturbing after having dissected him, still tasted delicious.
We then started packing up and had free time to swim and snorkel. I went for a final snorkel around the patch reefs just off our dock. Thankfully I saw one final trumpetfish during my outting. Again among the branching soft corals camouflaged with his face in the root.
We met this morning to come up with a new project relating to the impact of Marine Protected Areas. We decided to compare the biodiversity and overall health of the coral reefs in a Marine Protected Area and an unprotected area.
We went and snorkeled 4 separate reefs (2 of each) and placed 2×2 quadrants onto the coral and took photos. After each group surveyed 3 quadrants at all 4 locations we headed back.
In the afternoon we compiled all our data and made a poster to present to our professors. We concluded that the MPAs were more biodiverse, but were inconclusive on the health of the reefs based on algae growth.
Unfortunately no trumpetfish or seahorse sightings today – hopefully more to come tomorrow!!
We started the day by meeting as a group to make conclusions about Parrotfish feeding behaviors and presented a poster to our professor. We decided they are primarily algaevores.
In the afternoon we visited a coral graveyard on the island where we could see the 3 stages of the coral: living, dead, long dead. The newer dead coral was bleach white with some crustose coralline algae growing on it. The coral that had been dead much longer was a charcoal black/grey color and lost some of its definition.
At night it was too windy to do our night snorkel so we instead hung dive lights off the dock and attracted some of the marine life. We were able to catch some sardines, shrimp, and glass eels. There was finally one predator attracted: a squid. I was actually able to grab her with the tiny fish nets.
We put Angie, as I have named my squid, in a bucket and observed her camouflage color changes, and she even inked in the bucket. The coolest part was when she came in contact with the green net that was spotted with ink, she would change from translucent to a darker color with black speckles to match her own ink on the net.
Since no snorkeling today – no trumpetfish or seahorses! 🥲
We met as a class this morning to come up with a research question surrounding the vertebrates we had seen around the reefs the day before. We decided we wanted to look into the parrotfish species and what their behaviors and eating habits are.
We went out in the reef just off our dockand searched for our assigned species of parrotfish – mine being red band parrotfish. In the afternoon we went to two more reefs to continue our searches!
During my search for red bands I also came across two more trumpetfish. One was a smaller one around 15 cm again found in yellow sea rods, and the other was closer to 50 cm and also found within tall vertical soft corals with finger like extremities. They like to hide their face down at the root and camouflage to make them look like just another one of the coral extensions.
Immediately after breakfast we got all our snorkel gear on and started testing it out on the reef just off our dock. We did a quick swim test and then just explored the reef.
In the afternoon we got our gear back on and hopped on the boat to explore what the call the “aquarium” because it’s such a beautiful reef. Almost all of us were able to find our taxons just within this outing.
After much help from my classmates I found a singular trumpet fish. It was a juvenile, so very short in length, and taking advantage of his camouflage skills. He was among a yellow sea rod, and he perfectly matched its coloring.
No seahorses found yet, but it’s just the beginning!
Today we woke up the latest we have so far. We had a nice slow start at the Tropical education center before hitting the road towards Belize city. We stopped along the way for lunch and found lots of good souvenirs.
After lunch we got back in the bus to head to the clock where our boat was waiting.
After around a 3 hour boat ride towards glovers reef where we got to go right over the reef and experience how much protection the reef offers from the big waves.
Once arrived at glovers we got a quick tour and immediately found some hammocks. We settled into our rooms and had some down time to hang out on the dock and enjoy the first breeze we had felt in a while. We’re now all having a quiet restful night before a very fun morning of snorkeling and exploring the reef surrounding us!
Today was the last full day in Belize. It is surreal how fast time flew by during these two weeks. Every day was packed full with numerous engaging activities, and I truly learned so so much about the rainforest and coral reef ecosystems during this trip.
This morning started off with breakfast per usual, and then the class met up at 8 AM in the wet lab for the trash pickup around the island. Dr. Evans and Dr. Solomon challenged us as TFBs to extend our scientific critical thinking skills even for trash picking. Therefore, our scientific question was “How does trash distribution differ between unprotected vs. protected areas at Glover’s Reef?” We predicted that the unprotected area would have higher trash density due to the ocean current pushing the trash directly onto the land.
We had 6 giant trash bags, and those bags were quickly filled up, which was astonishing. Also, we had a quadrant to sample 3 sites within each location (semi-protected, unprotected, protected) which we further analyze with our phones after data collection.
We first started off at the semi protected area in front of our dorms, and I noticed that the main type of trash found here was bottle caps. Then, we moved onto the unprotected area (coral graveyard). This area had the highest amount of plastic pollution, with the most prominent types of trash being plastic water bottles and stray sandals. Both of our designated trash bags for this area were all full when we had not even cleaned 1/3 of the area, which was quite unfortunate. I wished there had been more trash bag to fully clean up the pollution, or there to be less plastic pollution emitted in general, but nevertheless we had to stop and move on to our final area, which was the protected mangroves.
After the trash collection, the class promptly met up in the wet lab to start analyzing our data (pictures from the quadrats) and creating the poster. I also adored the title for this poster which was “Getting Waste(d): Trashy Day at Glover’s Reef.” Our results did indeed align with our prediction, with the unprotected areas having the highest proportion of trash. However, the error bars manually calculated and added on overlapped qutie significantly, indicating that no meaningful conclusion could be drawn. Since this is only a pilot study with many limitations, I hope to replicate this set up on a future study with more trash bags and more time duration granted. Although we filled up all six bags to the top, it seemed like we barely made a dent in the trash pile on the island, which was quite disappointing.
Working on poster! We got waste(d)!
In the afternoon though, we got to dissect the lionfish that Dr. Solomon and Dr. Evans had been spearing and gathering for us to dissect (and eat). It was quite gruesome opening up the stomach lining and the organs, as well as decapitating it, but I feel like this really gave me a better sense of anatomy in fish. Once we cut open the stomach of our lionfish, there were four small fish inside it, one of which Sam suspected to be a juvenile yellowhead wrass. The rest of them were pretty digested though, we made it pretty difficult to tell, but they were all about 2 cm in length.
While dissecting the lionfish, I thought about how cool it would be to dissect a surgeonfish — my taxon group. However, I know it won’t be possible on this trip, since only lionfish are able to be speared due to them being an invasive species. Perhaps in the future, a surgeonfish dissection opportunity will come to me!
Lionfish dissection!
After dissection, Dr. Solomon and Dr. Evans made a filet with the lionfish mixed in with dip ingredients such as lime and onions and chips. It was pretty delicious, but I could barely taste and notice the lionfish, as most of the flavor was coming from the citrus itself. Also, as a further bonus, we discovered the staff cutting up coconuts, and they kindly sliced up many coconuts for each of us to try (+ the professors)! Although I don’t really like coconut, the coconut water was refreshing and the flesh was yummy.
(lion)fish & chips!
Before dinner, a lot of us went to the dock to enjoy the last sunset before we leave tomorrow, which was quite bittersweet. The view of the water and sky from the dock is truly surreal, and I know I will not be able to forget this view. These two weeks have been filled with so much memories, and I will miss Belize and being altogether as TFBs so much.
Today was our last day in Belize. We started off the day bright and early at 5 am where we prepared for our boat ride over to Belize city. We left at 6 am and spent about 3 hours boating over. Along the way we crossed the boundaries of the atoll and saw a sea turtle. The boat ride was mostly uneventful except for the occasional sea sickness. 
