Today after breakfast,  Windolpho from the Belize Fisheries department came to talk to us about some of the work his department does. He told us about how Hondurans, much like the Guatemalans, come onto Belize lands (or oceans in this case) and take resources. While in in the Chiquibul, we learned that Guatemalans would come to Belize’s forests to take Xate leaves (a plant in high demand in the floral industry). Here in Glover’s Reef, Hondurans come to fish conch in mass quantities, with no respect to the fragile ecosystems that they are illegally exploiting.

We then got into our snorkel gear and went onto the boat to visit some new reef patches. The waves were pretty wild (Scott said that they were actually calm…) and lots of people felt sick. The second site was like the drop off from Finding Nemo, a coral reef that sloped off into a deep blue abyss that goes on for who knows how long. The deep clear blue was beautiful, but it was a little nerve wreaking to be floating over nothingness.

In the reef patch, I wasn’t able to dive to the benthos, which was at least 25-30 down or deeper. However, from the surface I was able to two stoplight parrotfish swimming near each other towards the base of a coral. One was using its parrot beak-like mouth to scrape algae off the coral. The other one just seemed to be hanging out. They looked about a foot long, at least from where I was looking. I also saw a blue tang at the top of a rock structure. It looked no bigger than 6 inches, but then again I was also pretty far up from it.

Lionfish is an invasive species in the Caribbean, meaning that they are native to the Indo-Pacific and were brought to this area by people who got them as pets and later released them in the wrong ocean. In Elena’s lecture later in the evening, we learned that they are responsible for eating 70% of the native fish population. We came across a few in the coral, and Scott was able to spear a huge one. The other two were too deep down and pretty hidden under some coral structures, so we couldn’t get those. We are going to dissect them in a few days, then probably eat them for lunch. Yum!

Today we collected some data to assess the current state of the coral reefs around Middle Caye Island in Glover’s Reef. We measured coral cover on the benthos (sea floor) of both marine protected areas and non-protected areas using our quadrats that we made yesterday and transect tape. We haven’t analyzed our data yet, but I’m hoping that at least the marine protected areas at least maintain the healthy baseline coverage of at least 10% coral coverage.
Right after lunch, we visited a coral graveyard. It contained a large pile of fossilized coral skeletons that are millions of years old, probably. We tried to identify different types of coral, the most of which I remember is brain coral, due to its obvious resemblance to a human brain. The structures were absolutely beautiful, and it helped us familiarize ourselves with the structures we might encounter on the reef.

On a more personal note, I learned how to properly prepare and wear my mask so that the sea water didn’t get into my eyes. Therefore, I was able to see EVERYTHING underwater. Unfortunately, my camera isn’t working at the moment, but once I resolve this issue I will try to update this post with pictures of some of the herbivorous fish I saw during this activity, including parrotfish and six individual four spotted butterfly fish. Some of the other animals we saw were teeny tiny jellyfish that may or may not have stung Kristen in the head, a moray spotted eel and, this may come as a shocker, many, many coral of many different colors such as yellow, purple and red. Seeing coral reefs a foot in front of you is an absolutely surreal experience, and a description in words cannot bring this experience to justice.

After dinner I gave a presentation on the threats to coral reefs. I talked about how global warming, overfishing, ocean acidification and hurricane-strength storms are all contributing to the rapid decline of coral reefs. In fact, many marine biologists agree that most coral reef systems will experience rapid decline and even extinction within the next 30-100 years. It occurred to me while snorkeling that I am really fortunate to be able to see that majesty that is the coral reef ecosystem because they might not be around in a few generations. I posted an infographic if anyone wants to know a little bit more about what you can do to help protect this ecosystem.