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2022

Day 2: First Day in the Water

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Today was a day of adventure, discovery, and a consistent struggle to not touch anything. Today we went snorkeling, which for me, was my first experience snorkeling a reef that was teeming with life. We started by searching around some of the patch reefs, which are just off the dock of the island. The variety and density of life on small rock structures was stunning to see. The reefs are teeming with a variety of Porites and various brain corals. I must say, despite reviewing a multitude of textbook photos, the confidence I had regarding identification may have been a bit too high haha, but I hope to improve that in the next few days. It was also interesting to see real examples of the diseases I studied that impact corals. Thankfully I didn’t see many active lesions, yet there was significant evidence of coral deterioration from past insults of infection. We did encounter a very large Orbicella, which has a massive new lesion, maybe due to white plague.

After an hour in the ocean, we returned to land for a tasty lunch, and a group session of scientific arts and crafts, which was weaving string to form a device to help us measure “things” in the water. I’m still not quite sure what its application will be, the water is an unfamiliar environment for my desert residing self. I must say I don’t miss much about home as of yet, the island is simply too exciting for homesickness, yet I do miss the lack of humidity. But I must say, a damp towel and a wet swimsuit are well worth the experience. Especially the honor to hold a donkey dung sea cucumber.

We later explored a second patch of reefs, closer to the barrier of the atoll. Between the current and my clumsiness, trying to avoid bumping into the reef structures was surprisingly difficult. Many of the same corals were present from what I saw this morning, but exploring the new area was fun. We swam a longish distance back to shore, in order to avoid the ravenous swarm of mosquitoes that lurk in the mangroves. A scenic swim back through the seagrass beds was a nice way to conclude snorkeling for the day. Comfortable may not be the way I describe myself snorkeling as of yet, but excited definitely is. I look forward to seeing what else the Glover’s Reefs hold and am very glad to have this opportunity.

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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
2022

Crab: 1 Liliana: 0

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It’s day 2 on Glover’s and our first day in the water! We had a super early (in my opinion) start, everyone woke up around 6:30 and we all geared up and headed to breakfast at 7. After some delicious banana pancakes we got into the water for the first time and went to a patch reef a little ways off. It was a pretty calm swim through a lot of sea grass and then before we knew it we were at the reef! It was incredible and I wish I had photos to add here but I didn’t bring my camera on the first swim, hopefully someone else here will have photos for you to see! We saw so many corals and fish, and such a wide variety of organisms all over the place. Everywhere you looked there was something new to see. We even saw a small lionfish sitting on the reef, which is not ideal for invasive reef species control, but still interesting to see one out in the wild in real life! The first swim was a good one for my taxon group, crustaceans; we saw a Caribbean spiny lobster hiding in a hole underneath some coral, another organism I have been hoping to see in real life. After about an hour in the water we went out for a break and some land prep for tomorrow before lunch. Around this time I was outside with the two kids who had collected a bunch of crabs in coconut shells. They showed me one smaller crab and despite their warnings that he was (understandably) angry, I tried to pick it up to get a better look. Alas, the crab outsmarted me and got a good chunk of my finger in his claw, luckily it didn’t draw blood, just a long scrape and my hurt pride. Clearly my crab catching skills are a little rusty, but there are plenty of other crabs around that are hopefully a little friendlier.

We went back in the water after lunch, but not before a quick jog through the mangroves of death. While dramatic sounding, it’s pretty much a trail through the island that goes along the mangroves, and is absolutely filled with mosquitos, it felt like they were completely covering us until we all sprinted into the water and hid under the surface for them to go away. Once we got through that we shuffled our way through a bunch of sea grass until we got to a sandy area with lots of patch reefs, and we went swimming through looking for behaviors and organisms as part of a scavenger hunt. This area was less protected by the island from waves so we were pushed from side to side and through the reef and pulled around. My handwriting is already terrible, but with the waves pushing my arms and clipboard around I don’t think any of my notes are legible. Unfortunately these waves also pushed me up against the coral, and soon after I swam further away I realized that the part of my hand that had gotten smacked into the coral was turning red, and felt a little like it was burning. I discovered that I had the misfortune of bumping into a fire coral, named that probably because it hurts when you touch it. Coral: 1 Liliana: 0

However at the end of the day we went through our first round of taxon presentations and lectures, and by then my finger didn’t hurt from the crab and my hand wasn’t burning from the coral, and despite all the bug bites, I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!

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Day 2: Growing Confidence

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Today we did our first two snorkeling expeditions. Before lunch, we snorkeled a patch of reef near the dock for about an hour, and after lunch we snorkeled a patch of reef on another side of the island. To get to the second location, we had to run through a mangrove forest infested with mosquitoes (not my favorite part of today!)

The first snorkel session was pretty uncomfortable for me. I have never been snorkeling before today, and the water was surprisingly cold! I struggled to catch my breath after the initial shock, and I found myself shivering by the end of the hour. Shivering! In the tropics! Who would have thought?

The second snorkel session was actually better for me, despite the mosquito-laden start. I felt a lot more in control of my breath, and I actually felt confident enough to dive down beneath the surface to get a closer look at the beautiful corals, sponges, and sea fans.

Sponge Species sighted today:

  • Yellow Tube Sponge (Aplysina fistularis)
  • Orange Icing Sponge (Mycale laevis)
  • Branching Vase Sponge (Callyspongia vaginalis)
  • Fire Sponge (Tedania ignis)
2022, Uncategorized

Getting to Glovers!

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Mask in car e made it! It was quite a long day, but also a really incredible one. We started bright and early at 6:15 meeting at rice before heading to the airport. We had not TOoo much trouble getting on our flight, save for the fact that Dr. Solomon and Dr. Correa found out they need notarized forms to bring their children to Belize, and free to the Belize city international airport. On the flight, I was struck by just how much wilderness I was seeing out the window as we approached the Belize City airport. There were lots of forested areas and small bodies of brown marshy looking water right up until we hit the runway. It didn’t much look like a city! 

After a brief stop at a convenience store (where I got Belizean change for buying a vitamin water) We headed off on what was supposed to be a 2-3 hour boat ride to glovers reef. However, 4.5 hours hater we would realize that the length of that trip was exceeding our expectations. When I first got on the boat I was quite worried as I already felt slightly seasick, but as the journey began I found I could manage (or so I thought) by fixing my gaze on the horizon and leaning back and forth as the boat moved around me to keep myself level. However, the journey got much worse as we left the emerald green waters protected by the Belize Barrier Reef that runs parallel to the shore and into the open ocean. At this point water was spraying onto and over the boat, and it took all my focus to keep from getting completely sea sick as the boat pitched and heaved around me. Finally we reached glovers reef, a ring shaped atoll of coral reefs, and its protected inner waters. We finally made it to the glovers reef research station, a rather magical (and a bit patchy) set of buildings on part of the atoll that has grown into an island. The group was pretty tired after the journey however, so after a delicious dinner made for us by the staff and a group meeting we decided to call it a day. 

With all the traveling I did not have much time to look for green algae. I did see a bunch of what appeared to be brown algae floating during our boat ride, and I did see one patch of green algae near the mainland dock. It was filamentous or hairy in nature making me guess possibly Chaetomopha linum (sea hair) or Ulva Prolifera, and getting pushed around by the waves and occasionally exposed above the surface. Finally, I am very impressed by the crabs and hermit crabs on the research station. They are huge! Often with one giant claw. The crabs can be larger than my expanded hand and look the size of a good meal!

A quick algae photo as we walked to the boat
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A long day of travels

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The intrepid tropical field bio students started their adventures today at 6:15 am meeting at Rice University and ended the day at Glover’s Reef Research Station. Most excitingly, once we landed in Belize City, we got our first taste of what these ecosystems will be like! 

From the view outside the shuttles and buses we were on, we were able to see a fascinating array of different trees and other vegetation I had never seen before. While on tbe boat we saw the barrier reef off the coast of Belize, and experienced the very bumpy ride passing through its channel. Speaking of rough waters, it was my first time on a boat for any extended period of time and I got pretty seasick! But I’m fine now and I know that I can take motion sickness medicine for the ride back in a few days.

There was an insane amount of travel and tribulations today, but somehow we made it through. Although I’m exhausted, I”m still excited to start snorkeling tomorrow!

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Day One: Adventure’s Just Begun!

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Today was about as good of a first day as I could have hoped! Of course it wasn’t perfect- we had a few hiccups checking into the airport and an exceptionally long, but eventually we all made it to our first study site, Glover’s Reef Research Station.

After a full day of travelling (2 hours), a bus (half an hour), a plane (2.5 hours), a van (about an hour), and a boat (4 hours!), finally arriving at our home for the next week was a relief, to say the least! We gathered our luggage and settled into our rooms for a bit before being treated to a delicious dinner of chicken, salad, and rice. It’s taking all of my remaining willpower to type this blog post before I pass out from exhaustion.

At first impression, Glover’s is truly tropical paradise. Lapping waves, lush greenery, colorful bungalows, and scuttling crabs greet you as you walk from the docks. But the smiling faces and friendly attitudes of the resident researchers and crew is was really makes this oasis feel like a home-away-from-home.

My favorite part of today was during the boat ride, seeing colors that I never thought could come from water. The deepest, most intense blues of open ocean and the green and turquoise of seafood breaking on shallow offshore reefs; it was like something out of a dream. The murky browns of Galveston Bay will officially never satisfy me again!

2022

A Harsh Introduction

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Day one in Belize has almost come to a close, and boy was it a long one!

We managed to get to the airport no problem, but once we did, it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride to get on to the plane. There was the issue of finding the terminal, extra paperwork, lost boarding passes, lost credit cards, and an impossible-to-find drinking fountain! But somehow the group made it on to the airplane in one piece! For the flight, I downloaded books from z-library, which I would definitely recommend, especially if you don’t have space in your bag for books.

The people next to me were an adventure as well, since they were on their honeymoon, and they were sure to make it my problem. Just kidding-they were perfectly nice.

Once we landed, we went through customs, got our bags, and then headed to the marina. We got lunch and got on the boat, expecting a two hour ride to the Glover’s Reef Research Station. It ended up being double that. We also encountered very choppy water after passing the reef barrier (which used to be Belize’s coast before sea levels rose!), and in order to fight the sea sickness, I had to stare at the horizon for the remaining 1.5-2 hours. On the bright side, I saw some floating sargassum (which belongs to the brown algae taxa!) and one of the water safety officers told us about Belize culture and language. For example, in Belizean kriol, “humoch aklak” means “what time is it.” Also, since Belize was colonized by the English until 1981, the kriol language, spoken in central Belize, is a mix of English with African language, while native/Maya languages are more spoken in the South, and Spanish in the North. Last fun fact, the population of the entire country of Belize is about 400,000, making it the population of Sacramento in an area the size of New Jersey!

When we got to Glover’s Reef, we got to look around the station area a bit. The bunk rooms, kitchen, and toilets are all on stilts, while the wet lab, classroom, and showers are not. We had a delicious dinner of rice and beans, chicken, salad, and fresh mango, and then we had a short debriefing about tomorrow, before breaking off to do our journal entries and blogs.

The island is literally crawling with huge hermit crabs and common land crabs, which is very cool. There are a lot of palm trees and some little mangroves. There were also a lot of bugs, but the wind came in so they haven’t bothered us since dusk. I can’t wait to see what else is going on on the island, and in the reefs around it!

I will update you all again tomorrow!

-Elena

ps happy birthday to my dad 🙂

 

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Day 1: Longest Boat Ride Ever

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Hey, guys! It’s Michiel again. Today was our first day in Belize, so I’ll try to quickly tell you guys all about it.

I woke up bright and early at 5:15, got an uber to campus, and was with the rest of my group around 6 am. Together, we took a bus to IAH, which was packed, and successfully made it to our gate. Before boarding, a few friends and I picked up Panda Express (a great way to start one’s day). The flight itself was actually very fast, I spent the majority of it sleeping and reading. Once we landed and were ready to leave the airport, we took a bus to a grocery store, where I bought a souvenir water bottle and pingüinos. After this, it was finally time to take the boat to our research station. The boat ride was four hours, and the weather was extremely hot and humid, but we were all entertained with the changing color of the ocean as we went from shallow to deep water and the increasing intensity of the waves – though that much movement did give me a killer headache.

By the way, I’ve included a picture of me as I was relaxing on the boat!

Anyway, someone told me that they saw a flying fish while we were on the boat. Though I didn’t get to see it, I wondered if it may have been herbivorous. I determined that it was unlikely they were herbivorous because none of my research on herbivorous fish had mentioned flying fish.

Finally, the boat landed, and we got to see the island for the first time (it’s beautiful). We all settled down, had dinner, and had a group meeting to discuss what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. We also saw lots of crabs as we walked between buildings. The hermit crabs didn’t mind us at all, but the larger crabs quickly scurried away whenever we approached.

Overall, today has been very tiring, but I’m glad we’ve finally made it. I’m excited to see what’s in store!