Today marks our final day on Glover’s Reef Research Station! We started the day with a morning snorkel, finishing the last of our data collection for our research project we started a few days ago. I heard from Elena that there were some more ctenophores here but I wasn’t lucky enough to see them myself. This time around I was finally able to find and collect some urchins during our urchin survey! We also did one final snorkel in a new area just to see the reefs one last time before our departure. Some highlights include: Caribbean reef squids, another lionfish speared, and I saw a pufferfish!
If you look closely you can see a sea urchin hidden in the dead coral, and on top is a christmas tree wormSome pretty bladed fire coral (do not touch!)
After returning from our morning snorkel we spent the afternoon combining and analyzing our data from the previous day’s collections, and created a poster presenting our project and its conclusions to our professors. Based on our (limited) data, we were able to see that on patches of reef with a higher percentage of dead corals, there were also a higher number of sea urchins we were able to collect. But there was no clear correlation between a patch being within the protected area and the percent of dead coral. Here is a picture of our lovely poster (I drew the little urchin heart)!
This afternoon we were able to eat a unique delicacy that helps get rid of a pesky invader of the reefs: lionfish ceviche! Over the course of our stay, our professors speared three of them, and we finally put them to good use! But of course as scientists, before we made the ceviche, we dissected each lionfish and determined its sex, weight, length, and saw its stomach contents! My group had an exceptionally large fish that we nicknamed “Main Course”, whose carnage we removed unfortunately spilled onto my lab notebook (good thing its waterproof!). The long awaited ceviche was delicious!
Dr. Solomon trimming the venomous spines from the lionfish
Then I spent the rest of the night packing up all of my stuff that has become so brutally disorganized over the past few days that I’ve just accepted that nothing in my duffel bag will be entirely clean or easily found. I’ll be very sad to leave this place in the morning (especially in anticipation of the four hour boat ride), but I’m so beyond excited for where we are going next!
Today was the last day at Glover’s Reef, and we made the most of it! Soon after breakfast, we all got into our snorkel gear to spend the morning finishing our coral/urchin quadrat and transect experiment. When I went into the snorkel shed, I noticed that my dive suit was gone. I asked and looked around, and it came to my attention that Caio (Dr. Correa’s ten-year-old son) wears the same size suit as me. When I found him, he was comfortably suited up in my “NeoSpo” suit. Instead of switching, I put his on, and we got this cute photo!
The last site of our experiment was a non-MPA reef, and Liliana and I zoomed through our data collection. We have gotten to be really efficient! I saw a lot of my taxa here! I spotted a num anemone and warty corallimorph, and I got pictures that clearly show the anemone’s inward mouth (first picture) and the corallimorph’s upturned mouth (second picture).
I also so another red beaded anemone! This one was fully red/brown, and it had bumpy tentacles (the other one had smooth tentacles).
NEW TAXA SIGHTING: I saw a corkscrew anemone! This is a tiny anemone, and I git a photo! The one I came across was less than a centimeter in diameter with thin tentacles ringed with white, making them appear like corkscrews. I was so excited to find one of these attached to a piece of rubble!
Going back to the boat, we found seven Caribbean reef squids lined up in a row! They were such interesting creatures to see.
We then went on a fun snorkel (the last one), where I got to see so many beautiful fish! However, the water conditions were very rough, so it was a bit like being in a washing machine.
I did spot sponge zoanthids! These <1cm yellow/orange polyps were colonial across the surface of a green branching vase sponge! I was so excited to get this last sighting in 🙂
After lunch, we analyzed our coral/urchin data and made a poster! If you’ve noticed, all of our reef posters have a special heart <3
After dinner, we measured and dissected the three lionfish Dr. Solomon caught over the days at the reef. My group named our fish Appetizer. We then ate the lionfish in ceviche! I was glad to do my part in removing these invasive species but also putting their meat to good use, and I’m so happy that Liliana’s lionfish-eating dreams finally came true!
With my incredibly tanned hands, I will wave Glover’s Reef goodbye tomorrow morning. I’ve had an amazing time here and have learned so much, and I can’t wait to continue this journey in other ecosystems! Tomorrow’s destination = savanna!
In 6 minutes we’re going to make lionfish ceviche. I have always wanted to eat a lionfish since I started working at the New England Aquarium and learned about them as an invasive species, I knew I had to do my part to help. Unfortunately (? maybe fortunate) they’re not found in New England, and I haven’t been desperate enough to go to Florida just to eat a lionfish. We caught our first lionfish a few days ago and it was huge, since then we caught about 2 more. I have no idea if I’ll like lionfish ceviche, since I’ve never had ceviche before.
In other things we did today, we went to a non-protected reef to finish our coral data collection, and then another reef just for fun. Did not encounter many crustaceans today other than the normal hermit crab population here.
I can’t believe it’s our last night here, I don’t think I’m ready to go, there’s still so much to learn and explore here on the reef and the island. I think it’ll be hard to adjust to the new environment but hopefully it’ll be just as much fun!
Our day started our with our first journey to the Fore Reef (outer reef)! The stony corals there are much bigger and seem for the most part healthier (although there is still some disease). We swam through a bunch of harmless ctenophores (similar to jelly fish) that Phoenix identified as Comb Jellies. They have a distinctive jelly feel and appearance with a translucent color which made it difficult to capture on camera! It was super cute! Michael also spotted a loggerhead sea turtle! The Fore Reed was a little rough so we headed back to Middle Caye.
There we started our data collection of all sorts of trash that has been collecting on the atoll. From Nate’s presentation, we learned that there is a gyre in the Gulf between Belize and Honduras that collects a lot of trash that will wash up on the shore and harm the environment and wildlife. After some hard thinking, we decided to research the percentage of trash that could be properly disposed of and destroyed on island. We predicted that > 50% of the trash we collected could be disposable and split into groups. My group went to the coral cemetery and there was so much trash here. The heart breaking part of picking up trash is when the trash was so brittle that it would break and make more microplastics. Nate found a perfectly preserved- mummified box fish skeleton which was so incredible! I’ve never seen something so well preserved! The fish even had teeth! SO FLIPPING COOL!
Once all the groups were back from collecting our trash we discovered that Middle Caye did not have the resources to take recycle plastics or take them to the mainland regularly, and that they burn all plastics so our hypothesis was sadly off in the fact that more than half of the trash we collected could be recycled and destroyed in a more ecofriendly manner. We can only bring a bag of glass and metal with us compared with the 6. In the future we decided to bring sacs instead of trash bags to collect the trash and it made us all much more aware of the trash we were generating on island.
Post trash sorting photo taken by McKenna!
I had my presentation on annelids and hydroids today. Michael and Sophia asked two important questions that I did not know the answers too so I did some research today to answer them.
What eats these annelids on the reef?
Many worms are eaten by mostly many reef fishes such as wrasses or angelfish species.
Why are Christmas tree worms so many different colors?
One article said that Christmas tree worms will often be in colors that match the reef around them, but I have seen worms that are colors that don’t match the reef around them. Another article says that the host coral can influence the color of worms and that the color of Christmas tree worms can be used to determine coral health.
Tonight at dinner, one of our wonderful guides, Ruth, taught us all about the history of Belize, the demography and mix of cultures present, and the many attractions of Belize! I am getting so excited to see more of Belize!
Contrary to this blog’s title, today was an exciting day! We went out this morning to the fore reef, which is the area of open ocean that’s right outside of the atoll. There, since the waves are stronger and the water is deeper, the organisms are typically much bigger, as they need to be stronger to withstand the greater wave energy, and they have more room to grow upwards. We saw some really cool organisms from a distance because the bottom was maybe 70 feet below the surface and none of us (except the water safety officers) could hold our breath long enough to get to the bottom. Some of the cool organisms we saw included comb jellies, which were floating near the surface, and if you looked really closely, you could see that their combs were lit up with electricity. We also saw a school of medium blue fish that we weren’t able to identify, a sea turtle, most likely a green sea turtle, that was just sitting on the bottom, and a huge barrel sponge. Unfortunately, I did not see any brown algae, as it is too small to see from 70 feet above the reef. surprisingly, I saw minimal sargassum, which I think was due to the fact that the waves were so choppy.
a comb jelly! (picture courtesy of Phoenix)
possible green sea turtle!
Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t really cooperating with us, so we had to head out pretty quickly. Lucky for us, that meant we could get the nightly presentations done in the morning in anticipation of a possible night snorkel.
The afternoon was a whole other ball game. Last night, we heard from the Belize Fisheries Department manager, and he spoke a bit about starting beach cleaning efforts on Middle Caye. Today, we did a beach clean up, but being TFBs, we had to incorporate science somehow! You can read about our research below 🙂
our poster
I was doing clean up in the mangrove area behind the kitchen, and there was a lot of trash! It was sort of sad because even though we had two giant trash bags overflowing with trash, we had hardly made a dent. We spent the whole afternoon doing the beach clean up, sorting the trash, and weighing it, before putting the trash back into the bags so they could be properly disposed of. The people at the Coral Graveyard also found a box fish skeleton!
box fish skeletontrash party! -unfortunately I did not get any pictures during the actual trash sorting, since I didn’t want to touch my phone
After the trash shindig we finished the last presentation, and then, courtesy of Nate, we got to watch a hermit crab change shells! I had seen videos of it yesterday in Lilliana’s crustacean presentation, but it was cool to see in real life. We then went to dinner, and since the weather wasn’t looking good enough for a night snorkel, we hung out and talked to Ruth, the water safety officer, about her experiences as a native Belizean, as well as the natural history of the country.
While most Mondays may be trash, today was certainly a good day! Tomorrow is the last full day on the reef, and we have a lot to do, so I will keep you all posted!
the boat in the open ocean above the fore reefSophia diving
After checking the weather report, this morning was the best chance we had to go and see the forereef. The forereef is the region of the barrier of coral around the atoll that is facing the open ocean. Outside of the protection of the wall, the ocean waves are far more intense. The boat ride over was a tad more nauseating than others, and the swells were quite an intimidating sight to see before jumping in. However, once in the water, the waves were far less burdensome than I expected. The water was significantly deeper than any other region we have been before. The reef was ~70’ down, but it boarded a significant drop far deeper than I could see. There was a beautiful school of blue fish that we were able to swim through, and the water was littered with small translucent and barely glowing ctenophore. There were massive colonies of stony corals just below us. I would imagine they’re many of the same species I encountered in the lagoon, but were able to grow to larger scales because of the deeper conditions. In the shallow patch reefs, the corals have to contend with very bright light, harsh UV, and warmer temperatures. Yet although these colonies were larger, there were still obvious signs of disease. The distance was too far to see any detail, but the lesions were quite evident from above. I truly love how throughout this trip we continue to explore new places each time.
After returning back to land, we worked to clean up debris from some of the beaches of the island. Although messy, we collected, sorted, and analyzed the trash which accumulates on the shores. The debris either has to be disposed of on-site or shipped back to land, and it was quite interesting to learn that they burn everything possible (including plastic). Between this activity and Nate’s excellent talk describing marine debris, it left me questioning my participation in convenience consumerism. Every toothbrush, bottle cap, plastic container, bag, and more will continue to persist in the environment for hundreds of years. In this afternoon’s lecture, a chart showing the largest marine plastic polluting countries in the world were not the largest plastic consumers. The west appears to have superior management of waste, yet western countries continue to ship single-use plastic waste to other regions of the world for “recycling.” Yet in many of these cases, it’s this plastic that is ending up in the oceans. So who is truly to blame? The countries where the trash is released into waterways due to relatively poor management, or the western countries which ship their waste out of sight with the facade of recycling to lessen the social shame of convenience consumerism.
Just before dinner, we saw the rare sight of a hermit crab changing shells. Watching it shift its squirmy shrimp-like body from one shell to another was fascinating yet a bit unnerving. During dinner, one of our Marine Safety Officers Ruth gave us an in-depth information session about Belizean history and her career path to being here helping us. It was super fun, and I hope to find a career I am in love with like she is with hers. But on that note, I am now questioning what aspect of biology I want to pursue. I have always planned on going into medicine, but my experience during college has pushed me towards a love of research. I understand that most research is not like this, out on a gorgeous island, yet I wonder if research overall is something I would rather do than dermatology. Studying papers and information about coral diseases was a great time, and I think fulfilled much of the same curiosity I am hoping to satisfy with a career in medicine. But understandably no one wants a truly creative doctor, as medicine has some pretty ridged defined boundaries for most disciplines. Yet the goal of research itself is to push our current boundary of knowledge and make the unknown known. Depending on how the rest of my time at Rice goes, I could see what I thought as my career path shift in the direction of scientific and/or pre-clinical research. Overall, this class continues to be an incredible and influential experience.
I woke up this morning after nearly freezing to death last night. It wasn’t actually cold (I mean, how cold could it get in the tropics?), but my bed is right by the window and the wind kept blowing into my sheet, and I couldn’t figure out how to close the window, so that was fun. It wasn’t that bad, though, I’m definitely being dramatic. After waking up, I met everyone for breakfast, and they make the most amazing pancakes here; I was so happy when I saw them waiting for us.
After breakfast, we went to the forereef. The waves were pretty strong today, so I started getting a headache on the boat and it kept getting worse as I was in the water, but it was definitely worth it because the area of the reef we saw was so amazing. We saw spur and groove formation, a swarm of ctenophores, and a sea turtle lying in the sand! This area was also way deeper than any area we had been to before (about 70 feet) and there was a reef drop right next to it which dropped for hundreds of feet, so we really got to test our breath-holding abilities. One of the experienced divers actually went down about 100 feet! While we were there, we saw a school of fish, but I could not get close enough to figure out what they were. They were mostly blue and larger than a damselfish or a surgeonfish, so they may have been a parrotfish, but they may have also been something entirely different. Parrotfish and other types of herbivorous fish are known to travel in schools, so it isn’t unruly to guess that these may have been parrotfish, but, again, they were so deep that I couldn’t get a very good look. It may not have been an herbivorous fish at all. If it wasn’t, then I didn’t get to see any herbivorous fish today because we were too far from the reef to see that many.
Unknown fish (possibly herbivorous)
After leaving the forereef, we had a little break, then watched some lectures and had lunch. After lunch, we started coming up with a research question that would involve a beach clean-up. We ended up with “What percent, by mass, of the trash on Middle Caye needs to be disposed of off island? What area is the most efficient for collecting trash?” We hypothesized that over 50% of the trash would need to be moved off island for disposal and that the coral graveyard would be the most efficient area for trash pick-up. To collect data, Ava, Michael, Maggy, Adrian, and I went out to the bunks to collect trash for a total time (between all people) of one hour. Different groups did this at different locations around the island. Back at the wet lab, we weighed everyone’s trash bags, separated burnable trash from non-burnable trash, and weighed the non-burnable trash. With our data, we discovered that only 11.43% of the trash here needs to be removed from the island because they actually burn the plastic here, so they only remove the metal and glass. We also found out that the most efficient area for trash pick-up was the area behind the kitchen because the people there collected 16.41 kg of trash per person-hour. We believe that the reason the most efficient area wasn’t the coral graveyard was because the coral graveyard’s trash was more spread-out and it was much smaller, so it didn’t contribute as much in terms of mass. Hopefully this data can be helpful to the Belize Fisheries Department because they have plans to do more beach clean-ups on Middle Caye!
After presenting our project to our professors, we had another lecture then dinner. Right before dinner, though, Nate set a shell down in front of a hermit crab, and we saw it change from it’s previous shell to that one! It was so gross. Anyway, we stayed in the dining room until it closed because we were all talking, and then Ruth (a marine safety officer) joined us and told us about the clothes she makes and the history of Belize. She taught us a lot, and she’s been a super important part of our stay here on the reef, so we couldn’t be more thankful to have her.
After dinner, we were going to go on a night snorkel, but the weather picked up and we decided that it wouldn’t be safe to go. The group just ended up working on our blogs and field notebooks before going to bed.
Overall, today was a great day! Here’s a group picture of us washing our hands after we finished handling all the trash, a picture of Sophia, Elena, and I as we were working on our poster for our trash presentation, and a picture of an iguana.
Today I feel very accomplished. We did a coastal trash survey and cleanup to find the most efficient cleanup location and figure out what portion of the trash could and couldn’t be burned on the island, and I found this!
We think it was a box fish or cow fish. Either way the skeletal structure exoskeleton thing is amazingly cool.
Also, on that trip I picked up some shells I thought some hermit crabs might enjoy, and when we got back I got one to move in! We were all standing there with our breath held as it inspected the whole shell inside and out, and we let out a cheer when it pulled itself out of its old shell and into mine!
The other major even for the day was that we went to the edge of the atoll, known as the reef crest to snorkel. The waves were massive and rather scary, but it was also really cool to see such deep water with massive coral structures on the bottom. There was also a massive drop-off at the edge of the reef crest that felt like looking down a cliff to nothingness. Some highlights included seeing walnut comb jellies and a sea turtle sitting on the bottom! There was also a large school of what looked like possibly parrotfish swirling around us! Unfortunately it was too deep for me to be able to decipher the green algae on the bottom, but tomorrow we should snorkel in shallow water so hopefully I will see some there!
First thing this morning, we went out on the boat to snorkel the fore-reef (the part of the reef that faces the open ocean)! I was nervous about snorkeling in waters so deep and so rough, but I actually had a super good time, and I got to see some things for the first time: I spotted a sea turtle way down on the ocean floor, we saw some Walnut Comb Jellies floating just beneath us, and I saw loggerhead sponges (Speciospongia vesparium)! I wish I was better at diving down beneath the water, so I could have gotten a closer look…
After lunch (alfredo pasta, salad and bread), we were tasked with designing an experiment centered around cleaning up marine debris (trash) from Middle Caye in Glover’s Reef. Being an island relatively far from the mainland, marine debris is a significant problem because the Gulf of Honduras Gyre (a water current) funnels all kinds of trash from the mainland directly onto the shores of Middle Caye.
In total, we collected 64.5 kilograms of trash from three different sites across the island, including 7.4 kilograms of glass and metal, which will have to be taken back to the mainland on a boat. Part of the problem for Middle Caye is that it simply isn’t economically feasible to charter boats specifically for transporting trash, so a lot of trash (including plastic and Styrofoam) is burned right here on the island.
Today we finally got to go snorkeling in part of the atoll that we had heard so many good things about since we’ve stayed here. Until now we had mostly been visiting the patch reefs within the lagoon, but on the oval edge of the atoll there is a huge reef called the forereef that has a huge areas of large reef interspersed between deep grooves that break the intense wave energy. The wind had actually been too strong these last few days to safely attempt seeing it, but this morning we had a rare window of opportunity, and seized it!
This area was much much deeper than anywhere we have snorkeled so far, and it was so deep that it was difficult taking any high resolution pictures of the huge corals below. But most excitingly, I was actually able to spot some little ctenophores (comb jellies) close to us! Comb jellies look like translucent jelly-like forms that don’t sting like jellyfish do, so even though we were right in the middle of a mass of them, we were just fine! It was hard to get any clear view on them because of how translucent they are, but based on what I saw, they look like the sea walnut comb jelly.
Dr. Correa diving down to see some of the reef structures
Comb jelly from the forereef (possibly sea walnut!)
We unfortunately couldn’t stay out there for longer than about 20 minutes because then the waves picked up, and a lot of us got seasick again :(. After recovering, we heard a lecture on the effects of pollution in the ocean from marine debris such as plastics, and designed a dual research project and beach cleanup activity! We recorded the types and amount of debris we were able to collect on the shores around our island. We were able to calculate which areas of the island would be most effective to focus on for future cleanup efforts, and collect over 60 kg of trash! Here is an insanely cool photo of some very well preserved fish remains someone found during the cleanup!
