Tag Archives: fish

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Day 10: Manta Ray Ahead!

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Today started with a gorgeous morning in the ocean. We jumped off the dock and swam straight to the reefs nearby. There I saw a southern stingray resting on the sand beside some coral. I saw many sea fans, large brain corals, and many wrasses too. 

After about an hour of snorkeling we came back to the dock and were given an 1.5 hr of free time. Obviously I got back in the water. Elise and I snorkeled around the reef for another 30 minutes and then hung out beside the dock afterwords. 

Right as I as about to step onto the ladder to get out however there was a LARGE animal swimming next to me. This water was about 4 ft deep and while we had been seeing a nurse shark around here, this clearly was not a nurse shark. It was a ray flapping its wings as if it were flying. The only other time I’ve seen an animal do this was when I have seen manta rays before. I was positive this ray was not a spotted eagle ray because it had no markings on its back, but what threw me off was the fact that the back was grey and not black. After trying and failing to ID this ray all afternoon, when I pulled up the video I got of it, I realized it was clearly a manta ray! Though it was small for its species, it was such a majestic creature and I loved watching it swim off into the distance. 

Later today we snorkeled another nearby reef where I saw a medium sized nurse shark hiding in a crevice between to large coral structures. In all of the time I  watched it, the shark never moved but it was still incredible to see. 

All in all, today was a phenomenal day of snorkeling. Today has also given me my highlight of the trip thus far: seeing the manta ray. 

I can’t wait to get back out in the water tomorrow!

Claire C

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Lesson Learned

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Daily Blog Entry 9:

After going on a 3-hour boat ride from the mainland over clear waters and beautiful skies, we finally made it to Glovers!

The island is absolutely breath-takingly beautiful. I have no complaints. Maybe except for the sand flies because they’re surprisingly painful for their size. It was amazing to be able to have a delicious lunch while looking at the picturesque beach and bright blue sky.

When we went snorkeling today for the first time, I may have pulled my right calf because I am still in a lot of pain almost 8 hours later. But before I pulled my calf I learned an important lesson. Five minutes into snorkeling, I had to take my mask off because it was getting very foggy. I just stood on the sea grass bed and proceeded to take my mask off while joking around with Sami. Javier, our water safety officer, soon swam next to me and told me to watch where I stood because there was a yellow sting ray between Sami and I. We quickly learned our lesson. The Yellow stingray wasn’t moving and just kept blinking.

The next piscivorous fish we saw was a baby nurse shark! It was on the bottom of the sea grass bed. It was about 0.7 meters long, which is about a third of their mature length. It was just hanging out on the bottom of the sea grass bed not doing anything. They really do live up to what they are known for – calm and gentle.

I think I pulled my right calf muscle and it hurts to stretch my calf muscle, so until my calf heals I’ll be taking frequent breaks and taking it easy.

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One Squishy, Two Pieces of Banana Bread, and Lots of Fish

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DAY 6 — I think I’m starting to get used to waking up early and walking outside to feel the ocean breeze. This morning it was less of a breeze and more of a strong wind. It’s hard to belize that tomorrow is our last full day on the island.

This morning we had more delicious homemade bread and mixed fruit for breakfast. By 8:15 we were headed to the snorkel shack. Today we went to the northern back reef to collect a sampling of the diverse organisms in the reef (and seagrass) habitat. We walked through some adorable baby mangroves and trudged through some squishy seagrass beds to get to the patch reefs.

I saw a spotted eel (Gymnothorax moringa), the Caribbean giant anemone (Condylactis gigantea), Halimeda chips, and a couple brittle stars. I also saw a LOT of fish, including the juvenile Gray Angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus), the intermediate stage French Angelfish (Pomacanthus paru), the Bluehead (Thalassoma bifasciatum), the Rock Beauty (Holacanthus tricolor), and the French Grunt (Haemulon favolineatum).

PHOTO OF SPOTTED EEL

We swam our loot back to Middle Caye and sorted everything in the wet lab troughs. For good reason, we weren’t allowed to collect any sponges, so my taxonomic group was lacking. I did still have the dead sponge from yesterday, which I identified as a Yellow Tube Sponge (Aplysina fistularis).

PHOTO OF DEAD SPONGE

Some cool organisms collected were the Cocoa Damselfish (Stegastes variabilis), the Caribbean Giant Anemone (Condylactis gigantea), a fire worm (Heimodic carcunculata), and a Manta Shrimp (Pseudosquilla cilicate).

We managed to collect a tiny baby octopus (named Squishy) who became a fast favorite among the TFBs and highlight of the day. Squishy was hiding in a Diadema antillarum inked when the Cocoa damselfish lunged towards her (or him), which was extra cute. We think Squishy was an Octopus briareus.

PHOTO OF SQUISHY

After lunch Ellie, Deepu, and Anna gave their presentations on herbivorous fish, piscivorous fish, and invasive species, respectively. It was the perfect day for these lectures, as I had just seen a bunch of fish in the patch reef area.

After lectures we returned our collected friends to the ocean from whence they came and began analyzing our marine debris data from yesterday. We produced a poster (which got rave reviews) showing that plastic was both the most abundant type of marine debris by number of pieces and by weight.

Tomorrow, whether the weather be fair or whether the weather be not, we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not. Meaning: we are going out to enjoy ourselves around various parts of the atoll, even if it stays windy.