Tag Archives: GotTrashedinBelize

Uncategorized

Finding a Shell on an Island… Sounds Easy, Right?

Leave a comment

5.20.2017

After a calm day yesterday, I decided to wake up for the sunrise in the morning which was beautiful. The sun was unobstructed by clouds and bathed the small island in orange light. After that, I just napped on a hammock until breakfast time.

Sunrise over Middle Caye

Captain Buck said the wind was too strong to go out on the boat today, so we had lectures and then took a path through the mangroves to the back reef for a study on Christmas tree worms. The current was strong, making it extremely difficult to collect data while simultaneously trying to keep myself from bashing into the reef. On the bright side, I got to see all three species of mangroves in Belize: red mangrove (R. mangle), black mangrove (A. germinans), and white mangrove (L. racemosa). Javi, one of the marine officers, even showed me the salt gland adaptation present on the leaves of the white mangrove.

Salt glands (two black dots on stem) of a leaf from a white mangrove

In the afternoon, the class split up to do trash collection around Middle Caye. I was surprised at the sheer amount of litter we found on such an isolated place like Glover’s. The saddest thing was seeing Trash Crab, a hermit crab, using a piece of plastic as a shell. I tried to find him a real shell on the island (which you would think would be like looking for a drop of water in the ocean), but couldn’t find one.

Trash Crab in his plastic “shell”

The day ended with fresh coconut water and volleyball, then free time to swing on a hammock and sit at the edge of the dock conversing. Just like yesterday, today has been another day of relaxation and I feel energized and ready for hopefully another sunrise tomorrow morning.

Uncategorized

So Trashy

Leave a comment

Today was a very different day, but it was still exciting! We spent the morning on the back reef. We went through the mangroves of not-so-death and waded out to the patch reefs near the edge of the atoll. I saw a really cool fire coral that looked like a hybrid of the two species and a Caribbean Reef Squid!

Fire Coral
Caribbean Reef Squid

We spent the afternoon out of the water. Scott and Adrienne had us collect data related to marine debris on the island, so we were out in the mangroves picking up trash. We brought it back to the wet lab and had to sort and count all of it. I helped count plastics and we had 2460 pieces!

To help relieve our hot, mosquito-bitten souls, Scott and Adrienne had some fresh coconuts waiting for us after our work. We spent the evening eating coconut and playing sand volleyball. It was wonderful and relaxing even though I got smacked in the face and knocked down by a particularly powerful serve.

Once the sun went down, we went down to the dock, sunk two dive lights, and watched the wildlife come out to play in the light. We saw lots of little fish, a stingray, a shark, and a crocodile! It was a really magical experience.

2017

What a Trashy Day!

Leave a comment

After breakfast today, the water was very choppy so we could not go out on the reef. Instead, we did our presentations in the morning and learned about Mollusks, Annelids, and crustaceans. Next we went through the mangroves of death which were very un-deathy to get to a patch of back reef. There were a few mosquitos, but they were not huge swarms of biting insects. While on this reef, we were looking for Christmas tree worms and were trying to measure host preference. Unfortunately, there were very few Christmas tree worms on this reef. The current and waves were also very strong. While on the reef, I saw a Caribbean squid and lots of fire coral.

While on the reef, I continued to see lots herbivorous fish. The parrot fish on this reef were also bigger then on the little patch reef off the dock. I saw for the first time the intermediate stage of the Blue tang.

I continued to see Sparisoma Viridi (the stop light parrot fish), Chaetodon Striatus (Banded butterfly fish), Chrysiptera parasema (the yellow tail damsel fish), Stegastes paritus, the Bi-color damsel fish, and Scarus Croicensi (the striped parrot fish, initial and terminal phases). I see the parrot fish species and the Chaetodon capistratus (the four eye butterfly fish) the most. While this is very antidotal, I preserve these species to be more abundant.

After lunch, we did data analysis and of the Christmas tree worms. Although our data sample was small, we saw a slight preference for Christmas tree worms on brain corals. Next, we designed an experiment to analyze what types of marine debris are the most prevalent. We picked up trash from the beaches and mangrove areas. There were a surprising number of shoes and toothbrushes washed up on the beach. We found a little hermit crab within the trash that was using a bottle cap as a shell. It was very sad. Once we counted and weighed all the different types of trash, we had free time for the rest of the night.
Tonight, we say on the dock and put dive lights under the water. We saw a crocodile, a possible shark, and a few stingrays. It was really nice just to relax for the night and watch the stars.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
2017

Day 5 – So trashed today…

Leave a comment

Hi friends,

Today we really got down and dirty. In the morning we got into the backreefs which was beyond the mangroves on the other side of Middle Caye. So we had to waddle through the mangroves, making sure to shuffle our feet to avoid stingray stings. Reaching the backreefs, initially I felt sad seeing that the reefs were much smaller than the ones in the patch reef areas which we have been snorkeling in the past few days. However, after snorkeling around for a little bit, I feel like a huge reason for that was probably because of the stronger currents in the open ocean. That said, I became impressed at how life can survive even in these harsh conditions.

We were supposed to look around to study the host preference of Christmas tree worms (Spirobranchus giganteus) in the backreef, which suits me perfectly as it was my taxon group! However, we completed the study quickly as there weren’t that many worms about.

After the backreef study, we came back for lunch and had a presentation on marine debris. Which led us to our land activity of the day: picking up trash around the coastal areas of Middle Caye and doing a project on the types of trash found. In half an hour, the 11 of us managed to pick up 38 kg of trash around the coast. There was trash of all types, from plastic bottles (a lot of them) to Styrofoam to McDonald toys and Lego pieces. I’m glad that we did this and helped (however much slightly) make this island a better place.

At night, because of the strong currents, we did not do night snorkeling. Instead, Scott and Adrienne set up naval lamps by the dock and we sat there to observe the fishes that were attracted to the light. It was fascinating to see the different species that come out at night that I don’t see in the day and definitely mesmerizing fishwatching and stargazing at the same time. Kind of sad that we have to leave this island in a couple of days… In any case, I’m done for today.

Till next time,

Damien