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2022

First Reef Day <3

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The McKenna that is writing this post is a completely different person than the McKenna that wrote the previous blogs. Today, I saw coral reefs with my very own eyes, and it was such a life-changing experience!

The day started early with breakfast at 7:00 am. We wasted no time getting into the water, and we swam to path reefs close by the Glover’s dock. I was surprised by how much sediments can make snorkeling an issue; one kick downward with your fin and all of the scenery around you is made barely visible. Needless to say, I quickly learned to stay on my stomach. At the patch reefs, I saw so many amazing things, notably a baby lionfish and a pufferfish. On the way back, I saw a Great Caribbean anemone in a bed of seagrass! (Please forgive that this is a photo taken of a digital picture)

After getting back, we made reef supplies for future endeavors, including an expertly-woven quadrant and a top-of-the-line snorkel clipboard with waterproof paper!

After lunch, we suited back up and sprinted (I’m not kidding, we actually sprinted there to avoid the swarm of mosquitos) to explore the mangrove of death (oooo aaahh). We brought our clipboards with us to do a scavenger hunt! Liliana and I were buddies, and we found lots of cool things, like a sea cucumber and a Christmas tree worm. We decided to swim back because the mosquitos were that bad, and that is when I spotted a warty corallimorph! This is usually a solitary organism, so it was all by itself. (Again, photo of a photo)

The mangrove snorkel was amazing! Afterward, we ate dinner and gave presentations.

Today was incredible. I am so excited for the upcoming reef days to explore more! Another night of needed rest awaits me. A TFB always needs their beauty sleep 🙂

– McKenna

2022

Day 2: Mosquito Magnet

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Today started off early with a yummy banana pancake breakfast and then our first snorkel excursion at 8am. We finally got to break out all of our fancy TFB gear (snorkels, masks, fins, diving skins) and use them! To get off of the dock and into the water, I just sat down and shimmied off, directly into a school of small fish. We then swam over some sea grass to a path reef and I was able to see sooo many organisms. There was Brain Coral, Common Sea Fans, Corky Sea Fingers, also lobsters, French Angel Fish, Lion Fish (!!), and an anemone! Apparently we might go out and hunt for Lion Fish since they are invasive and have them for a meal. I also was able to spot a piece of Laurencia spp. floating in the water and a lot of Spryidia filaments on the rocks. I’ll spare you from my extremely blurry photos but I’ll get the hang of this camera soon.

After we got back on land we made one of our field tools called a Quadrate which we will use as a measuring device to collect data. Then after lunch, we headed back into the water but this time through the Mangroves of Death (cue dramatic music). Where does this name come from you ask? The mosquitos. We literally had to run for a few minutes to try to dodge as many mosquitos as we can in order to go through the mangroves. It was totally worth it though. We made it to the shoreline and had to “stingray shuffle” through the seagrass because it’s their favorite habitat and you want to avoid surprising them. At these patch reefs I saw Yellow Snapper, baby Blue Tang (which look just like yellow surgeon fish), Royal Gramma (shout out to my dad’s fish tank), damselfish, a sea urchin (super cool), and similar coral as the patch reef from earlier in the day.

We chose to swim back in order to avoid the MOD once again, and saw even more cool things – sharks, sponges, and stingrays (oh my!). It was actually very nice to have more time in the water and watching the sea grass was quite meditative.

For the rest of the day we had taxon briefing and a topic lecture which will all help with more identification tomorrow!

-Sophia

Belize Babe’s (incomplete) selfie! I am determined to get a full one tomorrow.
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TFB and the Deathly Mangroves

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May 22nd, 2019

 

Today we left The Tropical Education center to embark on our journey to Glover’s Reef, a world heritage site and atoll, off the coast of Belize. The boat ride was three hours and the scenery around us was breathtaking. The water color changed from the marina brown, to a seafoam green, to a pure aqua. As the land disappeared behind us and when we crossed a barrier reef, the water below turned a deep dark blue. Soon the reefs of Glover’s came into view along with the island we would be staying on, Middle Caye at a WCS marine research station. We dropped off our bags in our dorms and were given a tour of the station. After a short tour and a little talk about the composting toilets they have, each called Clivus, we ate lunch. The food was amazing and after that we went on a snorkel to test out our gear.

 

It was honesty great to be in the water again and the water was as warm as heated pool water. We were going to try and swim to a patch reef near island, but due to some equipment difficulties in the group we had to swim back to the dock. Even at/near the dock there were groups of yellowtail snapper, and some upside-down jellyfish. Thinking that the current would be less and the wind more or less null we traversed the “Mangroves of Death” to get to the leeward side of the island. The “Mangroves of Death” we soon found out are infested with mosquitoes and biting flies. Everyone ran through the mangroves, careful not to trip but fast enough to evade the mosquitoes, but it was to no avail. All of us ended up getting bit, myself getting upwards of 20 bites on my back. Once we reached the water, we shuffled through some sea grass and made looked at some very shallow coral beds. For this portion of the course I’m the expert on herbivorous fish, and I saw a couple species today. In essence, herbivorous fish are fish that eat algae or vegetation, however some of them can be omnivores. Today I saw what appeared to be a very small juvenile Dusky Damselfish. It has a white lower body and a bright orange body, complete with blue spots on its head. I also saw what appeared to be a small Ocean Surgeonfish, these fish eat the algae off coral and are bluish grey in color.

 

After that excursion, we made a mad dash through the death mangroves and eventually reached the station. We washed off our equipment with freshwater and after dinner, which consisted of tender chicken with rice and lemon pie, we ended the day with presentations on sponges, coral, and the different kinds of microbes in coral reefs.

A juveniel damselfish (beaugregory, juvenile)