Today was the itchiest day of my life. I have never been so covered in bug bites, so I am ready to leave this island. Today we collected trash in different areas of the island and analyzed its composition which was mostly plastic and Styrofoam.
In the afternoon, we dissected a lionfish and it was used to make ceviche. I normally don’t like seafood, but I thought it was pretty good because it didn’t taste like fish.
The small fish was found inside the stomach of Liz and Cassia’s lionfish.
I didn’t see any sea anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs because we didn’t spend any time in the water today.
Today, we returned to the two patch reefs we went to for our previous research project, one inside the marine protected area and one outside. In both patches, we collected sea urchins for thirty minutes and then measured their size to compare the sea urchin community structure between the reefs. We ended up collecting Long-spined, Reef, West Indian Sea Egg, and Red Heart sea urchins.
Bucket of sea urchins
In the evening we went on a night snorkel. We got lost and swam around the sea grass a while because we couldn’t find the patch reef. By the time we found it I was pretty tired. I did see a Spotted Eagle Ray swim right by me which was amazing.
I saw more Giant Sea Anemones (Condylactis Gigantea) today which I am finding to be the most common anemone in these patch reefs. Some of the time they have had green tips and other times light pink tips. There is a lot of color variation in many anemones, corallimorphs, and zoanthids. Bella saw a Mat Zoanthid (Palythoa caribaeorum) on some coral which has green tones and forms polygons when packed tightly in colonies.
Today was full of snorkeling. In the morning, we went to two different patch reefs in a marine protected area and marine unprotected area again to finish collecting data. The first patch reef had so much fire coral that it was almost impossible to avoid. I brushed my leg against it at least once, but it hasn’t been so bad.
Using a quadrant to collect data
In the afternoon, we got to go to the fore reef. It was very deep and amazing to look down and see such large coral colonies. Because the water is deeper, there is the opportunity to see bigger animals which for us included a nurse shark, a Southern Sting Ray, and a Caribbean reef squid.
In the patch reef, I saw some more Giant Sea Anemones (Condylactic Gigantea). Most of them were behind a crevice between two corals or rocks. They had yellowish green tentacles and some had pink tips. The tentacles of all non-reef building Anthozoans contain nematocysts which contain capsules with a coiled-up barb inside them. When stimulated, the capsule is open and the barb releases to hit and inject the prey. I am hoping to find some Zoanthids or Corallimorphs tomorrow which I am a little less familiar with, so might be harder to spot.
Today was the first day we got to ride the boat to a patch reef. We went to one reef in a marine protected area and one reef outside of a reef protected area to compare the live coral cover between them.
Later, we got to spend around an hour wading next to the island to collect any organisms we saw. From my taxon, we saw two Sun Anemones (Stichodactyla helianthus) and a few Giant Caribbean Sea Anemones (Condylactic Gigantea).
Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone and Damselfish
Sun Anemone found in seagrass
There were two Damselfish that were swimming within the Giant Sea Anemone which is a common occurrence in Sea Anemones. Fish, shrimp, and crab sometimes live in association with this species by providing nutrients and protection for the anemone in return for protection from predators.
We spent the day working on a small research project comparing the community ecology structure of a mixed sea grass and algae region to a mostly seagrass region. It was a very tiring and at times frustrating experience because of different problems with equipment and getting used to swimming to the bottom to collect data.
At the end of collecting data I got to snorkel around a patch reef where I saw so many different fish, and coral. There are so many different organisms in the reef that I have no idea how to identify even into a broad group like I could often do in the rainforest because it is such a different environment to be in.
Giant Sea Anemone in the seagrass
I spent most of the day in a seagrass bed, so I did not see any anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs. Kaela showed me a picture of what looked like a greenish or yellowish sea anemone which was probably a Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone (Condylactisgigantea).
After a three-hour boat ride from Belize City, we made it to Glover’s Reef Research Station. The ocean is beautiful and blue. There are hermit crabs all along the trails. It is definitely much hotter than the rainforest.
We spent the rest of the day getting used to snorkeling by practicing in shallow waters. It was windy which made it hard to control myself and my mask kept getting fogged up. We also had to go through mangroves to get to a different part of the island and got swarmed by mosquitoes which was miserable.
Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone
I did not see any anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs, but Bella saw one in the seagrass and took a picture for me. It was hard to see in the picture, but the shape looked just like the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantea), and it had green tentacles with swollen tips.
