Tag Archives: sea cucumber

Belize Day 11: What’s Washing Up on Shore?

No contacts, vision blurred, sea breeze swaying you from one direction to the other. The urge to pee taking over. Stumbling blindly around the trail to Clivus, the compostable toilet. Dodging huge, mango-sized blue land crabs, silently and fuzzily praying they don’t charge. 

I’m wondering when I will have to face one of these blue crabs that rule the island by night. During the day, when they’re retreating back to their covers, they look too goofy to take seriously. They scuttle sideways, claws snapping open and shut, their tiny feet skittering across the ground. I hear Mr. Krabs whenever they walk. But in the night, they have the power to rob me of a finger or a toe. 

It’s crazy the kind of stuff that gets washed up on islands, including these outlandish blue land crabs. We’re 34 miles away from the closest land-based town and 70 miles out from Belize City, yet, life finds a way. Dr. Solomon saw a hummingbird buzzing around yesterday, and it is more common than not to stumble upon a spiny-tailed iguana, hermit crab, or blue land crab. It turns out land hermit crabs first arrive from the mainland as eggs. The mothers release them into the sea, where they hatch and begin life as tiny, drifting larvae. After several molts and a search for their first shell, they make the critical journey to land. 

(Hermit Crabbies – 05/26/25)

But the real reason we’re on this remote island is to be near Glover’s Reef, where we can explore marine biodiversity – not just island biogeography. Today, our mission was to trace the diet of parrotfish. We were investigating whether different species of parrotfish specialize in specific types of food, or if they’re generalist feeders that consume a broad range of items, including seagrass, algae, and coral. To study this, we conducted a fish follow survey, with each team tracking an individual parrotfish, observing its behavior to identify what it was eating. As Dr. Evans put it, now we’re doing “camera chases” instead of the “camera traps” we set up in the rainforest. 

DSCF1655 (Stoplight Parrotfish Feeding on Algae – 05/24/25)

Sohee and I felt some residual sea sickness from the day before, so we decided to stay in the shallow area and survey the seagrass for redtail parrotfish, who are known to consume sea grass. While we could not find any parrotfish, we saw 2 needlefish near the surface by the dock, a couple of snappers, and a nurse shark. I didn’t spot any sponges in the shallow seagrass bed – probably because there were fewer hard surfaces for them to attach to, and the water flow was much less compared to the reef. Luckily, Dr. Solomon found us a sea cucumber, my new obsession. These guys are thick, shiny, squishy rods with several bumps along their bodies that serve as little feet. Some have commensal symbiotic relationships with pearlfish, who swim up their anus and use them as protection without giving the sponge much in exchange.  I looked over, and Sadhana draped the sea cucumber over her forehead. She giggles and goes, “You know what they say, you are what you put on your head.”

DSCF1887 (Seagrass Snapper Spotting – 05/26/25)

Though the island life takes some adjustment, this tiny island is filled with and surrounded by so many ecological gifts, from intimidating land crabs to weird, cucumber invertebrates. After days of learning and getting our hands in the water, I adore relaxing with friends around the dock. We stare down at the ocean to watch creatures pass by underway or gaze up at the sky full of stars. With wind blowing our hair every which way, we breathe in the ocean life.

(Breathing in the Sea Breeze – 05/26/25)

Peace out,

Lily 🙂

24/05/19 Piscivorous fish are more metal than herbivorous fish. Periodt.

We took the boat out for the first time to survey two patch reefs. The first one, Marisol, was within a marine-protected area (MPA). The second was not within a marine-protected area (non-MPA). There were some grey clouds in the sky as we drove out to the first patch reef, but I did not feel the sprinkling as I was snorkeling in the cold water. I saw snappers as usual, and what I thought to be a foot-long grouper that quickly swam away before I could fully process its presence.

In the afternoon, the class geared up to wade into sea-grass off of the island. We were looking for creatures to capture and keep in a ‘touch tank’ briefly for our observation. As a class, we caught many queen conchs (and one conch shell occupied by a crab), two donkey-dung sea cucumbers, a sea egg urchin, a pencil slate urchin, a red heart urchin, an octopus!, two fire worms, a damselfish, several brittle stars, two sun anemones, several types of coral and algae, and many hermit crabs—no piscivorous fish though! The water is too shallow for these big boys. It was interesting to feel and observe the organisms from other taxons though. The donkey dung sea cucumber was particularly interesting as it molded into your hand as you squeezed it.

Me touching a West Indian Sea Egg (Tripneustes ventricosus), a type of urchin

We ended the night with lectures on herbivorous fish, piscivorous fish (given by yours truly), and how competition, predation, and environment shape coral reefs.

Day 6: Perspective Shift (05/21/2017)

It can take very little to shift a perspective.

Five days ago when I snorkeled for the first time, I felt overwhelmed with the entire situation. My mind was overloaded – unable to find the balance between managing my fins and mask, observing my surroundings, staying afloat, and not getting water in my snorkel tube at the same time.

Each day marked an increased fluidity in the water, but this morning, I felt much more capable than ever before. I could focus less on the technical and more on the experience. This, in addition to the abundance of lively fish at the backreef, created an extremely rewarding explorative experience.

Today’s reef was shallow with large mounds of coral, saturated with brightly colored fish swimming in every direction. The fish were juveniles and adults, swimming individually or in schools, and represented every shade of color imaginable.

I encountered many noteworthy creatures today at the reef – two more donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria Mexicana) covered in algae, as well as urchins (Class Echinoidea) and many brittle stars (Class Ophiuroidea) underneath rubble. The sea cucumber and urchins were sedentary, but the brittle stars scrambled to conceal themselves as soon as they were exposed. Size-wise, the urchins were on the small side, hovering about two inches in diameter, while both sea cucumbers were over a foot long. The brittle stars ranged from two-inches in diameter to about seven inches in diameter.

Holothuria mexicana and Homo sapiens

I spotted another porcupine fish (Diodon hystrix) concealed under a rocky ledge. There were also many yellow-tail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus) swimming around in groups. Today’s most vivid sighting was a scorpionfish (Genus Scorpaena), cryptically colored in shades of brown and beige to assimilate into the seafloor.

Today, I realized my own perspective shift. Snorkeling no longer felt foreign to me, and I could fully immerse myself in the rich aquatic life surrounding me, creating my most fulfilling experience yet.

I am more excited than ever to see what tomorrow will bring.

Day 3: Transformation (05/18/2017)

“Preservation of wildlife populations depends on changing human behavior.” Alex Tewfik, an expert benthic biologist, had this quote on one of his final slides during a presentation he gave our class.

A change in human behavior can mean many different things. I made an active choice to disrupt my busy summer work routine to engage in an explorative field biology trip, something that strongly deviates from my status quo.

This change has been engrossing. Through today’s endeavors – exploring a nearby seagrass bed and a patch reef accessible by boat – I immersed myself in the rich aquatic diversity only tropical marine ecosystems can offer.

I encountered a variety of species, including a beaded sea cucumber (Euapta lappa), about six inches in length, concealed by seagrass and a large West Indian sea egg (Tripneustes ventricosus) resting on a seagrass bed. Neither were in motion nor interacting with other animals. At the further patch reef, I came across a small chocolate brittle star (Ophioderma cinereum), a large-polyp coral (Eugmilia fastigata), and a donkey dung sea cucumber (Holothuria Mexicana), just under a foot long. The brittle star was found under rubble, and the donkey dung was found in deeper water on the seafloor. Today’s most noteworthy site was a school of surgeonfish (Genus Acanthus) swimming in a school of about one hundred fish.

My class also collected urchins from the reef. Urchins often hide under ridges or rocky overhangs, making them difficult to spot. After scouring for an urchin, I noticed an odd juxtaposition of hues – tiny white rings encircling fiery orange spines projecting from a dark fleshy body. This was the first of three (Echinometra viridis) I collected from the reef. Tomorrow, my class will be recording each urchin’s dimensions and returning them to the sea.

Echinometra viridis

I realize my participation on this trip will not accelerate the “preservation of wildlife populations.” However, for my own personal commitment to preservation causes and my proactivity to advocate for them, this trip has been transformative.