Tag Archives: sea turtle

2022

De-bris-ing Glovers (Day 6)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 6 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

We woke up to gloomy, grey skies with fierce winds, but that did not stop us from conquering the fore reef! Diving the fore reef was incredibly unique, it was unlike any of the shallow patch reefs we usually see. The water was a dark, royal blue, similar to the color of pen ink, and the waves were intense. Usually, the reefs are only a few feet below us, but the fore reef was around 40-50 ft below. Because of the depth, there was no color discrimination unless you swam really close to the reef. I saw lots of new sponge types, but the most interesting was the Giant Barrel Sponge. I saw it close to the “deep drop” towards the edge of the reef; it was on the much deeper side. Because the reef was so far below us, I didn’t see any echinoderms; however, I saw a sea turtle! It was too far away to identify, but from the shape of its bill and fins, I believe it was a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). It lacked the hawksbill pattern. The turtle was chilling under/ next to some coral, and it didn’t move even as we all approached it. I assume he was in the area because of the jellyfish swarm above us. Because the waves were so rough, we only stayed out four 20 minutes, and we swam through the jellyfish on our way back to the boat.

When we got back to glovers, I got to see some brown anoles (A. sangrei) because Dr. Correa’s son was catching them and letting us hold them. You can tell they are brown anoles because they are brown and have bright orange dewlaps (throat fans) that lack dots. I don’t know where he was catching them, but I assume they were crawling around the station.

After our much needed break, we made a research question to answer. We asked “How much of the trash that washes up on Glover’s reef can be disposed of on island, where is it located, and which area is the most efficient to clean?”

Our “trash” hypothesis was that the most debris would be located at the coral graveyard and that 50% would need to be taken off-island to dispose of. Our hypothesis really was trash because WE WERE COMPLETELY INCORRECT!!! After garbage collection and sorting, we found that 88% of trash could be disposed of on-island via burning, and we found that the mangroves behind the kitchen collect the most garbage by mass. Therefore, if we are going to do more beach cleanups at glovers, we should have volunteers focus on the areas near those mangroves.

While we were collecting the trash, Nate made an interesting find– an almost intact cow fish skeleton?!  I got to carry it back because everyone else thought it was gross. I mean, it is, but that wasn’t going to stop me! (Pictured below)

After listening to talks of Annelids, hydroids, ocean debris, and anemones, our group got to watch a hermit crab change shells! (Nate also found the shell while gathering trash, and he kindly gave it to the hermit crab). We all got very emotional, and it was the perfect way to end this reef day.

Till Tomorrow! P.s. I’m not sure why this blog didn’t get published on the day I wrote it, but it’s up now that we have better wifi, sorry!!!

QOTD: “I can’t explain it but our group gets really emotional over hermit crabs”

“Ugh, I lost my brainblast”

The Turtle we saw on the reef; as you can see, it is very far away. Potentially a Caretta caretta (Loggerhead)
The land hermit crab we saw change shells. The shell it is wearing is the one that Nate picked out!
The Cowfish skeleton Nate found!
Our Poster!!!
The 64kg of trash we collected from 3 different sites on Middle Key
2022

Mondays are trash

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Contrary to this blog’s title, today was an exciting day! We went out this morning to the fore reef, which is the area of open ocean that’s right outside of the atoll. There, since the waves are stronger and the water is deeper, the organisms are typically much bigger, as they need to be stronger to withstand the greater wave energy, and they have more room to grow upwards. We saw some really cool organisms from a distance because the bottom was maybe 70 feet below the surface and none of us (except the water safety officers) could hold our breath long enough to get to the bottom. Some of the cool organisms we saw included comb jellies, which were floating near the surface, and if you looked really closely, you could see that their combs were lit up with electricity. We also saw a school of medium blue fish that we weren’t able to identify, a sea turtle, most likely a green sea turtle, that was just sitting on the bottom, and a huge barrel sponge. Unfortunately, I did not see any brown algae, as it is too small to see from 70 feet above the reef. surprisingly, I saw minimal sargassum, which I think was due to the fact that the waves were so choppy.

a comb jelly! (picture courtesy of Phoenix)

possible green sea turtle!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t really cooperating with us, so we had to head out pretty quickly. Lucky for us, that meant we could get the nightly presentations done in the morning in anticipation of a possible night snorkel.

The afternoon was a whole other ball game. Last night, we heard from the Belize Fisheries Department manager, and he spoke a bit about starting beach cleaning efforts on Middle Caye. Today, we did a beach clean up, but being TFBs, we had to incorporate science somehow! You can read about our research below 🙂

our poster

I was doing clean up in the mangrove area behind the kitchen, and there was a lot of trash! It was sort of sad because even though we had two giant trash bags overflowing with trash, we had hardly made a dent. We spent the whole afternoon doing the beach clean up, sorting the trash, and weighing it, before putting the trash back into the bags so they could be properly disposed of. The people at the Coral Graveyard also found a box fish skeleton!

box fish skeleton
trash party! -unfortunately I did not get any pictures during the actual trash sorting, since I didn’t want to touch my phone

After the trash shindig we finished the last presentation, and then, courtesy of Nate, we got to watch a hermit crab change shells! I had seen videos of it yesterday in Lilliana’s crustacean presentation, but it was cool to see in real life. We then went to dinner, and since the weather wasn’t looking good enough for a night snorkel, we hung out and talked to Ruth, the water safety officer, about her experiences as a native Belizean, as well as the natural history of the country.

While most Mondays may be trash, today was certainly a good day! Tomorrow is the last full day on the reef, and we have a lot to do, so I will keep you all posted!

the boat in the open ocean above the fore reef
Sophia diving
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Trash Day!

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Hey y’all! It’s Michiel again : )

I woke up this morning after nearly freezing to death last night. It wasn’t actually cold (I mean, how cold could it get in the tropics?), but my bed is right by the window and the wind kept blowing into my sheet, and I couldn’t figure out how to close the window, so that was fun. It wasn’t that bad, though, I’m definitely being dramatic. After waking up, I met everyone for breakfast, and they make the most amazing pancakes here; I was so happy when I saw them waiting for us.

After breakfast, we went to the forereef. The waves were pretty strong today, so I started getting a headache on the boat and it kept getting worse as I was in the water, but it was definitely worth it because the area of the reef we saw was so amazing. We saw spur and groove formation, a swarm of ctenophores,  and a sea turtle lying in the sand! This area was also way deeper than any area we had been to before (about 70 feet) and there was a reef drop right next to it which dropped for hundreds of feet, so we really got to test our breath-holding abilities. One of the experienced divers actually went down about 100 feet! While we were there, we saw a school of fish, but I could not get close enough to figure out what they were. They were mostly blue and larger than a damselfish or a surgeonfish, so they may have been a parrotfish, but they may have also been something entirely different. Parrotfish and other types of herbivorous fish are known to travel in schools, so it isn’t unruly to guess that these may have been parrotfish, but, again, they were so deep that I couldn’t get a very good look. It may not have been an herbivorous fish at all. If it wasn’t, then I didn’t get to see any herbivorous fish today because we were too far from the reef to see that many.

Unknown fish (possibly herbivorous)

After leaving the forereef, we had a little break, then watched some lectures and had lunch. After lunch, we started coming up with a research question that would involve a beach clean-up. We ended up with “What percent, by mass, of the trash on Middle Caye needs to be disposed of off island? What area is the most efficient for collecting trash?” We hypothesized that over 50% of the trash would need to be moved off island for disposal and that the coral graveyard would be the most efficient area for trash pick-up. To collect data, Ava, Michael, Maggy, Adrian, and I went out to the bunks to collect trash for a total time (between all people) of one hour. Different groups did this at different locations around the island. Back at the wet lab, we weighed everyone’s trash bags, separated burnable trash from non-burnable trash, and weighed the non-burnable trash. With our data, we discovered that only 11.43% of the trash here needs to be removed from the island because they actually burn the plastic here, so they only remove the metal and glass. We also found out that the most efficient area for trash pick-up was the area behind the kitchen because the people there collected 16.41 kg of trash per person-hour. We believe that the reason the most efficient area wasn’t the coral graveyard was because the coral graveyard’s trash was more spread-out and it was much smaller, so it didn’t contribute as much in terms of mass. Hopefully this data can be helpful to the Belize Fisheries Department because they have plans to do more beach clean-ups on Middle Caye!

After presenting our project to our professors, we had another lecture then dinner. Right before dinner, though, Nate set a shell down in front of a hermit crab, and we saw it change from it’s previous shell to that one! It was so gross. Anyway, we stayed in the dining room until it closed because we were all talking, and then Ruth (a marine safety officer) joined us and told us about the clothes she makes and the history of Belize. She taught us a lot, and she’s been a super important part of our stay here on the reef, so we couldn’t be more thankful to have her.

After dinner, we were going to go on a night snorkel, but the weather picked up and we decided that it wouldn’t be safe to go. The group just ended up working on our blogs and field notebooks before going to bed.

Overall, today was a great day! Here’s a group picture of us washing our hands after we finished handling all the trash, a picture of Sophia, Elena, and I as we were working on our poster for our trash presentation, and a picture of an iguana.

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Pre-departure fugue

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The night before a big trip never phases me the way it should. I pack, I sleep, and the next day I find myself somewhere else and just roll with it. I always feel like I lack the appropriate level of enthusiasm (whatever that it), but it beats travel anxiety so I don’t worry about it too much. The enthusiasm returns once I’ve settled in, and all is well. I worry and pick over everything else but travel is like “well, I guess I’ll get there somehow.” Perhaps this is some kind of physiological adaptive response to environmental stressors…

I look forward to returning to Central America in biological pursuits once again. During my 5 week conservation trip in Panama I really only worked with two species– Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata)–so the breadth of my experience is limited (a generous way of putting it). I feel like I’ve barely skimmed the surface of all there is to know tropical field biology. I’ve read all kinds of books and primary literature, looked at pictures and diagrams, even experienced it first-hand in some of my trips abroad but it still feels like I know squat. There is just too much cool stuff!

Speaking of too much stuff, fingers crossed that we don’t encounter anything I don’t have on my taxonomic ID cards. Annelids and hydroid identification is fairly simple, but amphibians are a whole other story. There is clearly one very good way to avoid detection by predators because there are some pretty similar-looking frogs out there. Also I worry that some of my sources may have been a bit dated (2000 isn’t that long ago, right?). I tried to mentally absorb as much information as I could from a bunch of sources in the hope that some of it will be useful. Despite all this I genuinely enjoyed reading about amphibians even though I’ve never had any particular interest in them before. I look forward to developing even more new interests during this trip.

Sophia Streeter

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