This morning we went out for our first snorkel! It was hardly a real snorkel, we really just dipped our flippers in the water and tested our new gear out. But still, it was a great time and I was reminded of how sensitive my eyes are to salt water!
(some pretty shells by the room)
In the afternoon, we set off for a deeper look into our taxa in the reef, and I got to see a lot of my piscivorous fish out in the wild! I saw several yellow jack swimming among sea roads, some black groupers near the floor by some dead corals, and also a Nassau grouper hanging out in a little creviceby the bottom of the reef. It was really exciting to see the fish after researching them before this trip.
Later on, some of us got dressed up to take pictures on the dock!
KODAK Digital Still Camera
This evening, we heard taxon presentations on angelfish, damselfish, and I did my topic lecture on the evolution and ecology of damselfish. I think the trickiest part of this week will be limiting my sun exposure, as I really do not want to get cooked on the trip.
Today was a chill but fun day. Our morning started by snorkeling 4 locations, 2 in the marine protected area and 2 outside of the marine protected area. It was interesting to see the change in biodiversity levels despite them being pretty similar ecosystems. After we got out from snorkeling the 4th site there was one solitary dolphin SO close to our boat. It was just casually eating fish from the seafloor and coming up to breathe.
After lunch we made a poster about our findings from the MPA and non MPA. I had a good time helping create the poster; we all worked together to display our findings in a semiformal but fun way.
After making the poster we had free time. I watched fish swim under the dock then I napped on the dock. Right before dinner, I saw the shadow of a southern stingray swimming away from the dock. I did not get a great at look at it however.
I am not looking forward to leaving this gorgeous place, but I am looking forward to more time on the ocean tomorrow!
Today was such a great day. Our project of the day was trying to determine what common parrotfish species eat on or outside of the reef. We first snorkeled off the dock where Sam and I (snorkel buddies) looked for stoplight parrotfish. We found a few small female parrotfish and one large male, but they were very hard to watch eating since they kept darting between coral. I did however see a large nurse shark though! It was on the outskirts of the reef hanging on the sea floor beneath some coral.
After lunch I was hanging around the dock when I saw another nurse shark! Like the first day at Glover’s Reef, this shark was swimming under and beside the dock. It was relatively large and very majestic. After watching for a few minutes I also saw a small lemon shark swim by! This shark was seeming just wandering around the sea grasses.
(lemon shark)
Our second snorkel of the day took us further into the lagoon. We snorkeled two sites in search of stoplight parrotfish and we got some great footage of them eating. Tomorrow we will compare our findings with people analyzing other parrotfish! On these reefs I also found multiple anemones, saw many wrasses, and found gorgeous conchs.
(Analyzing parrotfish data)
I’m looking forward to getting back on the water soon!
Today started with a gorgeous morning in the ocean. We jumped off the dock and swam straight to the reefs nearby. There I saw a southern stingray resting on the sand beside some coral. I saw many sea fans, large brain corals, and many wrasses too.
After about an hour of snorkeling we came back to the dock and were given an 1.5 hr of free time. Obviously I got back in the water. Elise and I snorkeled around the reef for another 30 minutes and then hung out beside the dock afterwords.
Right as I as about to step onto the ladder to get out however there was a LARGE animal swimming next to me. This water was about 4 ft deep and while we had been seeing a nurse shark around here, this clearly was not a nurse shark. It was a ray flapping its wings as if it were flying. The only other time I’ve seen an animal do this was when I have seen manta rays before. I was positive this ray was not a spotted eagle ray because it had no markings on its back, but what threw me off was the fact that the back was grey and not black. After trying and failing to ID this ray all afternoon, when I pulled up the video I got of it, I realized it was clearly a manta ray! Though it was small for its species, it was such a majestic creature and I loved watching it swim off into the distance.
Later today we snorkeled another nearby reef where I saw a medium sized nurse shark hiding in a crevice between to large coral structures. In all of the time Iwatched it, the shark never moved but it was still incredible to see.
All in all, today was a phenomenal day of snorkeling. Today has also given me my highlight of the trip thus far: seeing the manta ray.
I can’t wait to get back out in the water tomorrow!
Today was Day 11 in Belize and our second full day at Glover’s Reef. The day started at 7 AM as per usual with breakfast. Then at 8 AM, the class met in the wet lab to discuss the project for our day, which was to examine the feeding behavior of parrotfish. Our class split into several groups, with typically 2 groups examining one species, such as spotlight, red banded, red tailed. Lily & I and Sadhana & Adam were responsible for surveying the seagrass patch near the dock to look for red tailed parrotfish. Sadhana & Adam took on the left side, while we took on the right. We snorkeled from 10 AM to 11 AM, but Lily & I were unsuccessful in finding redtailed parrotfish. However, we were able to see swarms of the smaller fish and a shark lurking around the seagrass which was astonishing! We did see a couple of vertically striped fish swimming around though, but they did not look like parrotfish. We got pretty desperate and started chasing them around and recording footage though. Also, since the fish were quite translucent and a little far away, all of the video footage did not turn out too well.
Redtailed parrotfish!
When everyone returned from their respective surveying area, we washed all of our gear, rested a little bit, then headed into lunch. During the transition period to lunch, Sadhana, Elise, Claire C, Ian, and I went out into the dock and had a relaxing time. However, random items (such as Sadhana’s peanut cap, my Haribo jelly wrapper) kept being blown into the ocean, and Sadhana kindly kept taking one for the team and jumped into the ocean to fetch those items. Next time, I promised to be the one jumping into the water to retrieve something.
Although I was feeling fine initially before the snorkel, my nausea emerged immediately again after lunch. Since the class was meeting back up at 1:30 PM for snorkel part 2 (way longer, on a boat), I informed Dr. Evans of my condition, and then napped for an hour to see if I would feel better enough to go out to snorkel again. Spoiler alert: I did not make it to the second snorkel because my nausea stayed at a constant level.
From 1:30 PM to 4 PM, I slept to recover while the others snorkeled in two spots for 45 minutes each on a boat ride. I’m sad I missed it, but I really don’t think I could have physically made it through the 2.5 hour session. I’m really hopeful for the future activities though. I will be drinking plenty of water and electrolytes to manage my physical state.
On the positive side though, I got to observe the dissection and freezing of the lionfish that Dr. Evans and Dr. Solomon had spearheaded from the snorkel while we were analyzing the footage we had collected. The mature one was pretty wrangled with the spear, as Dr. Evans had speared the fish through the head. The juvenile one was still flopping around, so we put them both into the freezer. Dr. Evans said we will be eating them sometime, so I’m intrigued by that. If I see a mystery fish in the menu at one point though, I will know what it is.
Speared angelfish!
After dinner, we had a presentation from the manager of Glover’s Reef regarding WCS (Wildlife and Conservation Society) and subsequent presentations from the residing marine biologist and the Coast Guard. I was intrigued to hear about Glover’s Reef’s history and the conservation work associated with WCS and Glover’s. Also, I was fascinated by how Glover’s serves (though at a lesser extent than other islands) as a nesting site for sea turtles due to the availability of sand.
Then, we dove straight into class presentations, starting off with my taxon presentation about surgeonfish. After, Sam briefed the class about his taxon, which was wrasses, and Noelle presented about the ecology and evolutionary biology of surgeonfish. I was fascinated by how although I thought surgeonfish changed colors primarily for mating, Noelle found that the surgeonfish changed colors to transition between day and night.
Although I did not get to see surgeonfish today, it was really fun to talk to my classmates about surgeonfish and listen to Noelle’s topic lecture about surgeonfish as well.
Tomorrow, we are planning to do a seagrass hike and visit the coral graveyard. Well then, I will see you guys tomorrow!
Today was our first full day on Glover’s Reef. We headed over to breakfast at 7 AM, and almost stepped on multiple hermit crabs and said hello to several coconut crabs along the way. After breakfast, we changed into our diving gear, then headed over to the dock at 8 AM where Dr. Evans and Dr. Solomon were waiting for us. We began with a swim test where we all, in pairs, swam to Dr. Solomon. Then, we all swam to the patch reef to look for species from our taxon.
We were all each responsible for checking on our buddy as we swam, so that is what my buddy (Ian) and I did. Mostly due to my inefficient swimming, we were quite a bit behind the others for a while, but we were eventually able to catch up. We ran into Dr. Evans, who then pointed out some baby parrotfish among the reef and grabbed a queen conch for us to see!
Snorkeling!
Shortly after, we all started to head back to the dock, which was quite honestly farther than I anticipated. I started to get nauseous in the middle of my swim back, but nevertheless made it back to land. Dr. Evans told me that it may be due to ingesting too much seawater and advised me to drink lots of water and electrolytes for me to recover before our next snorkel at the aquarium at 1:30 PM. Since we had around 3.5 hours until our next snorkel, I napped for about an hour after drinking electrolytes (which was very kindly provided by Lily) to try to minimize my nausea.
At 1:30 PM, we all went on a boat ride to the aquarium to play “Pokemon Scan” (identifying our taxon). On the way, we saw two separate resort-style islands, where there was a fancy boat parked at the dock. We got out at our first snorkel site, and we saw multiple cool species such as a nurse shark, a colony of blue tangs, some parrotfish, and many many corals!
Also, I saw a school of Blue Tang surgeonfish swimming near some seafan corals which was SO cool! This was my first sighting of my reef taxon. My phone camera did not cooperate, so all of my surgeonfish pictures that I had attempted turned out super blurry, which was disappointing. However, Claire D had borrowed a dive camera from Dr. Evans and got a cool picture of them! I do not have the access to those images, but they are somewhere in Dr. Evans’ possession…
On the way back to the boat, I almost ran into fire corals due to the congregation of corals in a shallow area and the high traffic of all of the TFB’s heading back the boat all at once. After getting back on the boat, I started to feel nauseated again feeling the rockiness of the boat as well as the smell of motor oil.
Lily was not feeling great as well, so we switched partners to be Lily & I and Elise & Ian. We sat on the boat for a while, but the coast guard advised us to get off as being stationary on the boat will make our nausea worse. As we got out, we mainly stayed on our shallow reefs, but our efforts were mainly focused on keeping ourselves contained, as Dr. Evans informed us that once you start throwing up, you will not stop until you get back on land. I felt slightly better than before, but with the natural rockiness of the currents, the nausea persisted.
Smiling through the pain :,)
Although the day didn’t proceed 100 % as anticipated, it was surreal to see all of the coral reef ecosystem spread out in front of my very own eyes. Even in the second session where i was not actively snorkeling, I was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of the scenery. I was encapsulated by the different shades of blues coming together, such as turquoise and deep blue. There was no land on sight, minus the couple islands nearby our snorkel zone.
I really hope this night’s sleep will nurse me back to health and that I would be able to participate to my fullest tomorrow.
Today we started an experiment. We met as a group and decided we would like to know more about parrotfish and what they are actually eating on the reef. We were curious if they just graze on the algae, are taking bites of coral, feeding on grass, etc.. We assigned each group of partners a specific species of surgeonfish to follow around the reef and observe what they’re eating. We did a fish following assay where we chose a fish to follow around and observe for 5 minutes. We started the experiment by visiting the patch reef again. Here Zoe and I looked for stoplight parrotfish and observed them. Among the way we saw a few more sting rays.
In the afternoon we continued our experiment by visiting two more reefs. Zoe and I saw more male parrotfish at this second location which are more blue and colorful than the grey and reddish females. At the third location as soon as we got in the water there were multiple Barracudas. Some looked to be at least 4 ft long. As we were swimming around watching for our parrotfish we noticed that one of them was following us. We swam up to Dr. Evans and he told us that they’re actually attracted to the way Zoe kicks because she produces a lot of bubbles. As we were swimming with Dr. Evans, we came face to face with another Barracuda. We all heard Zoe’s scream underwater. Unfortunately no eel sightings today again.
Hi! Today was our first full day at Glover’s reef! We started the morning by doing some test snorkeling to a nearby patch reef off the dock to make sure everyone’s gear was working. Around the reef we saw so many species of fish and so many other types of organisms. We saw parrotfish, angelfish, surgeonfish, damselfish, and many more. We also saw a southern stingray hanging around the dock. The nurse sharks love to hang around the dock too!
In the afternoon we took a boat out to a spot called the aquarium to look for our taxa. We saw many more fish, a nurse shark, pufferfish, and many more. However we didn’t see any eels. We needed the night watching the sunset as a group and hanging out on the dock by the water!
Today was all about getting our feet—or fins—wet. We kicked things off with a morning snorkel just off the shore near Glover’s Research Station. It wasn’t meant to be anything too serious—just a chance to try out our gear and adjust to being back in the water. Even though it was a test run, I couldn’t help scanning for signs of soft corals, my assigned group. Spoiler: I found some!
The real show came after lunch when we headed to Long Point, also known as “the aquarium” (for good reason). The water was crystal-clear and the reef felt alive with color and motion. I spent most of my time trailing over the coral beds, and I was thrilled to spot several soft coral species: waving purple sea fans, elegant black sea rods, and the distinct branching shapes of circle sea rods. These corals don’t build the reef like their stony cousins, but they add a ton of texture, color, and motion to the underwater scene.
There’s something mesmerizing about the way soft corals move with the current—almost like underwater plants, except they’re very much animals. I’m excited to keep learning more about them and to see how their presence changes depending on where we snorkel.
Not a bad start for day one. Gear tested, fins working, and soft corals officially spotted.
After checking the weather report, this morning was the best chance we had to go and see the forereef. The forereef is the region of the barrier of coral around the atoll that is facing the open ocean. Outside of the protection of the wall, the ocean waves are far more intense. The boat ride over was a tad more nauseating than others, and the swells were quite an intimidating sight to see before jumping in. However, once in the water, the waves were far less burdensome than I expected. The water was significantly deeper than any other region we have been before. The reef was ~70’ down, but it boarded a significant drop far deeper than I could see. There was a beautiful school of blue fish that we were able to swim through, and the water was littered with small translucent and barely glowing ctenophore. There were massive colonies of stony corals just below us. I would imagine they’re many of the same species I encountered in the lagoon, but were able to grow to larger scales because of the deeper conditions. In the shallow patch reefs, the corals have to contend with very bright light, harsh UV, and warmer temperatures. Yet although these colonies were larger, there were still obvious signs of disease. The distance was too far to see any detail, but the lesions were quite evident from above. I truly love how throughout this trip we continue to explore new places each time.
After returning back to land, we worked to clean up debris from some of the beaches of the island. Although messy, we collected, sorted, and analyzed the trash which accumulates on the shores. The debris either has to be disposed of on-site or shipped back to land, and it was quite interesting to learn that they burn everything possible (including plastic). Between this activity and Nate’s excellent talk describing marine debris, it left me questioning my participation in convenience consumerism. Every toothbrush, bottle cap, plastic container, bag, and more will continue to persist in the environment for hundreds of years. In this afternoon’s lecture, a chart showing the largest marine plastic polluting countries in the world were not the largest plastic consumers. The west appears to have superior management of waste, yet western countries continue to ship single-use plastic waste to other regions of the world for “recycling.” Yet in many of these cases, it’s this plastic that is ending up in the oceans. So who is truly to blame? The countries where the trash is released into waterways due to relatively poor management, or the western countries which ship their waste out of sight with the facade of recycling to lessen the social shame of convenience consumerism.
Just before dinner, we saw the rare sight of a hermit crab changing shells. Watching it shift its squirmy shrimp-like body from one shell to another was fascinating yet a bit unnerving. During dinner, one of our Marine Safety Officers Ruth gave us an in-depth information session about Belizean history and her career path to being here helping us. It was super fun, and I hope to find a career I am in love with like she is with hers. But on that note, I am now questioning what aspect of biology I want to pursue. I have always planned on going into medicine, but my experience during college has pushed me towards a love of research. I understand that most research is not like this, out on a gorgeous island, yet I wonder if research overall is something I would rather do than dermatology. Studying papers and information about coral diseases was a great time, and I think fulfilled much of the same curiosity I am hoping to satisfy with a career in medicine. But understandably no one wants a truly creative doctor, as medicine has some pretty ridged defined boundaries for most disciplines. Yet the goal of research itself is to push our current boundary of knowledge and make the unknown known. Depending on how the rest of my time at Rice goes, I could see what I thought as my career path shift in the direction of scientific and/or pre-clinical research. Overall, this class continues to be an incredible and influential experience.
