Tag Archives: WCS

In Pursuit of Parrotfish (5/26)

Hey y’all!

Up bright and early today for a nice head start along with all of the resident hermit crabs and Spiny Iguanas!

We planned our first project after breakfast: following different kinds of Parrotfish (fish that actually do have beaks to eat algae and coral) and keeping track of what they eat.

We headed out in the morning to the patch reef closest to us for the first study site. I saw a whole bunch of the Striped Parrotfish swimming in groups while eating at the coral algae and the seagrass. I have to say, filming and taking pictures underwater is a bit trickier than I thought, so I apologize for the videos and pictures to come, but I think I am getting a bit better at it.

(Striped Parrotfish: Black and white stripes with yellow mouth; Beaugregory: Yellow body with purple top)

We continued this study into the afternoon in two more locations off of Glover’s Reef. While I did see a lot of Striped Parrotfish, I was finding so many Damselfish of different kinds! I think I saw mostly adult Threespot Damselfish (brown with a yellow eyebrow above either eye), Bicolor Damselfish (which are actually three colors–black, white, and yellow–in Belize), and young Threespot Damselfish (yellow with big black spots on their back and tail). I’ll work on getting more pictures of them.

(Threespot Damselfish)

After dinner, we got special presentations from Mr. Kenneth–the manager of Glover’s Reef station– about the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), as well as the marine biologist of the team from the Fisheries Department for Belize, and the Belize Coast Guard. It was really cool to learn how they all work together to protect and learn about the wildlife in the islands around Glover’s Reef!

(Left to right: Mr. Kenneth, Dr. Kory Evans, and Dr. Scott Solomon)

Day 11: Parrotfish Diet Exploration

Today we did our first experiment out on the reef. After breakfast, we got together and designed the experiment. First, we formulated our question by brainstorming the things we had been curious about from our previous day out on the reef. We settled on parrotfish partially because we had been seeing a lot of them and partially because they seem particularly interesting. We decided to do fish follow surveys in which we pick an individual and observe them for a period of time, recording what they do in that interval. We were looking at their eating habits in particular, which are a bit hard to pin down. We ended up deciding to watch the fish for a total of 45 minutes, following individuals for five minutes at a time. Our first location in the morning was the patch reef and sea grass beds just off the docks, and in the afternoon we looked at patch reefs further out.

With our experimental designed, we had to pick our subjects to narrow down our focus. We opted to look at four species in particular and divided them up among the different groups. My group was looking at their redtail parrotfish, which we understood predominantly ate sea grass. We set out, staked out the sea grass beds by the dock, and started our time. We had trouble finding parrotfish close to the dock, so we kept swimming further out. As we got further from the dock (and closer to the reef), we started seeing more parrotfish, but not the ones we were looking for. We primarily saw striped parrotfish

In order to have replicates, in the afternoon, we went on the boat to a new patch reef. As an aside, we learned today that Glover’s has over 900 patch reefs, so I ill be saying ‘we visited a new patch reef’ quite a lot. We visited two patch reefs and they both seemed even more vibrant than the reef by the dock at Glover’s. We saw plenty more striped parrotfish in decently sized schools and were also able to see some of the redtail parrotfish as well. They seemed more concentrated on the margin of the reef, but they definitely were eating the sea grass. We also saw a fair number predatory fish, including a handful of barracudas. I think we started to see more species once we figured out not to swim so aggressively and instead to sort fo drift. We weren’t seeing the redtail parrotfish before because they were so skittish, but once we started drifting we saw all kinds of fish. I was also fairly impressed by the massive conchs.

In the evening, we were treated to presentations by representatives from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Belizean fisheries service, and the coast guard, all of which operate out of this island. We learned about what each group does on the island and how the protected area is maintained. It was a nice compliment to the similar presentation we had at Las Cuevas. That might be one of the most valuable aspects of this trip, to me—learning all about how research stations operate and what researchers do there.

Overall, a hugely successful day! We’ll start tomorrow with data analysis and poster making from our fish follow surveys, and then move on to more activities. Apparently we’re not doing as much snorkeling tomorrow, but I’m excited to see what activities are in store on land.

Parrotfish swimming along coral and sea grass
Initial-stage parrotfish! Can you spot them?

Day 9

While some may not enjoy days in which we spend most the time in various forms of transportation, especially because they always seem to fail us, I find it to be very calming. After leaving The Education Center Lodge a bit late (classic), we drove across the country yet again to Belize City. I was very surprised as to how small it was, especially seeing as the two cities I live in are Houston and Philadelphia.
Anyway, the next challenge that we had to overcome was the boat ride to the actual marine sanctuary. I was a bit worried about the seasickness. I have previously experienced this on a ferry. In the end, it was not a big deal, a pleasant experience. I am now looking forward to being on the boat as we go on to explore the rest of the patch reefs.
The rest of the day was spent getting acquainted with the research station and the nearby sea grass beds. I immediately saw my taxonomic group (soft corals). My initial impression was that Gorgonia ventalina is extremely common the patch reefs. I also saw many other soft corals, including Briareum asbestinum and several species of sea rod.