Research Dives

Data collection for independent research begins.

Dive 1: Research buddy's dive. We went to about 30 feet and laid a 30 meter transect to conduct a fish survey and Diadema (sea urchin) survey. It went really well even though we didn't see the species he was looking for. I got to see 2 spotted drum fish, which are really cool fish. 

Dive 2: My research project. Today's dive was testing out all the methods I will be using during the duration of the project to see how long it will possible take me to gather data so I can have a better idea when planning my dives. So, I started off with a fish survey for about 5 minutes recording the different fish species and sessile invertebrates. After the fish survey, we laid rugosity transects. This was an interesting task to accomplish. I had to really keep track of my buoyancy because I was carrying a lead rope while unwinding it. Therefore, I had to have just the right amount of air in my BCD and adjust my position with my lung volume. The final step was to take photo quadrat samples so I can determine coral cover and algae cover. Overall, it was a very successful dive.

3 More Dives in the Books

Another 3 dives recorded. Today we started at 8:30 and ended at 5:00. We had a 30 minute brief before we started diving and had two surface intervals, one for an hour and the second for 2 hours. Otherwise, we were in the water any where from 5 feet to 60 feet.

Dive 1: AGRRA fish survey. Just as yesterday, we did a fish survey looking at specific families and functional groups. However, we were at a different dive site. We walked about 10 minutes with all our gear to Something Special dive site. It was cool getting to see another part of the reef besides at the Yellow Submarine dive site (practically out our backdoor). We saw a moon jellyfish before we even descended. Once we were down and headed to the reef slope, my buddy and I saw a group of 5 Queen angelfish. On this dive, I was about 45 feet down.

Dive 2: Coral Survey. We laid a 10m transect to conduct a one pass survey using a 1m belt to identify, measure, and note any beaching, disease or dead corals. Corals had to be greater than 4cm to be recorded. Depending on time and air, we had switch to just identify the coral and tallying the number seen. At the safety stop at the end of the dive, I was hovering over a flounder, which was cool. Also, when I was surveying, a bar jack swam right next to my face where I could have touched him if he didn't all of a sudden appear.

Dive 3: Navigation and rescue skills. Navigation skills included using the compass to swim a box and triangle. We then did a few different search patterns. Switching over to rescue skills, we did buddy breathing where one buddy is pretending to be out of air and we share one regulator. We did this a few times then we did it where the out of air buddy did not have their mask on. This is were trust in our buddy comes in. One person breathes twice then the other person breathes twice. After buddy breathing we did a few other rescue skills dealing with exhausted swimmer (where I almost touched a flounder), a non-breathing victim at the surface, and panic diver at the surface.

1, 2, 3 Dives Today

Dive 1: Buoyancy dive to get familiar with toting around a bunch of gear to collect data. We also, practiced laying transects. This dive was a good way to get us ready for our next two dives.

Dive 2: AGRRA fish survey and maximum relief. AGRRA fish surveys look at certain families and functional groups of fish species. These species are used as bioindicators of the health of the reef system. We laid a 30m transect and recorded fish that passed through our 2m belt. After observing the fish, we measured the maximum relief every 5m on the transect by looking at 1m radius and recording the tallest hard coral.

Dive 3: AGRRA Benthic Survey. We laid a 10m transect to do three different passes on. The first pass we were measuring benthic cover using a line point intercept method. Every 10cm we looked at the substratum and recorded what we saw. We identified coral, algae and other calcifiers. For the algae, we also measured the height. The second pass we laid down 25cm x 25cm quadrats every 2m and counted the number of coral recruits that were less than or equal to 2cm as well as the dominant substratum. The third and final pass we were looking at motile invertebrates, lionfish, and trash. We were looking for sea urchins, spiny lobsters, Queen conch, and lionfish recording the number we saw in a 1m belt. We did not complete all the passes because we ran low on air.

Overall, today was a blast. Why wouldn’t it be? I got to spend all day in the water minus during our surface intervals to change out tanks, refuel on water, and talk about the next dive. Again, tomorrow will be a full day of diving. SO EXCITING!

Independent Research Project Proposal

Spent a majority of the day finishing up my independent research project proposal to submit to my advisors. The two questions I am addressing are: 1) how does habitat structure and topographic complexity influence species diversity and abundance and 2) how does the cover and diversity of algae communities' impact habitat structure and topographic complexity? I will be collecting data on fish species, invertebrate species, coral species, algae species, and rugosity. Data collection starts this week, so I will be in the water for the next few weeks at least twice a week. In reality, it will be more because we will have class assignments requiring us to dive. I will also be helping my research buddy collect his data on sea urchins. 

For my study break, I went snorkeling for 45 minutes to clear my head and get some sun.

Preview for this week: 
- Monday: 3 dives
- Tuesday: 3 dives
- Wednesday: 1 dive
- Thursday: Guest lecture by National Geographic people that have been living with us
- Friday: 2 dives

Taste of Bonaire & Jellyfish

Today mainly was spent doing homework getting everything that is due on Sunday night done. Before I got started on my work, I went on a walk to enjoy the island for a little bit and explore some other beaches. The views are amazing and being by the ocean listening to the water is so peaceful to me. It was a great way to begin the day and gave me motivation that allowed me to finished a majority of my homework. All that is left is making edits on my research proposal and writing up my research and dive plans. To round out the day, I took the evening off from working and went and enjoyed the last Taste of Bonaire festival for the rest of the year. At the Taste of Bonaire, they have a bunch of food vendors and gift vendors along with music and dancing. It is a great way to experience the community here on the island. This was my second time going to the festival with the first time being the first week I arrived here.

After walking around for a while and tasting some of the delicious food, I headed back to the residence hall with one of my friends and ran into one of the interns working on his research project. He collects winged box jellyfish (Alatina alata) to measure and extract the gonads in an attempt to determine the reproductive population here on the island. He collects the jellyfish during spawning when they come up into the shallow waters 8-10 after the full moon. I got to weigh the jellyfish and even extract some of the gonads. It was a slow night only catching and releasing eight jellies.

Coral Spawning

To round out another good week of classes, the class had the opportunity to go on a night dive to check out coral spawning. Before we headed out on our night dive, I got to enjoy another beautiful sunset. We started our dive at 9:30pm and got back around 10:30pm going to a depth around 35-40 feet. During the whole dive we saw both female and male coral spawn. The female spawning is easier to see because the eggs are more visible than the sperm. When the males spawn, it looks like a dust and is hard to distinguish if you don't really know what it looks like because you can confuse it with some of the other things floating in the water. I for sure saw a female coral spawn and I believe I saw a male spawning event but it was a small one and was a little hard to distinguish. If you want to see what I saw last night check out this link Coral Spawning. The spawning I saw was not as big as what was shown in the video and could have easily been missed. Spawning events happen at specific times and are synchronized because the male sperm cannot survive as long as the eggs. So there are mass spawning events, which occur after a full moon and when water temperatures are warm enough to stimulate maturation of the gametes.

Besides seeing some coral spawning, I saw a bunch of trumpetfish hanging around sponge corals. I was so close to some of them that it seemed like I could have touched them. Crabs were spotted walking on the corals in and out of crevices. Spotted a balloonfish and at one point it started to swim straight at me but then decided to veer off. Every time I go diving I see something new and exciting! It is also so peacefully diving and is hard to put into words the feeling that I have. When I find the right words I will share the feeling.

Trumpetfish 

Coral Sundaes

Today, we spent most of our class time learning about coral biology, reproduction, and reef ecosystems. To apply all that we had learned today, we made coral sundaes. So, we were given a small tub of ice cream and a variety of toppings. Our goal for our sundae was to include as many of the following components: disease, a mucus layer, an exoskeleton, zooxanthellae, internal bioerosion, external bioerosion, predation, biofilm, and mortality. Below is the sundae that my pattern and I made. It looked better as we made it but by the time they got around to taking a picture, it had melted some. We included all the components minus the biofilm; however, biofilm could be displayed by the carmel along with the mucus layer. The chocolate represented black band disease and an internal bioerosion and the area with no toppings is the mortality (these are hard to see in the angle of this picture). The red licorice is the exoskeleton, sprinkles are external bioerosion, and green sugar is the zooxanthellae (single-celled protozoans that are able to live in symbiosis with corals). To top it off we displayed a fish for predation. This was a fun activity incorporating all that we have learned today in class. After the instructors judged us, we got to eat our sundae creations. My pattern and I placed third.

Independent Research Project

Today, we spent a majority of the day working on our proposals for our independent research project. For my project, I am going to be looking at how habitat structure and topographic complexity influences fish, non-coral invertebrates and algae communities. I will also be looking at coral communities but they are part of what determines the topographic complexity and habitat structure.  This project will allow me to look at multiple components of coral reef systems, which is exciting!

Dry Run Dives

This afternoon, we learned about AGRRA benthic and coral survey methods.  After going through the methods and the data sheets we will be using, we went outside and did dry runs of going through all the steps. We practiced setting up the transects and going through the different passes we have to do along the transects. The first time we do this underwater will be interesting because we will have a bunch of extra equipment making it very important to control our buoyancy and checking air pressures. Doing the dry runs allows us to see how it will potentially work even though nothing is the same as it will be doing it for real. However, going through the dry runs gives us an idea of what to expect and allowed us to ask clarifying questions. The whole dry run minus the questions we had to do without talking to our dive buddy. We had to communicate using all the hand signals to check air, depth, how we are doing, etc. Next week, we will have our dives implementing these techniques, which will be very interesting because buoyancy is very important. Our instructors say that we will probably go through our air a lot quicker than we normally are use to because there is a lot more we are doing than just swimming looking at corals, fish, invertebrates, etc.

 

Underwater Classroom

Today, we spent our afternoon underwater survey fish to calculate a Simpson's Index for species diversity. We look at the reef crest and reef slope. For 20 minutes, we swam at a depth of 40 feet tallying the different species of fish we saw on the reef slope. After 20 minutes, we ascended to 15 feet to survey the reef crest. We swam along the reef crest for the same amount of time and at a constant depth. With the data collected, we will then input our data into the computer and calculate the Simpson's Index to determine the species diversity at these two different depths and positions on the reef.

This is a possible research method that we could use for our own independent research projects that we will be starting in the next couple of weeks. We are in the beginning stages of planning our research projects, which entails developing a proposal to present to our class and advisors.

In one of the upcoming posts, I will describe to you what I am planning on doing for my project. I want to wait until after the proposal is completed so I can incorporate any ideas that my peers may have.

International Coastal Cleanup Day!

This morning we volunteered and helped clean up one of the beaches here on Bonaire. We spent around 2-3 hours picking up mainly plastic trash on playa grandi. We filled about 100 large bags full of plastic with an average estimated weight of 10 kilograms per bag. It is amazing how much plastic trash and other trash has washed up on the shore. We barely made a dent in all the trash that was on the beach. We probably could have filled up a lot more trash bags with other trash besides plastic.

I challenge all those who have been reading my blog to one day go about your day as usually, but think about everything that you use and what all has plastic in it. Can we live a plastic free life? Make a comment with how many things you use in a day that contains plastic. We did a similar assignment for class going through everything we brought with us. I wasn't to surprised at how many of my belonging contained plastic, but it still opened up my eyes to how dependent we are on plastic. Our next step to this assignment is to find an alternative product that does not contain plastic but provides the same benefit of the product that does contain plastic.

Swimming with the Fishes

What better way to start the weekend than going swimming in the ocean especially after being inside all day for classes. In class, we did our DAN First Aid Training. We did a bunch of hands-on skills practicing what our instructors was teaching us. So, it was nice to get outside and go for a swim. We just swam around looking at fish and corals. We had a school of Brown Chromis swimming below us and I was even able to swim through them (SO COOL!). There were two French Angelfish that were close by swimming around us and checking us out. Some of us got fairly close to them when diving down to get a closer look at them. A few other cool sighting on the swim were seeing a small barracuda and a spotted eagle ray. A barely caught a glimpse of the eagle ray as it was low on the coral reef away from us. I just floated and watched as it disappeared into the blue of the ocean. To top off the evening swim in the ocean, we watched the sunset as we casually swam back to shore.

I still can't believe that I have been living here in the Caribbean for the past three weeks. It feels like I have been here so much long. I don't see it getting old having the ocean right next door and having the opportunity to go explore the underwater world every single day. You see similar things everyday, but there is always something new to see. This has been a very valuable semester thus far and I only see it continuing to be rewarding.

Maximum Depth...100ft

Today, we went on our deep dive for class. Before we geared up we had a pre-dive meeting to talk about some of the risks. The point our instructors really stressed was our air. They had us walk a few lengths of the classroom equivalent to the depth of the dive while holding our breath. The purpose of this was to show us what it might feel like if we ran out of air while diving and still had to ascend. To prevent running out of air, we work in thirds meaning that we use a 1000 PSI of air on the descent and bottom time, a 1000 PSI for the ascent, and have a 1000 PSI reserve. We went over hand signals and talked about nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis is the sensation similar to being under the influence of alcohol, which is caused by breathing air under higher pressure. When at depth, our dive leader had us do a simple math calculation to see if we were feeling the nitrogen narcosis. The simple calculation involved him holding up 0 to 5 fingers and we had to respond with the number to equal a total of five. I did not feel the effects of nitrogen narcosis but it was there. Anything over 70 feet, nitrogen narcosis is going to occur but everyone feels the effects differently.

We got to see the difference in the color because our dive leader took a card with different colors on it down with him to show us. All the colors appeared duller because less light is penetrating through the water. Red was especially affected.

The coral reef was beautiful and appeared healthier. As to why it appeared healthier, I am not sure. Obviously, conditions are different and factors that influence corals in the shallower depths may not affect corals at deeper depths. Or, It could be that there are fewer divers visiting the reef at deeper depths. I'm uncertain and our dive leader doesn't know the answer. I didn't see any different fish or coral species than when shallower. I would have loved to see a longsnout butterflyfish because they tend to live deeper than at the normal depths we have been diving at 50ft. I would love to go back down to that depth to explore more!

Overall, today was a ton of FUN!

Terramar Museum

Today, we went to the Terramar Museum to learn more about the history of Bonaire along with all the Caribbean islands. The museum just opened here recently. In the museum, about 7,000 years are covered throughout the exhibits starting in 5,000 BC. Some of the interesting facts I learned today are:

• Agriculture and ceramic pots are closely linked. As the people started farm, there was excess food that needed to be stored, thus, they started making ceramic pots.
• When cooking food they had a dish called the griddle, which they cooked on. The bottom of the griddle was irregular to increase surface area to increase the heat. However, the top was smooth because the heat needed to be distributed evenly for cooking.
• There were a few individuals in the community called ‘shamans’ who talked with the spirits (this is related to religion and believing in multiple gods). Everything was believed to have a spirit. The shamans inhabited two worlds, the caves and the land. The caves were where they talked to the spirits and the land is where they interacted with the community. Three of the animals that were used a lot as symbols were turtles, bats, and frogs because they all live in two different worlds (in a sense, turtles & frogs – land and water, bats – land and caves).
• There has been evidence of large exchange networks throughout the Caribbean islands, which can be seen through the different artifacts found on the islands. If the origin of the artifact is known, people can make inferences at how the object made its way to a different island. With evidence showing that there were large exchange networks, the ocean connects all the islands rather than separate and isolate the islands from each other.

Curaçao Trip

For the last two days we have been in Curaçao exploring the island and reef. We started bright and early on Monday at 5:30am. Our flight from Bonaire was in a small plane that held eight passengers plus the pilot. When we arrived in Curaçao, we were the first group to go through their new arrival terminal.

A few hours after we arrived at the resort, we went on a submarine trip with Substation Curaçao. The submarine held four passengers plus the driver. We went to a depth of 553 feet seeing a ton of fish and coral. The fish appeared a lot smaller than they actually are because of the curvature of the windows. On the way down, we passed the thermocline, which the water appeared to be wavy similar to when you see heat waves rising off the pavement in the distance. I believe the thermocline was around 180-250 feet. We spent about an 1.5 hours in the sub. On top of seeing the amazing depths of the ocean, we got to see what the pressure did to styrofoam cups. Before we boarded the sub, we decorated a styrofoam cup and placed it on the outside of the sub. When we arrive back at the surface, our cups had shrunk to the size of a shot glass.

Photo Credit: Substation Curaçao

After we explored the underwater world for a while, we then went to the sea aquarium. It wasn't a big aquarium but got to see more of the marine life that live in the Caribbean that I have yet to see while snorkeling or SCUBA diving.

While on this trip, we did have a class assignment, which was to go snorkeling and take pictures of invertebrates. We worked in small groups and we found 30 or more different species with one of them being the Queen Conch.

On Tuesday (today), we got to explore the area around the resort while the rest of our group finished their submarine ride. After everyone was done, we went on a tour of Curaçao stopping at the Curaçao Liqueur Distillery and a few sightseeing areas. We then went to the airport to drop off the first group to head back to Bonaire. Once they were set, the rest of us went back into the city and got a late lunch and explored more of Curaçao. Around 5:00pm, we headed back to the airport to wait for our flight to board. We almost ended up missing our flight, but we didn't and now I am back in Bonaire.

Klein Bonaire

This afternoon, a group of us went out to Klein Bonaire, which is small uninhabited island off the west coast of Bonaire. We took a water taxi out there and snorkeled for a couple of hours. Saw a bunch of fish along with some new ones that I have yet to see. On top of all the fish swimming around, there was a ton of blade fire coral. I had a close call to touching it and had one of my friends pull me a way from it since I was floating right above it after taking off my snorkel gear and relaxing in the shallows. The waves were moving us around a lot and I ended up floating closer to this fire coral than I was anticipating.

Bar Jack

Honeycomb cowfish

Trumpetfish

Yellowtail damselfish

Yellowtail damselfish - juvenile

Orangespotted filefish

Stoplight parrotfish

Blueheaded wrasse, whitespotted filefish

Smooth trunkfish

Scrawled filefish

Blackball soldierfish