Recycled Halloween in Bonaire

Even though I am not in the United States, we still celebrated Halloween. Our costumes had to incorporate some kind of recycled component. In one of our classes, we have been learning about the amount of different waste that enters into the marine environment and how long it takes to decompose. So, our challenge was to make a Halloween costume that was recycled or reused to reduce our usage of new material. My friend, Heidi, and I decided to go as dive sites. Yellow rocks with the name mark the dive sites.

It only seems fitting to go as the dive sites we
have been diving at all semester for Halloween!

We even had a party at the research station playing different games. We played ghost musical chairs where we were blind folded and had to find our chairs by feel once the music was turned off. This was quite interesting because we kept walking into each other in search of chairs. We finished off the night by playing charades acting out Halloween activities or movies. Some of the options were quite difficult to act out, which made the game that much more fun. 

Happy Halloween what a 'Spook'tacular evening!

First Boat Dive on Klein Bonaire

Today, I became a certified coral restorationist. For the past two Sundays, I have been taking a dive class to learn the different techniques used for coral restoration. Last Sunday was on overview of what we will be learning and doing dry runs of the different techniques. We also completed one of the three dives required for the certification. So this Sunday, we completed the last two dives. The first dive was a boat dive out on the coral reef off of Klein Bonaire. We spent about 80 minutes underwater pruning coral fragments and hanging them on the tree structures.

The second dive was back on the coast of Bonaire where we were transplanting larger coral fragments from the tree structures to the rebar structures. However, the structures we were placing the corals onto were bamboo because the Coral Restoration Foundation is switching from rebar to minimize pollution. Bamboo is a natural material and is flexible so it is able to move with the waves reducing the amount of damage caused by wave action. This dive lasted about 70 minutes and was a little more difficult because we had to deal with the surge. The surge kept moving us around so we were unable to stay in one location and had to work harder to stay in the location we needed to be at. At times, I ended up using my legs to hold onto a dead piece of coral holding me in place, which worked really well.

Besides helping with the coral restoration efforts here on Bonaire, we got to see some cool marine life. Out on Klein we saw a sea turtle up close and personal, two southern stingrays, and a sand tilefish.

Data Collection Complete

My research buddy, Brian, and I at our safety stop

After five weeks of data collection for our independent research project, we had our last collection dives. For my project, I just had to get some logistical data, which only took about 20 minutes. However, I planned my dive for an hour and gave us a deeper maximum depth, so we could go explore the reef slope. This was a great way to celebrate the end of data collection in preparation for data analysis and writing our research paper. It was amazing to get to enjoy the reef slope without having an assignment associated with the dive.

Measuring rugosity

Banded coral shrimp

Spotted drum fish

French angelfish

Smallmouth grunts

Rincon Walking Tour

Rincon is the oldest village on Bonaire being established back around the 1500s. It was strategically placed so the village could not be seen from the ocean providing protection from threats. This area also had suitable land to grow a few crops as well as had access to fresh water.

We received a tour from a local lady, Maria, who took us around the "business part" of the village and out into neighboring areas. Walking in the neighboring areas, we got to see more of the "really" Rincon, which is not fully influenced by tourism. Houses were simple designs and multiple generations live under the same roof. Family is important here and if a member is financially struggling the family will help out. Everyone has a roof over there head and the basic necessities of life. For some families to keep their house, they need to have multiple family members living in the house to afford all the bills. Minimum wage is just below $5.00 per hour and when scaled up to a monthly salary, it is well below the average cost of monthly bills.

Rincon local
Photo Credit: Brian Anschel (classmate)

Enjoying the view of Rincon

The local Catholic church

Observing Fish Behavior

On today's dive, we went out to observe the behavior of the threespot damselfish. In general, damselfish species are territorial, thus show aggression towards other fish species when in close proximity to their territory. We each had to local an individual threespot damselfish guarding it's own area, which is usually an algae garden. Once we located a fish, we observed for a few minutes to figure out how big their territory was, so we could place a 50cm bar in the middle to help in determining the distance the fish would travel to attack an approaching fish. After placing the bar, we waited five minutes to allow the fish to acclimate to the disturbance and tour presence. When this period was over, we began recording the number of attacks with the estimated distance the fish would travel. We also recorded the number of fish that were able to be within the damselfish's territory without being attacked. This observation period lasted for 30 minutes. When this was completed we headed back to the surface to start data analysis.

Mangrove Adventures

After learning about mangrove and seagrass meadows the other day, we went and spent the morning exploring these habitats. We began our adventure at the Mangrove Information Center where we met up with our kayak tour guide. We were given a quick brief of what we were going to be doing since we did not have to do an overview of what mangroves are and their role in the ecosystem. One interesting thing we learned that was not directly related to mangroves was that the mural used to talk about mangroves had a 3D effect. So, we were given 3D glasses to see this effect. The brochures even were 3D, which most people do not know.

Following the briefing, we headed to the kayaks to explore the mangroves. Right off the bat, we entered into a tunnel of mangrove roots, which was slightly difficult to maneuver because the paddles were a bit too big. However, we managed to work our way through the tunnel into an open area. We continued to go through narrow passages to different open areas. So by the end, we were efficient at navigating through tight spaces.

After an hour or so, we reach a small bay, Puitu, to go snorkeling. We tied up the kayaks and snorkeled through a narrow passage to the small open bay. During this time, we were looking at epiphytes (i.e. plants that grow on other plants without harming it) and marine life. We saw a lot of juvenile fish species given that mangroves act as nurseries. A new species that we saw today were Cassiopea (upside down jellyfish). An hour later, we swam back to the kayaks to head back.

Shortly on our journey back to the center, we got into kayak wars. This was occurring throughout the whole trip but hit a high when we were leaving. We were trying to tip each other out of our kayaks, with some being more successful than others. I was on both sides. My kayak buddy and I tipped one of the groups, which in turn got us shortly after with the help of another group. Overall, today was a very fun day!

Kayaking with Heidi

One of the many narrow passages

Cassiopea

Moray Eels and Sea Turtles

As usual, my Wednesday was spent working on my independent research project. This was my last data collection dive. It went well for the most part; however, right at the start, I lost my pencil. Luckily, I had an extra one in my BCD pocket. After this minor hiccup, the data collection went smoothly. About three-fourths of the way into the dive, I was startled by a moral eel. I was taking notes on my slate and when I looked down I was inches above a 3-4 foot moray eel. A few minutes earlier, I had seen a smaller moray eel swimming around, so I was aware that there were eels around. However, I wasn't expecting the bigger one to appear.

Before my dive, I went on my research buddy's dive and saw a sea turtle swimming around. The turtle swam right under me minding it's own business gliding effortless through the water. Diving helps give a person perspective at what it's like to be a marine animal. Granted, we will never fully understand marine animals but it is a step closer than before the invention of SCUBA diving. 

It is amazing how fast time goes when underwater. Both my buddy's dive and mine are planned for over an hour, but it never seems like we are underwater for that amount of time. Time seems to move at a different pace. There is so much to see that one does not even think about time. However, we are always aware of the time because we have to constantly check our dive computers for air pressure, depth, and bottom time. 

Marine Nurseries

Mangroves and seagrass meadows are important habitats from marine life. These habitats act as nurseries for many different species providing protection for juvenile stages. Besides the role these habitats play for marine life, they are important for the environment as a whole. Mangroves and seagrass meadows play a key role when talking about climate change. These habitats can capture a ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it. However, these habitats are declining by 2-7% annually due to coastal development. 

Fun Facts

• Mangrove soils do not have a maximum storage capacity allowing for continuous storage of carbon.
• Seagrass meadows accounts for 11% of the ocean’s total carbon storage.
• For each hectare of seagrass meadows, twice the amount of CO2 is held compared to rainforest.
• 1 m2 of seagrass produces 10L of oxygen per day.

Coral Restoration Dives

Spent this fine Sunday learning about coral restoration for a specialized dive certification. Through this program, I will be taught the different techniques used here on Bonaire to restore Elkhorn and Staghorn corals. These two species are endangered species and are not commonly found. Through the Coral Restoration Foundation, nurseries were developed to grow these coral species to transplant onto natural coral reefs.

Today we talked about all the different methods and what we would be doing on our first dive. During the first dive we went to clean the tree structures that coral fragments are hung on. By cleaning the structure, algae and other species are removed to reduce competition. Once the structures were cleaned, we got to hang coral fragments on the structure. We took finger length pieces of coral and attached filament to them. The first piece I worked on, I cut through the little clamp that was use to secure the filament to the coral. I misjudged my strength. After we attached the filament to the coral fragments, we took another clamp and threaded the filament through holes on the tree structure using the clamp to hold the filament in place. After we hung all the coral fragments, we went into the rebar structures to remove snails and fireworms from the coral. There can be a lot of snails in one location because they stack on top of each other. We didn't do this for very long because this was just an introduction to what we will be doing on our second dive. It sounds like our second dive will be out on the restoration site on Klein Bonaire.

Check out the Coral Restoration Foundation Bonaire website to learn more about their efforts here on the island.

Busy Saturday

As with the last several Saturdays, today was spent working on my independent research project. I start around 10:00am working on my photo analysis. At the beginning of my data collection, I took photos of my study sites to take back to the lab to determine percent coral and algae cover. There are 48 photos I have to analyze and I am three-fourths of the way done. I am using a program that allows me to find the area of the multiple things to determine percentages. Besides analyzing photos, I began editing my project proposal for my introduction and methods section of my final paper. At 5:30pm, I began diving for the evening. I went on two dives to collect data for my research buddy's project and mine. Both dives went really well. However, at the end of my dive, I wasn't watching where I placed part of my hand on the sand flats and got stung by a fireworm one of my fingers. Nothing too serious, just a slight annoyance.

Ostracod Bioluminescence Dive

Earlier this week, we learned about bioluminescence, which is a process where an organism produces and emits light created from a chemical reaction. There are multiple theories (4 Fs) as to why organisms may use bioluminescence.

• Feeding - to attract prey 
• Fleeing - to evade predators 
• Fighting - to communicate within their species
• Flirting - to attract mate

There are also multiple strategies used that are either defensive of offensive actions. An example of a defensive strategy is to misdirect predators using bioluminescence, which is when an organism can produce a smoke screen directing the predator away from them in order to escape. An offensive strategy example is using bioluminescence to lure prey.

Tonight, we got to go on a dive to see bioluminescence along the reef. We saw ostracod's as they were performing their mating displays. The displays moved vertically up in the water column, where the males are producing a series of flashes to attract females. Males may lead, entrain, or sneak. Males that lead are the first of the night to start displaying, whereas, a male who entrains is competing with the leading males by producing displays parallel to other males. A male who sneaks does not display but follows close to another male in hopes of intercepting the female. During the dive, I saw both males that lead and entrain but no sneakers (you cannot see them). 

It was a cool experience to see these mating displays in nature. Along with the learning aspect of this dive, being suspended in the water in almost complete darkness hovering in one spot waiting for the ostracods to start their mating displays was alluring. Not being able to see anything besides shadows and little blue lights flashing every so often created this mysteriousness that was welcoming. There was nothing to fear as we waited for nature to show us something that not many people get to see. It's hard to explain the experience and the emotions that I feel when I am diving because words do not seem to do the adventure justice. Hopefully, by the end of my time here in Bonaire I will find the right words to describe the feeling I have when diving.

Invertebrate Surveys at Night

Today was another day working on my research project and was different then usually. The objective of my dive was to do invertebrate surveys instead of fish surveys. I did the survey at night and you may be wondering how that is possible and why not do it during the day. To start off, I have been looking at invertebrates during my fish surveys but there just is not a lot out during the day. So, I used a blue light to make some of the invertebrates fluoresce, mainly the fireworms. This made counting the fireworms easy because they stood out. I also used a regular flashlight to look for other invertebrates that did not fluoresce. I saw three different types of crabs as well as sea urchins. The dive went fairly smoothly up until the very end when my blue light started to die. For the whole dive, I was able to use the blue light as a regular light when I needed too because there was a yellow filter lens on it. So, when the flashlight started to die, I ended up using my backup light to alternate between the two lights to conserve the blue light. It all worked out where I finished all my surveys without the light dying.

During one of the surveys, I saw a big spotted moray eel swimming around the blocks after I had finished up the survey.

REEF Survey and Fluorescence

Today was a very busy yet amazing day. We went on two completely different dives. The first dive was to conduct a different fish survey than the AGRRA fish survey that was explained earlier. The fish survey conducted today was a REEF survey. This is a roving diver survey allowing the diver to swim freely along the reef without setting up a transect. This made the dive feel more recreational because we got to look at all the fish and not just specific species. The purpose of this survey is to record all the different fish species observed during the dive along with an estimated abundance of each species. Since divers are encouraged to record as many species as they can, the diver gets to look throughout the whole water column as well as under ledges and in holes and crevices. There are four different abundance categories [single (1), few (2-10), many (11-100) and abundant (>100). This is not an easily repeatable method because there is a lot of observer bias. However, it does provide some information at what species can be found in an area. The coolest fish that I saw today was the peacock flounder.

Our second dive of the day was a night dive to look at fluorescence. Fluorescence is when one wavelength of light is absorbed by an object and remits light at a different wavelength. To see fluorescence, a blue light and yellow filer needs to be used. The yellow filter is placed over the mask to block the blue light that is bounced off the object allowing only the fluorescing object to be seen. We saw a ton of corals fluorescing along with anemones, fireworms, and even a fish. The fish we saw was a sand diver and I even got to touch it. Seeing the fireworms was cool because they fluoresced a green and orange color. Corals mainly fluoresced in green except of one, which was orange. I found the coral with the orange interesting. The coral was Undaria agaricites and there were just a ton of orange dots creating interesting patterns. 

Fluorescence of an anemone.
Photo Credit: Shannon Richardson (classmate)

Surveys, Surveys, Surveys

More independent research project data collection on this fine Saturday. Same procedures as the previous weeks. Can't complain how I get to spend my Saturdays even though I am doing work. I only have two more weeks of data collection, and then I get to analyze all the data.

Queen angelfish

Juvenile Queen angelfish

School of mahogany snapper

Diadema antillarum

Spotfin butterflyfish

Jam Session!

Halfway through my education abroad experience! This week was a busy week studying and taking midterms. Today was my last exam, which was for my Tropical Marine Conservation Biology class. Out of all the exams this week, today's exam was the easiest. Again, this exam did not have an underwater portion. However, I made sure to get in the water. After the exam and lunch, a few of us went for a swim before our next class.

In class, we learned about local music. A local, Boy Janga, came in for the afternoon bringing in common instruments used in local music. There were seven different instruments:

1. bari (drum)
2. karko (a Queen conch shell used as a horn)
3. wiri (a steel tube with ridges and a steel bar)
4. two sticks (made from tree roots, can't remember what they were called)
5. bass
6. triangle
7. maracas 

Bass and bari in the upper right corner

He showed us how to play each of the instruments then let us play them for the rest of the afternoon. We started off with the karko. It was very difficult to do but I was able to make the correct sound once. Who would have thought that you could use a Queen conch shell as a musical instrument? I never did, but I have now attempted to produce music from the shell. We finally all had a different instrument and started a jam session. Boy Janga gave us a few different beats to try and we played fairly well. We all got our own solo in our jam session. Through this whole experience, we all had some good laughs especially when we all tried the karko, because that was the most difficult to play.

To finish off the day, we went to the Bonaire International Sailing Regatta. We didn't see any of the events given that it was night, but there was a little carnival, local food, and music. Hopefully, tomorrow we will be able to see some of the regatta during the day. There are a variety of sailing events as well as windsurfing.

Marine Style Scavenger Hunt

Spent all morning taking our Coral Reef Ecology midterm, which was the second exam of the week. This exam did not consist of an underwater portion; however, we did get in the water this afternoon. When we embarked on our dive, we were going on a scavenger hunt of sorts. We had to find 10 different occurrences of symbiosis or competition. Symbiosis occurrences could be a form of mutualism (both species are benefitted from the interaction), commensalism (one species benefits while other is neither harmed nor helped), or parasitism (one species benefits at the expense of the other species). Competition could be intraspecific (within species) or interspecific (between different species) competing for space, light, or food. We had 50 minutes to find these 10 occurrences with at least two of them being a form a symbiosis and two being competition. I was able to find an example of each of the different types of symbiosis and competition. To find some of the interactions, I had to get really close to the reef and change body position. I spent a good portion of the dive with my feet above me to look down into crevices or get really close to the floor without hitting the coral.

Some of what I saw:

• A sharknose goby in a purple tube sponge 
• Commensalism - Inquilinism (one organism use another for housing)
• A creole fish with an isopod attached to the outside of its mouth 
• Parasitism - Ecoparasitism (parasite on the outside of the body)
• A giant green sea anemone with Pederson cleaner shrimp 
• Mutualism - Obligatory (species dependent on the other species)

Aside from doing this assignment, I saw a spotted drum fish. These fish have a very unique body shape (check out the link). Some of my classmates saw a sea turtle, but I unfortunately didn't see it this time around. I have seen a few though while snorkeling but not diving yet.

Marine Hide 'n' Seek

Fish survey

Playing hide 'n' seek with fish

Another day of data collection in the books. Fish surveys were completed at each of my study sites. Again, I am looking at species diversity and abundance, so my fish identification has been improving a lot over the last few weeks. There is the core group of fish species that I see during every survey but there are always new ones that I see. Today, the new species that I saw were a juvenile queen angelfish and two honeycomb cowfish. The honeycomb cowfish were an iridescent blue. During part of my fish surveys, I was playing hiding 'n' seek with some blenny species. It's head was always poking out of little holes but not far enough for me to see distinguishing features for identification purposes. I would hover in one spot waiting for it to come out a little further but it never did. Eventually, I will figure which blenny species it is. Aside from collecting data, I saw my first seahorse while swimming between my study sites.

Honeycomb cowfish

Spotted this seahorse while swimming between my study sites

Around dusk, I went on another dive to collect data for my research buddy's project. Again, we were playing hide 'n' seek with Diadema antillarum. This evening we found the most that we ever had along a transect around 10 individuals. One of the ones I was measuring was moving around making it a bit difficult to get a measurement. The current did help with this matter either. While searching for the urchins, I saw a lot of banded shrimp and brittle stars. The difference between night and day marine life is amazing. I am excited to do a few surveys at night for my project. I will get to do those surveys next week.

In the Ocean for the Day

Classes for the day consisted of us being in the water. This morning we finished rescue diving skills in the shallows were we could surface multiple times without safety stops. We started off doing different search patterns in the sand flats. Afterwards while others groups finished these patterns we practiced towing in a non-breathing diver at the surface. We had to approach diver who was face down in the water and rotate them so they were on their back checking for breathing. Hypothetically, they were not breathing so we had to provide rescue breathes while towing them to shore. On top of providing rescue breathes, we had to remove their mask and BCD as well as our our mask, BCD, and fins. After rotating roles, we acted out scenarios of lost divers. This allowed us to use our newly acquired skills of utilizing search patterns and rescue skills. I had two scenarios - one being the rescuer and the other being the victim.

• Scenario 1 (Victims) - My buddy and I were going on a dive when we got separated and could not find each other. My role was to swim back to our start location and surface as a panic diver. Two of my classmates came over as the rescuers. They got me calm so they could get information about what has happened. I told them all that I knew and they were off to search for my buddy. They made a slight error and did not make sure I would not follow them. So, once they started to descend, I did as well and followed them to help. However, I was not a help because I became frantic again and was causing them issues. We all surfaced again and I was calmed down again. This time they made sure that bystanders could help them out and they took my mask so I couldn't follow them again. They found my buddy and rescued them.
• Scenario 2 (Rescuers) - My buddy and I had to search for lost divers who did not return when they should have. We only knew the general direction they had went. Before we descended we discussed what search pattern we were going to use. We decided on the U-pattern search. Using this search pattern we were able to find one of our missing divers. He was unconscious, so we ascended and started the necessary rescue skills similar to what was practice before we started all the scenarios. After we got the diver to shore, we had to look for the other diver; however, the other diver was already out of the water, so we didn't have to do another search.

U-Pattern dive search

This concluded our morning dive and gave us a bit of time before lunch was served and we headed out for our next water adventure.

In the afternoon, we went on a snorkeling excursion to look at different coral restoration approaches. When swimming to the restoration site, we saw recently damaged Acropora palmata, which occurred during the storm last week. This damage showed us a natural form of habitat loss. 

Bottom left part of the coral broke off and was
laying about 1m away.

Shortly after seeing this damage, we came upon the first form of restoration, which were artificial reef balls. This was a failed attempt because there was not a lot of coral recruitment after 10 years from when these were initially deployed.

Artificial reef ball

The last stop was looking at Acropora palmata and Acropora cervicornis gardens. The first step with this approach is to hang coral fragments from PVC trees. Once the fragments reach a certain size they are transplanted to rebar frames to continue to grow. The final stage is to transplant the corals into the natural coral reef. This restoration approach was started back in 2012 or 2013, so it is still fairly new but it looks like it can be successful. I am not sure if they have transplanted any of the corals onto the natural reef yet, so that is were the uncertainty lies with this restoration approach here in Bonaire.

PVC tree with Acropora spp. fragments with divers
replacing a tree that was lost during the storm.

Rebar frames with Acropora cervicornis. In the background,
each patch is a different rebar frame with coral growing.

Massive Ocean Triggerfish

A majority of the day was spent taking an exam for my Marine Ecology Field Research Methods class. It was a three-part exam that tested our knowledge on all the methodologies that we have learned so far this semester as well as identification of coral diseases, fish, coral, and algae species.

• Part 1 - PowerPoint: Identifying different coral diseases, coral and fish species. 
• Part 2 - Written: Short answer questions covering all the material we have covered in lectures including different monitoring programs, benthic surveys, coral surveys, fish surveys, and CPC analysis of video transects.
• Part 3 - Underwater: Identifying different coral diseases, coral, algae, and fish species.

During the underwater portion of the exam, I saw the biggest ocean triggerfish, which was easily over 2 feet long. Typically, ocean triggerfish range in size from 10-18 inches, so this one definitely exceeded that range. This fish belongs in the family Balistidae where they have a swimming style that is referred to as balistiform. Balistiform means they use their dorsal and anal fins for locomotion.

16th Annual Swim to Klein Bonaire

At 9:00am this morning, seven of us participated in the 16th Annual Swim to Klein Bonaire fundraiser event. People of all ages are encouraged to participate and there were over 500 people participating. Each participate received a number and the highest number I saw was 516, but I believe there were more. This event is hosted by Jong Bonaire to raise money for the children of Bonaire. Jong Bonaire is a youth development center that provides high school students after school resources and opportunities to learn. The organization's mission is provided below.

"At Jong Bonaire teens can learn to use a computer, get help with homework and learn about their culture. They can participate in sports competitions, music, art, and volunteer projects. They can learn to play musical instruments and perform with our drum band or to film and edit a YouTube video. Environmental activities range from beach cleanups and sea grass protection to the Junior Park Ranger program, gardening and animal husbandry. The opportunities are unlimited. The Jong Bonaire youth development program provides young people on Bonaire the chance to learn new skills, find potential career paths and receive guidance from professional youth leaders -- all while having fun. Family programs take place throughout the year to involve and educate parents."

The swim was about a mile to the island and back. After the swim, we hung out on the beach enjoying fruit and water while watching others return from the swim. It took about an hour to swim and we were able to make it back for brunch. Now, it is time to study for the three exams I have this week.

Saturday Research

Another round of data collection is complete. On Wednesday, I finished all my one-time measurements, so all my data collection dives from this point on will only consist of fish surveys. I will be identifying the different fish species within my study site to determine diversity and abundance to later make correlations with rugosity. 

Other than collecting data, I have been studying for our first round of exams next week. Exams will consist of a written and field portion. 

Finishing our dive

La Daania's Leap to Karpata

Last minute schedule changes led to an amazing Friday of classes. We were suppose to go camping in the National Park but due to the storm that has past over left the area we were going to go closed. Waves and rain washed out roads and flooded the area we were going to be sleeping at. However, the trip is being rescheduled and our class schedule had to be revised. We had an hour lecture on habitat loss and then spent the afternoon exploring more of the island and snorkeling.

We went to a site called La Daania's Leap to begin our afternoon snorkel. We jumped off a cliff about 15 feet or so into the ocean. Once everyone was in the water, we began swimming toward another site called Karpata. The coral reef that we got to explore was a lot different from Yellow Submarine were we normally dive and snorkel. The reef has a lot more complexity because there are Acropora spp. present. Acropora spp. are branching corals that increases the rugosity of the reef. These species have been removed from a majority of the sites due to human impacts as well as natural impacts. Also, there was a good amount of damage to other corals at this site due to the recent storm and wave action that has been occurring the past few days. This just goes to show how fragile these ecosystems are.

Besides seeing different coral species,  I saw a lot of different fish as well as other marine life. I saw a total of 5 Hawksbill sea turtles, a bunch of moon jellyfish, 9 Caribbean reef squid among many fish species. One of the sea turtles I saw today was missing one of its back flippers, but it still cruised along in the water.

Acropora palmata & Honeycomb cowfish

Hawksbill sea turtle

Caribbean reef squid

Research Projects & Meetings

Today was a very busy day working on independent research projects. The day started at 8:30a picking up gear for data collection. After I gathered all the equipment I would be needing for my project, I got my gear set up to go on a dive for my research buddy's project and worked on organizing my data in Excel to make analyzing it easier when the time comes. At 10:00a, I had my meeting with my advisor to discuss how things are going with my project so far. When this meeting was finished I went straight into another meeting to talk about progress and grades for our SCUBA class. When all my meeting were over, I went back to the residence hall and put on my wetsuit to head to the water for the first of three dives of the day. During the first dive, I was helping take fish and Diadema antillarum surveys. After about 45 minutes, we headed in for an hour and half for a break and lunch. When the break was over, we headed back to the ocean all geared up to take rugosity measurements, photo points, fish and invertebrate surveys. This dive lasted about an hour and twenty minutes. I entered the data collected from this dive into my excel sheets and relaxed for 3 hours before we went back out at 6:00p to do some more fish and Diadema surveys. I finished off the day by going to the lab to start analyzing my photos to determine the percent cover of coral and algae. I didn't get very far analyzing the photos though I got all my photos neatly organized.

Lionfish Dissection

In lab, we got to dissect lionfish. Here on Bonaire, lionfish are an invasive species impacting the coral reef indirectly. The lionfish prey on herbivores, which are important for coral reefs because they remove algae. During the dissection, we removed the spines first. The spines on the top and bottom are venomous, so, when the spine punctures something, the venom is released. After the spines are removed, we cut open the belly and removed the stomach. We were looking to see what the lionfish last ate. The first lionfish I dissected had two small fish and a shrimp in its stomach; however, the second fish I dissected had an empty stomach. After we saw what was in its stomach, we got to do what ever else we wanted to. I mainly looked at its mouth and esophagus. Lionfish are able to expand its mouth so it can eat things two-thirds its own size. It was fun messing around with the lionfish and seeing how much the mouth can expand.

2 fish and a shrimp in the stomach

Expanded mouth

Lab Time!

Remember yesterday's post about collecting video transect data while diving and how we were going to analyze the video in lab? Well, today we spent about two hours in the lab analyzing the video transect. We had to create frames along the full 10m transect, which came out to be about 40 frames. With these 40 frames, 15 randomized points were generated with a computer program that we had to identify what was at that point. After all the frames were completed, we were able to generate a report that gave us percent cover of the different species and substrate along the transect as well as some other information. Some frames were a little difficult because the quality of the video wasn't the best, but given that this was our first time using this field methodology, we did a decent job at capture what we saw on the reef.

Video Transects

Videography while diving. Today we embarked on a dive to gather video transect data. We laid out a 10m transect and recorded along that transect to identify coral species in the lab. This is a data collection method that helps increase accuracy and amount of data collected. Data collection can be done by any certified diver and brought back to the lab to be identified by experts. Reduced dive times are needed to collect data making large area surveys easier to collect. A permanent record of the sample area is created.

When entering the water for our dive today, we had to be more cautious because of the larger waves. Once we entered, we put on our fins, swam out a little ways, and descended below the waves. Once we were below the surface, you couldn't really even tell that there were waves rolling in above us. We spend about a half hour underwater collecting data around 45 feet. After we ascended and cleaned our gear, we went to the lab and download our videos to analyze tomorrow.

Relaxation

Today was spent relaxing before another busy week of classes. It was cloudy all day so hung out inside most of the day doing a little bit of homework. Just had to turn in a weekly plan my research project as well as a dive plan. It looks like I will have three dives on Wednesday and one dive on Saturday. Other than taking it easy, I did go snorkeling for an hour. Visibility wasn't the best but still saw some cool things. Enjoy the pictures!

Sergeant Major

Honeycomb cowfish

Porcupine fish

Queen parrotfish

Princess parrotfish

White sea urchin

Flying gurnard

Barracuda

Look at its mouth!

Stoplight parrotfish