Physis Journal Completed

After all the hard work over the last couple of weeks, today we submitted Physis Volume 20 for printing. Physis is the student journal that is created every semester containing all the student's research projects conducted during the program. So, for the last two weeks, we have been editing and formatting all our research papers for this journal. We will all receive our own copy of the journal at the end of the week. Now, all that is left is to present our research findings during a public lecture.

Snorkel at Jibe City

Jibe City is home to some of the only remaining natural patches of the endangered Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) corals on Bonaire. Acropora spp. are fast growing, branching corals that provide habitat to a wide array of marine life. In the past these corals used to be abundant around the island of Bonaire where channels had to be cut for boats to get to shore. The Coral Restoration Foundation Bonaire have a few restoration sites around Bonaire growing these corals in hopes to restore the coral reefs with these species. Besides enjoying the corals, we saw spotted eagle rays and a few octopi in the lagoon. 

Acropora palmata - Elkhorn coral

Octopus

Spotted eagle ray
Photo Credit: Emily Dawson

Acropora cervicornis - Staghorn coral
Photo Credit: Emily Dawson

Thanksgiving in the Caribbean

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a Friendsgiving to celebrate the holiday with all the fixings. There were two turkeys, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cream of corn, gravy, and cranberry sauce.

This has been the biggest Thanksgiving I have been a part of because usually it is just my parents, brother and I. Though I could not spend this holiday with my family, it was great to spend the day with amazing friends.

The beginning of the day was spent editing our journal for our research projects and enjoying the underwater world. One of my friends and I went on a dive a couple of hours before dinner. We started at the dive site Something Special and leisurely swam to Yellow Sub. Our maximum depth was about 75 feet and we just enjoyed the coral reef. We saw a barracuda that was about 4 feet in length swimming next two us and at one point below us. Also, we saw a large midnight parrotfish further below us. Other than these species, we saw the standard fish life that we have become familiar with throughout the semester.

Spotted drum

Ocean trigger

Fireworm

Wreck Dive

This afternoon, a group of us went on a dive to explore a wreck as a reward for finishing our last final this morning. The wreck was at a depth of about 60 feet. It was not very large but very cool to see. There was a large school of fish that we watched for a while changing directions and following big fish. One of the large fish the school followed was a barracuda. The barracuda was about 4 feet long and has been the largest one I have seen while here.

Camping on the Beach

Yesterday we went to Washington Slagbaii National Park for an overnight camping trip. We stopped at a few different spots to enjoy the views and swim. 

• Stop 1: Playa Chikitu. This is one of the only turtle nesting beaches on the island. We didn’t see any turtles while here but we enjoyed the views of the ocean. 
• Stop 2: Supladó. The only blowhole on Bonaire. A few of us had already seen this area but it was cool to see it again. The spouts of water out of the blowhole were not as large because it wasn’t as windy as the previous time. 

• Stop 3: Boka Kokolishi. Here we swam in an area that was protected by a rock barrier. Some of us swam in the protected area and on the other side. Getting to the other side was a bit interesting because we had to be careful not to step on sea urchins. However, when we got to the other side it was worth the trek. We swam around in the deeper water enjoying the waves gentle rolling in from the open ocean. After a while, we headed back in using the waves to push us back to the rock barrier. We did have to time the waves once we got closer so we didn't crash into them. Once we got back to the protected area, we did some exploring seeing more sea urchins, chitons, and crabs. 

Chiton

• Stop 4: Seru Bentana. Here we did a short hike up to a small arch to enjoy the ocean views as well as looked at a lighthouse. 

• Stop 5: Malmok. This is the furtherest north point of the island and is where an old settlement use to be. There were remnants of a house and lighthouse. 

• Stop 6: Wayaká. A few of us had seen this area earlier but this time we went swimming. I got to see some lettuce sea slugs.
• Stop 7: Boka Slagbaii. This is where we would be spending the night on the beach. After unloading the gear, we went snorkeling and swimming before dinner. During this time, I saw my first lobster and midnight parrotfish. It was exciting. After swimming for an hour and a half we went and cooked dinner. We had quite a large feast eating chicken, ribs, sausage, potato salad and coleslaw. After eating a very fulfilling dinner, we went on a short hike looking for scorpions that fluoresce. We saw about 5 or 6 scorpions. This was very cool to see because I did not know that scorpions fluoresced. After having enough fun, we went back to the beach to get ready for bed and star gaze. The night skies were amazing and we saw a number of shooting stars. It was an early night with the sounds of the waves putting us all to sleep. 

In the morning, we were up bright an early with the sunrise. We enjoyed the peaceful morning eating breakfast and taking in the views. Slowly, we started picking up camp to get ready to go hit Mount Brandaris. This is the tallest mountain on Bonaire at 784 feet. The views from up there were so amazing. We could see a majority of the island and the ocean on both sides. This was a much needed trip after the long week at school finishing up all our assignments for the semester and preparing for finals next week. 

View from the top of Brandaris

Research Paper Completed!

The last two days have been spent working on finishing our independent research project paper. As of 10:30pm, my paper has been submitted. It feels so good to have it finished and all that is left to do is creating the journal itself. That will be the task for the next couple of weeks as well as preparing for our public presentations. I cannot believe it has been two and a half months already. Time sure does fly by when working and playing hard.

Bonaire Informational Market

As part of our environmental and cultural class, we had to research a specific topic dealing with Bonaire's culture or environment to create a poster or game to present to the public. My group gathered information about Klein Bonaire and made a Spin the Wheel game. We had four categories, Environment, Modern Use, Geography, and History, with different questions. At the information market, we had mainly children attend. They had a lot of fun playing spin the wheel and answering the variety of questions we had prepared.

Near the end of the market, all the kids wanted to play tag in the park. So, a majority of us played with them getting sandy as we did.

Analyzing Endobenthos Samples

After two days of our endobenthos samples being in the oven and stained, we did some analysis. We did a granulometry analysis where we sieved the sample into different particle sizes to weigh and determine the percentage of each. While this sample was being sieved, we took our other samples out of the rose bengal solution, so we could begin identifying the different organisms under the microscope. This part took the longest because we could only take a small amount of the sample to view under the microscope. We did not find as many organisms under the microscope as we did during the plankton lab. With the data collected during this lab, we now have to synthesize our findings. This is our last assignment for our Marine Ecology Field Research Methods class besides the final, which is next Monday.

Endobenthos Collection

Today was our last class dive of the semester. During this dive we collected endobenthos samples. Benthos are flora or fauna on or in the bottom of a body of water. There are two types of benthos; epibenthos and endobenthos. Epibenthos are benthic organisms that live on or move over the substrate surface, whereas, endobenthos are organisms that move within the sediment displacing particles. It is important to study benthos because these organisms are: 1) bioindicators of health; 2) play important ecological roles filter particles, breaking down organic matter, and removing sediment allowing water exchange; 3) study life histories of fauna; and 4) important component of a variety of ecosystems. There are a number of different sampling types and we did the manual core sampling technique. To collect the sample, we took a piece of PVC and worked it into the sand to a specific depth. This involved us having to take a vertical position in the water swimming downwards to work the PVC into the sand. We then worked the PVC back out and capped the sample. After all the samples were collected, we headed back to the lab to sieve, relax, stain, and dry the samples for further data analysis. Relaxation of the sample is done by using magnesium chloride to reduce the tendency of organisms to distort their shape. Staining facilitates sorting and increases sorting accuracy because a person can see more of the organisms. We used rose bengal (pink dye) to stain the samples. We also place some of the samples in the oven to dry to do more sieving to sort the different particle sizes for granulometry analysis. Later this week, we will remove the samples from the oven to sort out the different particle sizes and to collect the stained organisms from the samples with the rose bengal.

National Park Diving

Good to go!

Today, we spent the whole day in Washington Slagbaai National Park exploring and diving. We woke up bright and early to get to the park when it opened. Our first stop was at Supladó to look at a blow hole. The waves were amazing here and when they would crash along the shore, water would spray out.

Our next stop was the first dive site of the day, Boka Bartol. We spent about an hour diving going down to ~70 feet exploring the area. We saw two sea turtles, a ton of black durgon, and a green moray eel along with a bunch of other fish. At the end of the dive during our safety stop, we played around on the sand flats taking our fins off to do different tricks. We finished the dive and headed to the next.

Black durgon

After an hour surface interval, we went on our second dive at Playa Bengé. During this dive, we went to a depth of ~80 feet exploring the reef, a steep wall and hanging out in the open ocean. We saw about six lionfish along the wall. Again, we spent a while in the sand flats messing around doing tricks. 

Into the blue

I touched a flounder

After the second dive, we went and found a spot to have lunch, which was at Playa Funchi. The previous night we ordered two large pizzas to take with us. While we were eating, we had some friends join us. There were four iguanas and a ton of lizards watching us. Some of them even tried climbing up on the bench we were using. After lunch, we explored the park some more. We stopped at another area called Wayaká. This area was another dive site but we just enjoyed the view.

Our final stop was Boka Slagbaai. No diving is allowed at this location because it is a marine reserve. However, there was a cliff that we were able to jump off of. We would not have stopped here if we did not see a person jumping when we drove by. It was about a 25-foot jump into the ocean and we did it twice.

Successful cliff jumping

To wrap up the evening, we went on another caving adventure. This cave was all on land and we went about 300 meters in. We saw some bats while crawling around exploring the cave.

Underwater Cave

This evening and early morning, we went on an adventure to see an underwater cave. We walked down into the cave mouth then swam a little ways in, when we came to a sump (i.e. a passage in a cave that is submerged underwater). It was not a very long sump. We had to hold our breathe for 5 to 10 seconds to get the the area of the cave we spent the majority of our time. When in the main cave, we just dove down a little ways to look around. It was so cool looking at the stalagmites and stalactites underwater. We also went through the halocline, which is a point where the water changes salinity rapidly. If you stuck your tongue out you could taste the saltiness, especially since this was a freshwater cave. After exploring the cave a little bit, we sat in the complete darkness. We were trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of cave shrimp. The shrimp come out when it is completely dark, so they tend to crawl on you. So, if we felt something crawling on us, we would turn on the light to see if we could see the shrimp. However, we did not get to see any cave shrimp.

This was a really fun trip and I am glad that my friend, Brian, took us. He had explored the cave before with the residence hall manager, so he knew what to expect and wanted to share it with us all.

Island Pool Party!

This evening, we went to the director's house for a pool party. The views from her place were amazing. We made it to her place right at sunset; however, the clouds were on the horizon so could not see the colors very well. It was a nice view of Kralendijk, Klein Bonaire, and the ocean. It was a relaxing evening hanging out and talking with the instructors.

Viewing Plankton Under a Microscope

Identifying plankton

Two weeks ago, we learned about plankton. Plankton are organisms that drift around in the water because they have limited locomotion. There are six different groups of plankton:

1. Holoplankton spend their entire life as plankton
2. Meroplankton spend part of their life as plankton
3. Phytoplankton are autotrophic organisms that contain photosynthetic pigments
4. Zooplankton are heterotrophic organisms not capable of photosynthesis
5. Bacterioplankton
6. Virioplankton

Plankton under a microscope

I was able to identify 11 different types of plankton in lab today. In one of my samples, I had a polychaete (i.e. worm) that was swimming around and kept moving other plankton around while I was looking at it. One of the first organisms that I was looking at was a shrimp larvae and the polychaete moved the shrimp right out of the frame. There was another organism that I was looking at that moved slowly but still fast enough that by the type I took a quick look at an identification book and back in the microscope it had moved out of the frame. Finally, the last organism that I was looking at, which I was unable to identify, had smaller organisms inside moving around. That was cool to see.