June 2: Temptation Rock & Texas Rock

Agaricia fragilis

Colpophyllia natans

June 2, 2013: Day 3 of work- We visited 2 regular sites today. First was temptation rock. This site was pretty shallow & there wasn’t a whole lot of corals there. I doubled up with Kevin & did a pretty good job. I didn’t miss any corals that he recorded & our sizes were pretty close. We only had about 25 colonies or so in the area. After that we had to switch out a few people. Many researchers come on these types of trips because they are already paid for. All they have to do is get themselves to the boat & they basically get a free ride to do their research. Three researchers who were studying genetics went home today. In exchange, we acquired a diver who works for the parks service.

Montastraea cavernosa

She is one of the people who helps to fund this project, so it’s good to get her out on the water to motivate her to help get funding. There was some doubt about whether this work would be funded next year due to federal budget cuts, etc. However, Tracy said that there will be funding for the project next year. (Hopefully I’ll learn enough that I can go next year…fingers crossed.)

Soft Coral-Pseudoterogorgia sp.

The second site of the day was Texas Rock. I chose to work a transect that was VERY full with an experienced guy who is VERY thorough. It took us about 2 hours to work up all of the corals in 10 meters of reef. It was very labor-intensive. I also didn’t do nearly as well on this dive at identifying everything that the experienced researcher had identified. He had over 15 colonies that I didn’t measure. It turned out that most of those were a species that likes to live underneath overhangs, Madracis decatctis (MDEC). I saw 1. He saw 9… There were a few new species that I hadn’t seen before, though. That was pretty cool. On this transect I saw SSID, MCAV, MFAV, PPOR, PAST, ODIF (this was a strange looking one that we had to debate, but I knew the genus. I was proud), SMIC, MFRN (I didn’t distinguish between this and MFAV), DSTR, DLAB, MMEA, CNAT, SCUB (Scolymia cubensis-new to me), MANG (Mussa angulosa-new to me), and EFAS. So, it was a pretty diverse site, but I missed a number of small colonies.  I can only keep getting better.

Meandrina meandrites

Encrusting sponge

Mussa angulosa

Sponges

Add caption

Mycetophilia alicia

After we finished working, the captain drove us outside the park to a site where people could spearfish & go for fun dives. I almost didn’t go since we’d already spent over 4 hours in the water today. That’s about my limit, turns out. However, I did end up going in as soon as we got to the site. It was dusk & lots of fish were either getting ready for bed for just getting up. There were tons of squirrelfish just getting up. There were also a bunch of big parrots going to bed. The most interesting thing I saw was 2 graysby (both pretty big-2 ft or so) were rubbing up against each other & mouth-fighting. This is when a pair of fish face-off & open their mouths as wide as they can in front of each other. Basically showing off. I’m not sure what was going on, but it looked like some sort of mating behavior. Many species of groupers are protogynous hermaphrodites & they determine who will turn into a male by some sort of similar behavior. Could have been happening with these guys.  I doubt anyone knows whether this is the case with this species since it’s not commercially important & it’s not really a species people study on a regular basis. There were also 3 lionfish on this reef. First ones I’ve seen so far, but I haven’t been looking.  

June 1: Getting it under control???

June 1, 2013: Day 2 of work-Today a variety of different projects needed to get completed in very shallow areas. In order to get to shallow water everyone needed to take the small, inflatable boats. This meant that they couldn’t take anyone with them who wasn’t necessary. Since I’m still learning, I wasn’t necessary. Therefore, I spent the morning snorkeling in the seagrass beds near the vessel. I worked on taking pictures with my camera & tried to take pictures of every coral I saw. As well as just messing around & snorkeling.

Marcy, the cook jumping off the bow

Kevin, a coral biologist seconds before getting ropeburn on his knees...

Monatstria annularis- can see transect chain

Siderastria sideria

Rose Coral:Manacina areolata

Later in the afternoon, we moved over to another pair of sites and I was able to do a couple of practice transects. I identified, measured & counted stony corals along 2 transects at the loggerhead station. There are very few colonies at this location. Along the first station, I counted and measured a total of 8 colonies. They were primarily PPOR, but MANN, AAGA were there as well. I compared data with Rob, the other researcher also surveying this site & we were pretty close. I measured everything that he had measured and the sizes were pretty similar. On the second transect, there were a number of ACER, along with PPOR, MANN, AAGA, DCLI, and DSTR. I did a pretty good job on this one as well. I’m learning to identify the different species that are here as well as learning to measure. Making progress.

Reef Squid hanging around site.

May 31: Learning about corals Day 1

May 31: First day of dives-We arrived at Davis Rock around 9 am. The crew hooked us to the permanent mooring ball that is located at this site. We got in & started the transects. This group uses fixed stations. Years ago scientists drilled rebar stakes into the reef. There are 4 stations at each site. Each station has 2 stakes. One is at the “offshore” end, and one is at the “inshore” end. When divers are going to start working on a transect, they swim to the offshore stake & put the end of a measuring tape to that stake. They then swim toward the inshore stake, stretching the tape tight. Once the measuring tape is stretched, the diver then goes back and places the “chain.” This is a plastic chain that the diver carefully drapes over the reef under the transect tape. Once the chain is placed, the diver puts a marker on the chain to indicate 10 meters. Historically, researchers had identified and measured corals on the entire transect. Over the last several years, the researchers have found that they can get sufficient data by measuring corals along only the first 10 meters of transect.  In order to collect data on the transect, the researchers swim along the transect looking for all corals growing within 0.5 meters of the chain on either side. Any corals that are found within the area are measured. The researcher identifies the coral species, measures the width & height of the colony & checks for mortality or disease. 

A picture I pulled from the internet to show the idea of a transect.

Davis rock was my first time attempting this method. Before the trip, I tried to study the species of hard corals that are common. However, actually getting in the water and trying to remember species names, identify them by sight, and remember the way that the corals group shortens their names, was very different from reading the book. I was working a station in conjunction with Rob (the boss). I was totally useless. I should have taken a picture of the datasheet I tried to fill out. It was quite disheartening. 

Once we came back up to the surface, I started talking to other people about how to identify species. Most of the colonies in the transect were Porites porites (PPOR).  There was also a few Porites astreoides (PAST), Montastraea cavernosa (MCAV), Siderastrea siderea (SSID), Meandrina meandrites (MMEA), Colpophylia natans (CNAT), Agaricia agaricites (AAGA), Eusmilia fastigiata (EFAS). 

Acropora cervicornis

Diploria strigosa

We then moved on to White Shoal for our second site of the day. At this station I felt a little more on top of the corals. This site was a little challenging because the survey only measures corals which are attached to the bottom.

This was a site which was covered in rubble, so it was difficult to tell which pieces were attached and which were not. This site also had most of the same species, including PPOR, SSID,  MMEA, CNAT, EFAS, MCAV. Plus Acropora cervicornis (ACER), Oculina diffusa (ODIF).

Eusimilia fastigiata

After we finished the survey, I started using my new camera to take pictures. It took some good pictures. Once we finished at White Shoal, we moved over to the dock at the fort. While other people went to walk around the fort, I went for a snorkel on the coal docks. There are often big tarpon that hang around that area with the other fish. However, this time, no dice. I did take a few nice pictures of other fish & corals. Still working on identifying the most common species. Had dinner at the dock and then got underway to anchor offshore.

Dock Pilings at Ft. Jefferson. Covered in corals

Porites porites @ Ft. Jefferson

May 30: Travel to the Tortugas-Let the adventure begin!

May 30: Meeting the boat-Packed all of my gear in the morning. I ran to the dive shop to get a new mouthpiece for the regulator I was using. Ultimate Getaway.

We met up in the afternoon & drove down to Ft. Myers to meet the boat, the

We got to the dock & put away all of the gear in the boat. I set up all of my dive gear at a station & then got my personal gear into a bunk (rack). We went to eat dinner then came back to the boat. The crew gave us the run down on safety & the food situation. This boat is stocked with all kinds of snacks. There’s a big 5-gallon container of water & lemonade. Then there’s a soda fountain. Trouble...

We left the dock at around 8:30 pm. The weather was a little rough. The wind was still blowing about 20 mph from the east. Once we got offshore, we were taking 4-5 foot waves on the port side. 

 

At about 10 pm, I was done & went to bed. I have a particular way that I sleep in a bunk. I can only sleep in a bunk laying on my stomach with all of my limbs spread out. Lots of people say that they can’t sleep on a boat, but I learned that I can get really stable & fall asleep right away if I just splay out. I sleep all night through when I’m lying like that.These are a couple of pictures of my bunk.