Day 17/18

Sadly the wind has been whipping in from the north east and we were unable to dive yesterday :( So we used our time to get some lectures in. In the morning after breakfast we learned about the evolutionary history of corals, and after lunch we were taught all about the symbioses between corals and dinoflagellate algae.

After the second lecture we broke for the day and spent some time relaxing. Even though it was windy it was still sunny and beautiful outside. I spent my time returning to the salt rock dock and exploring the iron shore formations (made of karst) and searching for shells and fossilized coral skeletons. Was a lovely afternoon!

That evening after dinner we all headed down the the beach resort to play trivia! Was a great way to end the day.

Photo credit: Melanie Brennan
Sunset Monday night

Today we were able to get back in the water!! The wind had died down just enough for us to make it out to a site called divers delight -- and it lived up to its name! The reef spurs were wonderful and there were tons of beautiful fish all around. The students took two transects with their quadrats and spent a little time after swimming around the reef.

Photo credit: Erin Papke
Mooring ball at the dive site

Photo credit: Erin Papke
A student swimming towards a school of fish

The boat ride back in was a bit bumpy and wet but we all mad it back safe and sound. We scarfed down a big lunch of build your own burritos which everyone loved.

After lunch the students went through their quadrat images on coral point count to identify all the corals they had seen earlier. Once they were finished they were free to explore the island. I spent my afternoon napping on the beach and reading. 

After dinner the students all started packing for their weekend away in Grand Cayman! I know they are going to have tons of fun.

Turning in for the night and looking forward to my free weekend as well! Looking to get some fun dives in if the weather permits!

- J

Day 16

Windy day today, woke up to waves crashing on the shore below us and on the reef crest behind the lagoon. Luckily the wind is coming form the north, so the south side of the island is still calm enough for diving!

Morning clouds

Wind blowing the palm trees

We spent our morning diving at pirate's point reef where the students each took 2 transects with their quadrats. Everyone did really well and took great images! Everyone is becoming really self sufficient which is wonderful to see. We give the directions at the surface and they dive down and get straight to work!

Photo credit: Erin Papke
A student inspecting a coral after finishing their transects

Photo credit: Emma Wennick
Two angelfish swimming along the reef

When we got back to CCMI we were welcomed with a lunch of bacon cheeseburgers (yum!!). After we had a little time to digest we got to work processing the pictures the students had taken earlier. We also had a little classroom time going over previous data collected along the transects.

After dinner we had another class period in which Dr. Adam Marsh intruduced the students to R - an open source stastical modeling machine that works wonders with data sets like ours. He showed them how to made their data into intelligible graphs so they could compare their work with each other and even from the previous study abroad class 2 years ago! Its going to be great to see how everything turns out at the end of the course.

- J

Wind is still blowing but it looks beautiful!

Day 13/14/15

Unfortunately my post from this weekend wasnt able to upload and was deleted/lost :( So I will give you a quick snapshot of what our weekend looked like!

On Saturday the students took an underwater coral quiz where they looked at different corals marked by buoyes and wrote down their scientific names on slates. (We use slates with pencils underwater for writing on, and they work really well!) Everyone is really starting to get the names down which is exciting to see! The rest of Saturday was free time (yay!) to explore the island.

Sunday we spent relaxing and soaking up the sun at the local beach resort, we even spent some time lounging by the pool! It was a great day to rebuild our strength for the week!

An iguana at the resort! These guys live all over the island and just wander about on the road and resorts soaking up the sun. They are too cool!

Today we woke up bright, early, and rested. The wind has really picked up today (and its supposed to be blustery all week) so we went to the south side of the island, away from the wind, to go diving today. We took Banana Wind (the big boat) and went to a reef called grundy's garden and took transect measurements with the quadrats the students built earlier this week. They are getting better with them already!

Photo credit: Jen Riling
Student (Jen) taking a quadrat selfie!

After the dive we had a nice big lunch and a short break. The students then spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner working through the images from their quadrats today. It was great practice for remembering the coral names!

After dinner we decided to watch Finding Nemo! It was a nice way to relax and even call out coral names and diving tips as the movie went on. I guess thats what happens when you watch with a bunch of marine scientists!

Was a lovely weekend overall and Im looking forward to tomorrow.

- J

Day 12

After 11 hours of (much needed) sleep Im ready to write about my day yesterday!

We spent the morning diving at snap shot reef using the new quadrats the students built. They took their regular transects and then took meter by meter images using their quadrats along the transect line. Even though the quadrats are a bit unweildy due to their size, all the students were able to execute the dive and get all their images!

Photo credit: Ashley Barnett
A student enjoying a swim around after their transect was complete

Photo credit Jessica Waites
A lionfish searching for prey

After lunch we let the students loose for an afternoon off (it was Friday!). Once they returned we held a short class on how to use coral point count, a saftware package that takes the quadrat images and lays random points on it. We determine what is under every point and the software tells us the distribution of organisms in each image. So cool! We will be using this software for the duration of the course to build accurate data sets of the reef over at each place we dive.

Dr. Mark Warner instructing the class

 After class we had a delicious dinner of grilled burgers and hot dogs. The students settled in for a night of coral identification using their pictures of the day and I read a little and went straight to bed!

Its a beautiful, calm day today and we are getting ready to do two more dives! Woohoo!

- J

Photo credit: Ricky Rosas
Peering into a crevice along the reef

Day 11

We let the students sleep in a little this morning, they have been working so hard! After a late breakfast we started to build pvc quadrats. These quadrats will hold their GoPro cameras as they take meter x meter images of corals along transects (instead of just identifying what was below each meter mark like before). This will give us a way bigger and fuller data set of what is making up each reef we visit.

The begginings of the quadrats

Once the quadrats were built we settled in for a quick lunch then quickly turned it around and set up our gear to go diving! We visited two incredible reefs today. The first was called Paul's anchor, and it featured 3 old anchors from pirate ships that have now started to mold into the reef itself. We managed to find one of them though! The students took transects on this reef as well as pictures of the bleaching orbicella annularis coral.

Photo credit: Ashley Barnett
Imaging bleaching orbicella annularis with coral health indicator cards

Photo credit: Jessica Waites

Making sure to do my saftey stop!

The second reef we dove was Jackson's point. This dive was work free, and I know the students were thankful because this reef was gorgeous! There were tons of fish and so many nooks and crannys to peer into and swim through. Everyone had a blast diving here and I for one want to go back! We had an awesome time exploring and getting up close and personal with this flourishing reef.

Photo credit: Emma Wennick
School of fish swimming over the reef

Photo credit: Maural Sowlat
A grouper swimming close by -- the grouper we have encountered are very friendly and will actually swim along side you and follow you as you dive. It is so cool!

After our dives we headed back in to CCMI and had ourselves a big (much needed) dinner. Everyone settled in for the night going through pictures of the day and the data collected. I can tell everyone is really getting into what we are doing and are truly loving diving!

Tomorrow is supposed to be another clear day (we've been so lucky with the weather) so we are planning on more dives in the morning! Can't wait.

- J

Day 10

Woke up this morning to a light breeze and pink skies. I really need to beat the sun one morning and watch the sunrise in full form! But even the endings are beautiful.

Another beautiful sight was the reefs we dove today! We set out early on the big boat 'Banana Wind' on the south side of the island. First we dove at coral city. The class took more transect measurements (we are building a big data file) and also orbicella annularis bleaching measurements with the coral health reference cards. We happened across 6 lionfish while we were down there, and while they are beautiful, they are a very harmful invasive species. So its always mixed feelings when we see them.

Photo credit: Jenn Riling
Two students (Emma and Jenn) taking a selfie on one of their dives

After coral city we boated over to lucas ledge. The class took more transect and bleaching measurements here and even had a little time afterwards to swim around and explore the reef. We saw lots of colorful fish and corals. Its aweomse seeing the students starting to recognize different corals and learn their names!

We made it back in time for a late lunch which we followed with a little time to relax.

Once the afternoon rolled around we all gathered and went over how to process and organize all the data the students have accumulated so far. They will be using this data to analyse the proportion of the different categories (coral, algae, soft coral etc.) at each reef.

Im spending the rest of my evening finishing up some work while some of the class is at trivia. Hopefully they do well against the locals!

- J

                                 

Day 9

Another lovely day in paradise.

Started the day out with a morning lecture on brain coral skeleton morphology (how they are structured and look). We then headed over to salt rock dock to look at the iron shore formations (made of karst - a calcium carbonate substrate formed by cyanobacteria) which contain many coral skeletons (and even conch) from the pleistocene era, about 125,000 years old! This was one of my favorite things we've done thus far. I just think fossils are so cool!

After our morning field trip we had a delicious lunch of loaded nachos (shoutout to Ms. M, our cook who feeds us VERY well).

Fossilized conch shell

Fossilized brain coral skeleton

Fossilized coral skeleton

Dr. Mark Warner teaching the class about coral morphology

Dr. Mark Warner teaching the class about coral morphology

Fossilized brain coral

Salt Rock Dock

Salt Rock Dock

Salt Rock Dock

We quickly switched over to diving after lunch. We broke up into two groups again so we could use the small boats to head over to snap shot reef to take more transect measurements there. Each group identified what was under their transect tape and took images at every meter along a reef spur. They then looked for all the orbicella annularis corals along their transect and imaged them alongside a coral health color index. While each group wasnt diving they were writing up all the data they collected that day. It will be awesome to see the data that gets collected this week!

After dinner we had another short lecture going over the major coral genus and species names that we will encountering over the rest of the trip. Everyone is really starting to commit them to memory! Im excited to see how much everyone knows by the end of the week.

Everyone is really imporiving in their diving skills and it is great to see! And as always, I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

- J