Students work together during the beach seine study.
To start off another day of our wonderful journey, we awoke to a delicious
breakfast. Everyone was still tired but thrilled to embrace the rest of the
day ahead. After breakfast we had our daily article to read and discuss the
new topic. The topic included shark captivity in order to cook and sell them
for food such as the popular shark fin soup. So many of the great predator sharks
are being killed by people who cut off their fins and leave them there to drown.
We also discussed the consumer's power and how they can help to end the terrible
slaughter of sharks.
After reading our article we traveled to the east side of North Cat Cay. There
we did a vegetation survey about the invasive species of plants called the Australian
pine. We used tools like the densiometer to measure how much of the Australian
pine shadows out the native Bimini species. There we observed how this invasive
plant is taking over the territory of all the native plants
Insert
Image
We spotted this French Angle near Moxon Rocks.
After lunch we went for another snorkel around Moxon Rocks were we saw many neat fish. We circled around the rocks for about an hour, and saw fish like Grey Angel Fish, File Fish and many others. Many of us were thrilled to see the different that were out there, even thought this wouldn't be the first time; it never ceases to amaze us. After a while it was time to head back onto the boat where we dried off and got ready for another activity.
After collecting algae we worked together to identify and press our specimens.
Back on the boat we all got into the topic of algae. We had to snorkel and grab different algae that we were assigned to collect. While traveling we got the chance to see a huge barracuda along with a giant eagle ray right next to our boat. While in the water, we all got the chance to see small communities within the coral and sea grasses in the shallow areas. Once we successfully gathered our algae together, we headed back to the R/V Coral Reef II to sort and share them. We all made charts with the algae that we collected in order to make it easier for us to identify them. Eventually, after labeling them all, we put our new charts down in order to press and preserve the algae for later reference.
Once we finished with our algae fun, we headed back to the salon for a good dinner. Chef Matt prepared barbecued chicken and green bean casserole for us all to enjoy. As usual, all was delicious. As soon as we finished eating, the lights dimmed as Matt carried a huge carrot cake out of the kitchen in order to celebrate Claire's 17th birthday. On this boat the fun never ends, so join us tomorrow for more ocean fun.
By: LaParrish and Maggie
How does a densiometer work? Hmmm...maybe we could use it here in Illinois to measure how buckthorn is shading out native plants.
Hope you're having a great time!
The beach seine sounds really interesting. Do you think that the fish counts vary from season to season? Why is it called a "seine"?--always thought it was a river in Paris!