Today started off great with delicious cinnamon rolls from Chef Matt. Then we went to East Wells to do some beach seines. A beach seine is a method to find out how much fish diversity is in an area using nets.
We did four beach seines: two in sea grass, two in sandy bottoms. The net is fifty feet long and we do not harm any of the fish when we do the seine. We discovered that there tends to be more diversity in the sea grass than in the sandy bottoms. This could be true because the sea grass is a nursery for many fish. In our seine we found several juvenile flounder, juvenile parrotfish, and a few swimming crabs.
After our seines, we went onto the actual island of East Wells for a small nature walk. This island is infested with the invasive tree the Australian pine, and it looked like there was a fire there that killed a lot of them. On the island we saw a land crab, curly tailed lizards, anoles, and lots of conch.
After we left East Wells we ate lunch and headed to Northern Bimini Mangroves for a snorkel. For this snorkel, we didn't need to use fins because the current is so strong that it carries you down the whole way. Plus, kicking fins could stir up all of the sediment at the bottom of the Mangrove trees. This would cause a disturbance to an animal that lives there...upside down jellies!! Our snorkel was about an hour and fifteen minutes and we saw more than 100 jellies.
The mangroves are also home to a lot of juvenile fish; the roots serve as a nursery for them. We were sad that we only get to do one mangrove snorkel though because this one was just so awesome.
We ate dinner when we returned to the boat from the mangrove snorkel. Then we prepared for our first night snorkel, this snorkel is done late at night with flashlights. This snorkel was at Turtle Rocks, where we had previously snorkeled during the day. Only one of us had done a night snorkel before, so it was a little bit out of everyone's comfort zone. But once we hit the water, it didn't seem too bad after all. On the way to Turtle Rocks, in the choppy water, we saw many moon jellies. Once we were snorkeling at Turtle Rocks, we saw a lot of unique animals. We saw a Southern Stingray, a Green Sea Turtle, a Caribbean Reef Octopus, a Barracuda, and many other common reef fish. The night snorkel was exhilarating! Now it's time for us to get ready for bed and rest up for more adventures tomorrow!
- Kathy Lee & Ariel
We did four beach seines: two in sea grass, two in sandy bottoms. The net is fifty feet long and we do not harm any of the fish when we do the seine. We discovered that there tends to be more diversity in the sea grass than in the sandy bottoms. This could be true because the sea grass is a nursery for many fish. In our seine we found several juvenile flounder, juvenile parrotfish, and a few swimming crabs.
After our seines, we went onto the actual island of East Wells for a small nature walk. This island is infested with the invasive tree the Australian pine, and it looked like there was a fire there that killed a lot of them. On the island we saw a land crab, curly tailed lizards, anoles, and lots of conch.
After we left East Wells we ate lunch and headed to Northern Bimini Mangroves for a snorkel. For this snorkel, we didn't need to use fins because the current is so strong that it carries you down the whole way. Plus, kicking fins could stir up all of the sediment at the bottom of the Mangrove trees. This would cause a disturbance to an animal that lives there...upside down jellies!! Our snorkel was about an hour and fifteen minutes and we saw more than 100 jellies.
The mangroves are also home to a lot of juvenile fish; the roots serve as a nursery for them. We were sad that we only get to do one mangrove snorkel though because this one was just so awesome.
We ate dinner when we returned to the boat from the mangrove snorkel. Then we prepared for our first night snorkel, this snorkel is done late at night with flashlights. This snorkel was at Turtle Rocks, where we had previously snorkeled during the day. Only one of us had done a night snorkel before, so it was a little bit out of everyone's comfort zone. But once we hit the water, it didn't seem too bad after all. On the way to Turtle Rocks, in the choppy water, we saw many moon jellies. Once we were snorkeling at Turtle Rocks, we saw a lot of unique animals. We saw a Southern Stingray, a Green Sea Turtle, a Caribbean Reef Octopus, a Barracuda, and many other common reef fish. The night snorkel was exhilarating! Now it's time for us to get ready for bed and rest up for more adventures tomorrow!
- Kathy Lee & Ariel
