Adventure to Bastimentos!

Inside Bastimentos Island National Marine Park

I’ve grown more comfortable with the sound of rain pounding on our tin roof in the middle of the night.  In fact, if it weren’t for the thunder and lightning that accompanied our little rainstorm last night, I might not have woken at all.  I almost thought it was a dream, until my classmates mentioned the event during breakfast – which consisted of bacon, coconut bread, cheese, and bread fruit.   The latter is quite starchy, and tastes a lot like patacones when fried up and served with salt.  Fortunately, a midnight rainstorm in the tropics does not equate to all day showers, as it might in the Pacific Northwest.  Today was rather beautiful and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky – perfect for an all day trip to the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, just about a 40 minute boat ride from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. 

Queen Angelfish

Our first exploration site was further from land than any of our previous sites, calling for a safety brief from Ricardo (Richard) on conserving energy while swimming in strong ocean currents and the hazards of waves breaking on the fore reef.  What passes for “choppy” in the Caribbean could easily be considered a calm day in the Pacific, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swim through.   While the currents were a bit stronger than we have been accustomed to, experiencing the magnificence of the reef was well worth it.  

Blue Tang and Ocean Surgeonfish aggregation

The very real fear of brushing against fire coral while entering the water disappeared as each of us jumped from the Scarus and easily situated ourselves out of harm’s way.  Just off the boat, I came across a couple of Queen Angelfish – brilliantly blue with yellow pectoral, ventral, and tail fins.  One of the most noticeable sights was the large aggregations of Blue Tang, Ocean Surgeonfish, and Doctorfish roaming the reef, grazing on algae.  In fact, this particular reef seemed to be teeming with fish, large and small, some of which I have never seen before.  A Whitefin Sharksucker – of the Echeneidae (Remora) family – approached my buddy, Theresa, and I in an attempt to attach itself to one of our bodies.  The only way I could think to describe it to our group was as a “small sea dragon”, but fortunately I had taken enough pictures for Richard to identify it as a Remora.

Whitefin Sharksucker

Making our own bubble ring.

We have been on the lookout for a good spot to take a picture of everyone “throwing up the O” while snorkeling, and today Richard came up with a great way to show our Oregon pride from the Caribbean.  Without any previous synchronized swimming experience, we were able to form a large O by linking arms, giving us the freedom to form smaller O’s with our own hands.  As much fun as it was defying the ocean currents to maintain a ring of students and professor, I’d say the most exciting part of our trip to Bastimentos was a double shark sighting.  On the way back to the boat, there was a Nurse shark, easily visible from the surface of the water, hanging out in a crevice in the rock.  It must’ve been almost 8 feet long!  However, the Hammerhead shark we sighted on the way to our lunch spot was much bigger and definitely stole the show. 

A Young Coconut Tree

Nurse Shark

Just before lunch, we anchored near Zapatillos - a small island of fine, white sand and coconut trees, surrounded by some patches of coral reef.  A couple of park rangers came to collect our fees for using the island.  The beach is used as a nesting site for sea turtles, and the park fees are put towards protecting the sea turtles from poachers and disturbances – as well as preserving a sample of marine and coastal ecosystems.  Unfortunately, we have yet to see a sea turtle in the wild, but it is nice to know that there is an effort being made to restore the local population. 

While we waited for lunch time to come around, some of us snorkeled off the boat, and a few of us explored the island.  Leave it to Oregonians to go looking for a “forest” in the middle of the ocean.  The trees were all palm and coconut, and it was neat to see coconut trees sprouting from the fallen fruit.Sitting in the sand with the aqua blue waves lapping at our feet was like living in a postcard, and we certainly discussed being happily stranded on one of these beautiful islands. 
 

Moon Jelly

After lunch, we took a ride to Coral Cay, which began to feel like a jellyfish mine field after about 30 minutes.  It’s a good thing Aurelia aurita (Moon Jellies) aren’t dangerous, or we might have been more worried about dodging the jellies than checking out the other interesting fauna.  This included a variety of sponges, corals, and fish, brittle stars, and sea urchins. When we got back to STRI, we washed the sand and salt from our skin and hair, grabbed some coffee, and enjoyed a lecture on corals through history, with Richard Emlet.  After a dinner of pork chops, mashed potatoes and veggies, some of us were ready to jump back in the water for a night snorkel, while others sat down to write in our journals and update the blog :).

- Kassie Quackenbush

Warty Corallimorph

Bearded Fireworm

Sponge Brittle Star