Life Afloat

If you've ever been to the tropics and experienced the rain- then you know that when it rains, it pours! In the early morning we were awaken by the pouring rain on our tin roofs and on the ground outside. Many of us got up to watch and listen to it. I love the sound of pouring rain, its so soothing!

Shortly after breakfast, Will and Christy took two kayaks out into the bay outside STRI to tow for plankton for our morning plankton lab. Another group of us went bird watching. We spotted Red Lore Parrot, Blue-headed Parrot, Tropical King Bird, Lineated Woodpecker, Clay-Colored Thrush, Roadside Hawk, Passerini's Tanager, Grayish Saltator, and the Bananaquit.

Will  (front) and Christy S (back) kayaking for plankton.

Will with the plankton tow.

Svetlana Maslakova gave a great lecture on plankton to introduce us to what occupies our blue waters. Plankton are marine organisms that float in the water column because they are too small or weak to swim against the current.
Plankton can consist of:
phytoplankton e.g  diatoms- algae
dinoflagellates: unicellular protists that can cause bioluminescence
zooplankton: tiny animals

Foraminiferan- Christy S

Juvenile Brittle Star- Kassie

Pilidium larva (nemertean)- Robbie

All nine of us students went to work on sorting through the plankton that was brought back from Will and Christy's kayak tows. I've included a picture from each student's findings for the day. Many of us found lots of little critters other than is pictured.

Ciliate- Susanna

Gastropod Larva- Theresa

Ophiuroid pluteus (brittle star)- Jaron

Dinoflagellate- Mandi

Polychaete Larva- Will

Sponge Larva- Kristi E

We also looked at some plankton collected this evening around 9 pm to end the day. We discovered the night  plankton are smaller than the plankton we sampled this morning, and consisted much more of small crustacean's and lots of bivalves.

After lunch, we all climbed into the boat and headed over to a different part of the island Solarte and Hospital Point again, which is on Solarte- it was such a great area to snorkeling! The first stop was a deeper area which was filled with patchy soft corals. One soft coral, The Slimy Sea Plume- Pseudopterogorgia americana, had a basket star wrapped up very tightly in it. The star will unwrap itself from the coral at night. My snorkel buddy, Christy, and I found a huge Barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta, here as well.

Basket Star wrapped in Slimy Sea Plume

Unraveled Basket Star

The second stop was Hospital Point, named because there used to be a hospital nearby on the island for yellow fever and malaria patients. Here I saw lots of schooling fish, such as the school of Yellowtailed Snapper that swam a complete circle around me as I attempted to snap quick photos with a slate in one hand and the camera in another, being tossed around gently by the incoming waves.

While out on the last snorkel of the day at Hospital Point, Christy and I watched Parrotfish for a territory analysis. We followed a chosen male Parrotfish and watched where he fed as he swam along. One of us would follow the fish and keep a hand extended out to where the fish was for reference, and the other would drop a marker at the locations where he fed. The markers we used were coral tied with a brightly colored tape. The idea was to identify their territory- they rarely eat out of their territory. This activity proved to be difficult, the fish swam way faster than we could keep up with. We finally found a male Stoplight Parrotfish and followed him around, he was slower. Unfortunately, we had to abandon that analysis when I doubled over after dropping a marker on a large coral head, my calf was mega cramping. After what seemed like forever, my calf muscle finally relaxed. My partner in crime, Christy, was there to help me stretch it out. I've been told to keep hydrated, eat plenty of foods with potassium, and to take calcium supplements, so I'm not really sure what the secret to those unforgiving leg cramps is!

Barrel Sponge

 We've been in Panama for six days now, four of which have been at the Smithsonian Research Institute. In the past four days, we've snorkeled for roughly fourteen hours. We're training to become fish- for all of us, that's a dream come true! We've also had class for about twelve hours a day, and I can't complain, it's been a wonderful experience. I think all of us can say, we're truly lucky to have this opportunity and thankful!

Underwater Mandi Cromar

From Mandi Cromar for the Tropical Marine Biology and Environmental Issues class in Panama, thanks for reading!