¡Una Gran día en Bocas!

Since a picture says a thousand words, I figured I would include as many as I could in hopes to bring a beautiful Bocas closer to all. Hope you Enjoy the show, here we Go!

Before heading out to the field in the boat, the morning began with an early 6:30 breakfast made by our local chef Gustavo. A man who can tickle your taste buds and give you goose bumps with any dish he cooks. 

Soaking up the morning sun
Left to Right: (Jan, Theresa, Kassie, Christy, Mandi, Susanna, & Jaron)

While waiting on the dock in front of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), we soaked up some early morning rays before heading to our first snorkel sight, San Cristobal Island

Dr. Ricardo Emlet casts off the portside bow line, and we are underway

While riding in the boat on our way to the first dive sight Cristiano our boat captain spotted one of his friends doing his fishing for the day. For us it was a photo opportunity, as an authentic old style dugout canoe driven by an artisanal fisherman, sailed from island to island. It passed by like it would have done a hundred years ago and as Jan and I snapped pictures the two friends laughed in amazement, as this was their daily routine.

Artisanal Bocas fisherman in dugout canoe

Today was the first day of actual data collection in the field and as we geared up to go in an exuberantly excited Richard Emlet explained our procedure 

Dr. Ricardo Emlet

for measuring the species in the area. Armed to the snorkel with quadrats, writing slates, and pencils we plunged into the bathtub warm water. The water was deep here but slowly graded into a nice shallow flat reef that had huge boulders of massive starlet coral (Siderastrea siderea)  scattered about.  In the deeper water there were even branching vase sponges (Callyspongia vaginalis), which had little sponge brittle stars (Ophiothrix suensonii) living in the opening of each vase, a pleasant surprise as I swam over it!

Branching vase sponge (C. vaginalis) with Sponge brittle stars (O. suensonii) living inside

At first the reef looked to have a lot of algae and very little coral diversity, possibly due to large bleaching events that happened in 2005 & 2010. Bleaching is when corals expel their endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (Zooxanthellae) in response to stress, due to warmer water temperatures. However, after a closer look with our fancy PVC quadrates we realized there was a fair amount of different coral diversity, as well as different Zoanthids 

Quadrate over part of the reef

and algae. All proving that the more you look the more you see. The zoanthids were given away by their soft non-calcium carbonate skeletons.  There was also Lettuce coral (Agaricia sp.),

Lettuce coral (Agaricia sp.)

Fire coral (M. alcicornis)

Fire coral (Millepora alcicornis ), Mustard hill coral (Porites asteroides), Finger Coral (Porites porites ) and Elliptical star coral (Dichocoenia stokesii). Some species overlapping, and others possibly waging biochemical warfare with each other for more space and substrate. With such beauty one would never think of it as such a hostile environment. 

Once we had all quantified our fair share of species we headed back to the boat and set out for our next snorkel. A little closer to home, STRI point was our next stop for an exercise examining the Turtle grass beds (Thalassia testudinum) along transects oriented perpendicular to the mangal community. This time we took transect tapes, flags, and bags for collecting blades of T. testudinum to examine epibiont load back in the classroom. 

Quadrate at STRI pt, got to Love science.

Here we all found ourselves inventing new quick ingenious ways of dealing with problems we had not accounted for, like floating transect tapes that needed to be staked down with dead sticks from the nearby mangroves.

After finagling around unexpected hurdles in our methods we allotted the last bit of time to explore the site once more. Having been there the previous day, we all headed for the massive fish aggregating area, where there was an old grounded bamboo stand that had washed in from sea.

Washed up bamboo stand at STRI pt 

 The first fish I came upon was a massive grouper (Serranidae) who was very camera shy. From our Paul Humann Fishes of the Caribbean book we ID’ed it as a Western comb grouper (Mycteroperca acutirostris). 

Big Grouper (Serranidae) at STRI pt.

This fish was a giant about 3.5 to 4 feet in length and it had a presence about it that the other fishes respected. There were also 5 or 6 Hound fish (Tylosurus crocodilus) near the washed up bamboo. 

Hound fish (T.  crocodilus)

They were feeding on small fish that were schooling about the branches, and at times it seemed like they were using my presence to help corner the small fish. I have also included a link to a video I took of this action.

One even came within inches of the camera, and for a second I thought I was the prey. Yikes!

Further off in deeper water Will and I explored a few patch reefs that had a compilation of jaw dropping species diversity. Flaunting its beautiful transitional colors, we saw a juvenile/intermediate Gray angel fish (Pomacanthus arcuatus). It was swimming gracefully about a small head of 

Juvenile/intermediate (P. arcuatus)

coral, using its pectoral fins to orient and move precisely in order to pluck tiny unsuspecting inverts off the reef. Nearby there were great formations of Brain coral (Diploria sp.) 

Brain coral (Diploria sp.) with Rough file clam (L. scabra) 

and nestled amongst the coral were bright red/orange Rough file clams (Lima scabra). There was also a Knobby anemone (Ragactis lucida) which 

Two pederson cleaner shrimp (P. perdesoni) sit above a Knobby amemone (R. lucida)

had two Pederson cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni) living in close association with it. Sooo cool to see! Not far from this coral head there was a relatively large young Barrel sponge, species unknown, but still way cool. 

Barrel sponge species unknown

Next to it a bright orange and yellow Cushion star (Oreaster reticulates) was slowly making its way through the seagrass bed.

Cushion star (O. reticulates)

After a long morning out on the water we road the boat back home and began lab work with our turtle grass blades. This proved to be unexpectedly interesting, as we compared numbers from our coral quadrates at our first site as well as the seagrass transects away from the mangroves at our second

Examining Turtle grass (T. testudinum)
Left to Right: Kristi, Kassie, Theresa

site. For me it was very interesting to see the underground structure of the T. testudinum, including the rhizome which gives rise to shoots. Each made up of 3-4 individual blades.

Two T. testudinum shoots attached to their rhizome

In the evenings here I have been rather regular about saying Hi to my favorite reptilian, and what I believe is a Brown caiman (C. c. fuscus) a sub species of Caiman crocodilus. It is our backyard pond

Backyard pond king, Brown Caiman (C. crocodilus)

King, and its kingdom is the institute’s small brackish pond that is literally right beneath the walkway to our classroom, 111. Every night it comes out to sit on the throne that is the grassy lawn, not 30ft from the bridge walkway.   :-)

During this particular evening in-between blogging and journal writing I would go looking for cool bugs and boy did I find some monsters! First it was a large cockroach that was running around the lab floor.

Lab roach

After that I went in search for more bugs outside and while I was walking around I thought the ground was moving, but it was Leaf cutter ants (Acromyrmex echinatior). 

Leaf cutter ants (A. echinatior) march leaves along their trail

They were working the night away marching one by one, as they carried huge pieces of leaves back to their colony for use in culturing the fungi that they eat. Soon after that I came across a female Hercules 

  A big female Hercules beetle (D. hercules)

beetle (Dynastes hercules) on a palm tree frond. To top it all off the next little break I took was because I heard some tapping on the window. Turning around there was amazingly beautiful Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) which flew right up against the lab window, as it was most likely attracted to the light coming from my late night studies.

Atlas moth (A. atlas) on the lab window sill, Late at night

As I sign off for this blog entry I would like to note that it is truly a pleasure to share the experiences of one of the best days I have ever had, and to share it with so many people, so many miles away. As a first time blogger, I must say that I definitely feel I must do this again. Hopefully the next time the day will be just as Grand as this one! Thanks for tuning into OIMB’s 1^st Panamanian Experience.

~Robbie (Salty man) McNulty

An underwater Robbie Mcnulty (McSalty sp.)