Day 6 already?!

It seems like just yesterday that we arrived at STRI, and first stepped foot at this paradise we are calling our home for two weeks. It was bittersweet waking up this morning; the thought of only having 6 more days sent me into a brief moment of despair. However, this was soon drowned out by the positive thoughts of just how great the experience has been this past week (as you guys have already read on the previous blog posts). And so, with our sights pointed toward the future, we all left breakfast this morning ready to tackle our first full day of project work!

Growing algae in a nutrient-enriched site (with a three-spot damselfish)

Group "Damsels in Distress" (Craig, Morgan and Nicole) made quite a bit of headway with their project. They spent all morning drawing maps of the territories in each site in order to determine if the territory of the fish will increase or decrease over time with the algal growth. The Damsels also observed their fish for quite some time, giving them an idea of what types of behavior to look for in the future. The most important part for them now is to wait - the rest of their observations relies on the growth of the algae (we're all crossing our fingers for them!).

Alyssa and Katalin, who had a slight alteration in project plans, changed their group name today to "Go With the Flow." Their new project is looking at wave action and how stationary objects and moveable objects are affected by water flow. One part of their study will analyze water outside the mangroves and within the mangroves, while the second part of their project will look at water flow over stable reefs. Today, Alyssa and Katalin were able to attach their Plaster-of-Paris devices to the mangrove roots, and place PVC pipes (also with Plaster-of-Paris devices) within the coral reef area.

Mangrove roots near STRI dock

Ready...steady...GO!

"The Cucumber Crew" (MacKenna, Katie and myself) had a very busy morning, focused on tagging all the cucumbers we collected from Thursday, clearing our transect of all outside sea cucumbers, collecting 5 pre-digested and 5 post-digested sediment samples from both species, and placing all the tagged individuals in the center of the transect to begin tracking their day and night movement. In the afternoon, we prepared the sediment samples for drying and ashing to determine whether or not the two species have different diets. Our evening consisted of finding all our individuals in the dark, placing a flag where they had migrated to, and returning them back to the middle for tomorrow's measurement.

The class was also able to enjoy two lectures today - one given by Jan on human impacts on marine environments; the second by Richard on marine fishes (personally my favorite lecture yet). These lectures not only offer the class a chance to learn about local organisms, but to also understand how everything is connected and what kinds of studies have been done in the local and surrounding areas.

Richard giving the first fish lecture (and loving it!)

I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our expedition thus far. So long for now from Bocas del Toro! Adios!

Natasha Coon