Día 9: Tiempo para los Investigaciónes

Hola, mis amigos!

We've been in Bocas del Toro for a little over a week now, yet every morning still feels like a dream. Even on days like today that are fully devoted to our individual research projects, we still get to experience the most beautiful worlds both above and below the sea.

After yesterday's full-day trip to the Bastimentos National Marine Park, we were all a tad bit waterlogged and, well, exhausted. Snorkeling is a lot more work than you'd think! Nonetheless, we jumped on our projects and spent the day checking mangrove roots, filtering and weighing water, and following parrotfish.

Molly and Erin went out to the field to take some water quality measurements and then worked up some of their data, or in Molly's words, "We hibernated in the lab. All day." Haley, Christina, and Mack spent the whole day in the water following individual parrotfish and taking notes of their behaviors. Haley noted that they only really left the field for meals. Emily and I kayaked out to our two locations to take more water samples, which we then brought back to the lab to filter and analyze for organic matter content.

After lunch, Emily and I had to wait for our sample filters to dry in the oven (which is really just an old closet lined with tinfoil and heated with lightbulbs,) so Richard accompanied us on a short boat trip to the field. We went to Hospital Point and Mangrove Point, two areas that we've been to before, but wanted to explore more.

A view of Hospital Point through the spray from our boat

Even though the visibility at Hospital Point wasn't perfect today, and there was a strong current, it never fails to amaze me. I am consistently floored by the colors here. I try to name all of the colors in the ocean as it flies by under the boat: azure, deep teal, sea green (is it cheating to use a color name with "sea" in it?), sapphire, navy... I think there are too many to count.

And those are the colors before you even jump in! Once under the surface, Emily and I headed around hospital point.

Emily, my research partner and exploring buddy

I made it my goal while snorkeling today to find the rainbow in the reef for all of you blog-readers! I wanted to give you a peek into the vibrant world of Almirante Bay. Floating around Hospital Point, I photographed one organism for every color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

RED: a red globular sponge, possibly Amphimedon compressa

ORANGE: Aplysina fistularis, the yellow tube sponge

YELLOW: the stripes of this juvenile French angelfish, Pomacanthus arcuatus

GREEN: the Halimeda sp. algae on the reef

(extra points if you can spot the trumpetfish trying to swim away from me)

 BLUE: another colorful juvenile of a damselfish

PURPLE: the common sea fan, Gorgonia ventalina

After marveling at the colors of Hospital Point, we went for a quick trip to Mangrove Point to explore the old pilings. The diversity of life on the pilings is just incredible! They're like small skyscrapers, filled with life and movement. We found a huge puffer fish attempting to blend in with the Millepora alcicornis. Although the puffer was in plain sight, we weren't about to try and touch it; Millepora is also known as fire coral, and it stings. A lot. So we just floated over the piling and watched it try and maintain its hiding spot by flapping its tiny little fins. (If you've never seen a puffer fish swim, look up a video: it's hilariously awkward.)

 

The camouflaged pufferfish

Back to STRI for more research and dinner, and then one last activity was in store: night snorkeling. It was a clear night, and we could see stars through the haze from the yellow lights on the STRI dock. Christina, Jan, MacKenna, and I donned our snorkel equipment (plus extra leggings and rashguards to protect ourselves from the cubomedusae jellyfish that like to come out and sting at night) and set off.

At night, the ocean is so different. Gone are the bright colors of the reef and sun streaming through the sea, replaced with black water and the beam of your flashlight and your buddy's. Both Christina and I startled every time we saw something moving through the seagrass, and I think my heart jumped into my throat when a huge ray swam directly below us. But we couldn't keep a smile off of our faces. We swam along, getting body-slammed by teeny silver side fish that disperse in the water column to feed on plankton at night. 

I realized we were getting into deeper water, and I looked to my left towards the open ocean. All I could see was black, but then suddenly, I noticed small but distinct flashes. Were there more silver sides, reflecting the beam of my dive light? I shone the light up, but saw nothing. I shone the light back down, and still noticed the flashes. And then it dawned on me. We were swimming through bioluminescence!

I squeaked and grabbed Tina and told her to turn off her light (in retrospect, I was so excited I probably scared her half to death, but it was worth it for what we saw next.) The second our lights were off, I held my hands out in front of me and swished them back and forth, thus beginning some of the most magical minutes of my life. Swirling through my fingers, flashing and lighting up as my movement jostled them, were bioluminescent dinoflaggelates. They're small, planktonic organisms that light up in response to movement, and we hadn't realized that we'd been swimming through them the whole time. 

We kept our lights off for what felt like hours, twirling and diving and trailing our fingertips through the water, or in Christina's words, "having a biolume dance party." And as if the moment wasn't beautiful enough, when we lifted our heads out of the water, we saw lighting flashing in the distance and the stars and milky way clear above our heads. Swirling our hands through the water and then looking up, we saw stars in the sky and the sea. 

So ended another long, exciting, tiring, and completely fulfilling day in Panama. All I can say is that when I use all three swimsuits that I packed in a single day, it was a good one. 

Buenos noches, amigos,

Ellie Jones