Tuesday, September 5, 2017

El segundo día, en STRI                                                                              5, Septiembre 2017


Hi from Bocas del Toro!

Somehow I’ve lucked into the opportunity to join the Tropical Marine Biology in Panama course for a week to prep for co-teaching the course in the future. So here I am, getting to tag along on one snorkeling adventure after another at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Bocas del Toro.  After an evening of viewing terrestrial wildlife (two-toed sloths, leaf cutter ants, and a herd of turtles), we started this morning with three snorkeling excursions. First, we headed to STRI Point aboard the Scarus (one of the STRI boats) to check out a patch reef, turtle grass beds and red mangroves.  Faunal highlights included huge sea cucumbers, sea biscuits, and a small school of squid.

The 2017 Tropical Marine Biology in Panama class aboard the Scarus

Sea cucumber, Holothuria mexicana, found in seagrass beds 


We then headed to Hospital Pt. on a nearby island, Solarte. This was an incredible coral and rock reef that led to a steep drop off at the point. There was a large diversity of hard and soft corals at this site ranging from expansive lettuce and brain corals to a tiny purple hydrocoral to sea fans and sea whips. Faunal highlights included a large porcupine fish, a live cowry (the first live one I’ve seen!), two moray eels, and large mats of zoanthids (animals that look like coral colonies without the hard skeleton).

Richard holding a live cowry (a marine snail)

A butterfly fish passing by zoanthids (brown) and a sea whip (grey)

A green morray eel peaking out of the rock

A large sea fan (gorgonian)


Last, we motored to Mangrove Pt. to view the animals living on red mangrove tap roots. Faunal highlights included the huge diversity of colorful sponges living on the mangrove roots and some crazy egg masses (likely made by a polychaete worm) that look like large clear balloons coming out of sand burrows.

Red mangrove tap roots with a diversity of sponges and the green alga Caulerpa


One really excited invert nerd

Sadly, tomorrow will be my last day in Panama. I’ve had an incredible time and learned much in my two, too short days at STRI. Thank you to Richard, Jan and the UO students.  I can’t wait until we return in 2019!

Buenas noches,
Maya

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