Day 2 - Snorkeling

Today we took the STRI boat and motored around to different reefs in Bocas del toro first we visited STRI point.  The weather was very ominous but clear enough to allow a rare glimpse of the surrounding islands.

The first reef we visited was a patch reef nearby, called STRI reef. We all started to practice our dive technique. Richard had us all beat at the start, but by the end of the day almost everyone was diving down to the colorful reef floor (the trick is being able to pop your ears so the increased pressure doesn't hurt).  We saw a lot of reef creatures including quite a few sea cucumbers, a sand dollar, some beautiful algae, an urchin that you would not want to step on, and some cool bivalves. We also saw a sting ray that was at least a meter wide from fin to fin but it was swam away before we could get a good picture.

After a quick lightning scare we decided to continue our expedition. This day was really about snorkeling around Bocas for the first time so we still had a few different locations to visit. The next place we visited was Hospital reef. This reef was off of a more remote location and the integrity of the reef was amazing. It was a drop off reef so we really had to put our new found diving skills to work. the reef looked washed out and grey while snorkeling at the surface but if you could dive deep enough it was filled with colorful organisms (and divers).

The last place we visited was a sea gras bed that had the stilts of an old dock. We went here to get mangrove roots to dissect later. Me an Vanessa were exploring the shallow water when we saw an eel!

We went back to the lab exhausted hungry and happy with our mangrove roots. We had another delicious meal before diving back into lecture. We learned about mangroves. They are an important element in supporting large fish populations. They provide protection from weather and they even reduce bacterial concentration. They like most natural habitats are also under threat, but in Bocas there still seems to be a lot of the red mangrove along the water and that is where we cut off roots to dissect. We dissected three roots. Mine and Tralee's 1.5 foot section of root had 6 phylums, 18 species and a total of 64 individuals.

We had a break ate another meal before coming back to lab for some more exciting times at STRI. Snorkeling today was amazing an I can't wait until we go back out tomorrow.