Day 4: Squids, Sharks, and Lobsters - Oh My!

Day four started with a early morning and another fabulous meal of toast, eggs, and ham! The chef Dezuse always makes sure we are well fed and happy. We then broke into our projects group for a few hours to get data for our projects. Bennett and I (The Urchinators) laid out our arenas to observe urchin behavior to determine if they have preference in the materials they use to camouflage themselves. Each team spent around three hours in the field collecting data to answer the exciting questions that we developed over the past couple months! The Urchinators had a successful first official run of our projects, we left the urchins with different types of material in the arenas for 30 minutes then took pictures of the results. Look at the shots down below: 

(Above) Urchin - before covering itself 

(Above) Urchin after covering itself in the material 

After we worked on our projects we had a lecture on Coral Reefs from Richard. We learned about coral erosion, and coral loss. After this insightful lecture we reviewed out data findings from the previous day, analyzing coral diversity and mangrove growth! We then had another fire meal from Dezuse and prepared for a boat trip!

We ended the day with a snorkel trip to the Coco's Site and to Punta Caracol. At the first site, we saw a few brittle stars and a lot of coral! At the second site, we hit the jackpot on cool thing to see. We first saw a shark under some coral, a group of squids - the one pictured below has its arms and tentacles up to try to scare the camera away- , a fire worm, and a spiny lobster! This was a great trip and everyone left super excited about something they saw. My personal favorite was seeing the group of squids, it was super cool to see the squids change color and attempt to scare us away I learned today that a group of squids is called a shoal or a squad! They are incredibly intelligent and observant creatures and it was very fun to watch them.

(Above) Nurse Shark

(Above) Squid

(Above) Fire Worm

(Above) Spiny Lobster

We ended the day with a yummy dinner with Patacones and for dessert we had apple pie and ice cream! We then had one more lecture from Maya about waste disposal in Panama and its effects on the environment. Then we had an insightful discussion, and unwinded and reviewed our plans for tomorrow and worked on our daily journal reflections. Today was yet another great day and I'm excited for all the days to come! 

I want to dedicate this post to my Gran Gran! She dedicated her life to education and even though she passed at the beginning of this trip, I know she would be happy to see me learning and growing. Love you! - Hannah