Work officially began today with setting up some of our class projects. By 8:00 A.M. we were in the water, collecting turbinaria (a species of algae) from the dead coral heads. Using paint scrapers, I swam around the reef looking for small turbinaria, loosening their holdfasts and placing them in my ziploc bag. After returning my collection to shore, I swam back out to fill a plastic tub with 20 liters of water. During the next few hours, we sorted, spun, weighed and measured the turbinaria, prepping them for their designated treatments. It began to pour at this point and luckily we were almost finished. Rain here is quite the opposite of the rain experienced in LA. I normally dislike walking around in the rain, but here, it is so warm and we are usually still wet from coming out of the ocean that a little more water doesn't make a difference.
After lunch, we set out the experimental treatments from the morning. As a group leader, I was charged with the hammer and a compass, navigating my classmates from site to site. At each site, we nailed the cages to the dead coral heads and used cable ties to secure the cages to the nails. It again began to rain and soon the water became chilly. However, work continued and we nailed in about ten cages. I felt like a true marine scientist, directing a team and working underwater.
The work continued until dinner, as we sorted through halimeda (another species of algae) to find mesograzers (invertebrates smaller than 2 cm). Although the work was tedious, it was quite fascinating. We found teeny brittle stars, snails, hermit crabs, urchins, crabs, worms, and so many other little creatures. It amazed me how small these organisms are, and yet they look just like their adult counterparts.
Our days spent in and out of the water, leaving everyone famished by the time our 6:00 dinner rolls around. The moment we finish cleaning up the lab, we all rushed over to the kitchen to eat. Tonight's dinner consisted of pasta, clam chowder, cucumber and green bean salad, pamelo (I'm not exactly sure that's what it's called) and of course, French bread. After dinner, we went over tomorrow's procedures for our next class project. We will be taking boats to the reef crest to sample sediment and I will be one of the divers for my boat. I never imagined I would learn to dive and even when I began to, I was not comfortable underwater. After my weekend class trip to Catalina in February, I now look forward to diving. I love observing marine life: the damselfish guarding its turf of algae, the juvenille Picasso Fish darting in and out of crevices in the rocks and nudibranchs crawling on the dead coral.
Overall, these past four days have been more than I could have hoped for. I know the real work is yet to begin, but I am still looking forward to those long days because I know they will be worth the effort. Oh look, it's almost 9:00, going to hit the sack pretty soon.
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a [wo]man healthy, wealthy and wise." -Benjamin Franklin
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