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| Looking toward the dock on Southwater Cay, Belize |
I write this sitting back at home beside the wood-stove,
reminiscing about the past three weeks and missing the warm weather more than I
expected. But, it is good to be home, and I have so much to tell you about! I
may overlap with the last post that I was able to write in Belize, so please
bear with me. I hope it will be a good read either way.
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| Red Mangrove Trees and their Prop Roots, photo by Patty Kaisian |
First, let me take you underwater to the mangrove islands of
Twin Cay. Here we can see the salt-tolerant roots of the red mangroves dipping
into the narrow channels between the islands here at
the edge of the Caribbean Sea. The trees build these islands, doing so by capturing the sand and sediment between their roots as it is pushed in by the waves. They prosper against significant odds in part because of a symbiotic relationship with stunningly
colored sponges attached to their prop roots. Additionally, mangroves provide hiding spaces and food for juvenile fish
until the fish grow big enough to swim out and spend their adult lives primarily on
the coral reef. This link between mangroves and reefs was extremely interesting
to learn about, and seems to be a pretty hot topic in the worlds of
conservation and tropical ecology today.
It was sometimes difficult to see the fish in between the
roots, because the fish are wisely skittish, and the visibility in the water column
was easily diminished by sediment that became suspended in it if one of us
accidently kicked some up with our flippers. We had to be extra careful of our
flippers in this habitat for another reason than visibility, however. The
shallow channels between the islands of Twin Cay are chock full with
upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopeia), which are very aptly named, as they rest on the sea
floor with all of their tentacles pointed upwards toward the sky, somewhat
resembling plates of spaghetti and packed with vicious stinging cells. They can
be easily disturbed, in which case they float up and sting the perceived intruder,
but we all came out unscathed. I watched one of these jellies land square upon
another while settling back onto the bottom. It slowly shuffled off to the
side, and I’m not sure if it was (or could be) stung by the jelly it landed
upon. Snorkeling brings on so many observations and questions! Luckily, I was
with very knowledgeable guides, professors, and classmates, so most of my
questions received answers, but this one remains a mystery to me.
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| Dale, Kevin, and Kimike, our guides and drivers |
We felt very fortunate to have such excellent local guides
on our snorkel trips. To my knowledge, none of them were formally trained in biology,
but their expertise in the myriad species and relationships we saw was truly
impressive. They joined us whenever we went out, whether it was in the patch
reefs off our home-base of Southwater Cay, or if we went off site to places
like the mangroves, or the most beautiful reef we visited:
Whale Shoals. At Whale Shoals we saw the greatest diversity of corals and
fishes that I had ever seen. Schools of blue tang wound through the giant
orange Montastrea (star coral) and
green deep-valleyed Diploria (brain
coral) boulders, being occasionally chased by the damselfishes who lived in the
crevices of the corals. Fingerlike gorgonians and sea fans would bend in the
current like ferns in a low summer wind, while anemones, worms and snails would
cast out their long tentacle-looking parts as if to stir the current in their
favor and catch passing bits of food.
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| Grunts swimming over brain corals and a sea fan, photo by Patty Kaishian |
So, we spent both morning and afternoon investigating the
reef, learning to ID its inhabitants, and desperately trying to communicate to
each other underwater, which usually devolved into surfacing, spitting out our
snorkels and sputtering to point out what we were seeing without getting pushed
20 meters away from that really cool fish by the waves. Speaking of spit, this
is the best tool to keeping your mask from fogging up! Oh the glamour of field
biology!
Aside from simple
observation, we spent the later part of our week on Southwater Cay doing some
scientific studies, this being part of a science course and all. We did belt
transect surveys and quadrat surveys. Belt transects include laying out a rope
with measured markings, and swimming along this rope and taking note of all the
fish species that pass within two meters of the measured segments of the rope.
We also used this transect to look at the different types of substrate, such as
coral, rock, or sand. When using the quadrats (a 2m X 2m square in this
instance), we picked a spot on the patch reef, and wrote down every species
that was within that space for a given amount of time. We used this information
mostly to look at species diversity and abundance. It proved to be pretty
challenging, but it was fun and empowering to use methods and find results in
the same manner that professional field biologists do.
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| A dense cluster of Diadema antillarum urchins near the dock |
We got to go on one night snorkel, which was scary,
exhilarating, and altogether too brief, but we saw an octopus, some small
transparent fish that glowed if you splashed near them, and most excitingly: a puffer
fish! Our guide, Kimike, dove below and deftly grabbed the fish in his gloved
hand. The fish was surprisingly slow to blow up to its inflated size, but it
was possibly the funniest wildlife sight I have ever laid eyes on. It went from
the size of a fist to a volleyball, was nearly a perfect sphere, and totally
goofy. I thought my classmate Cole was going to drown from laughing so hard.
(Not to worry, we promptly left it alone and it began to deflate as we swam
away.)
When we weren’t in the water, processing data
from our field work, or sleeping, we were probably eating the continually
delicious food at meals or cracking open fallen coconuts for snacks. We
played a good amount of rummy or billiards, wandered the island, and enjoyed
the sun and passing rainstorms. IZE was in the middle of the island, and there
were two resorts on either end, with an abandoned monastery between IZE and the
resort to the north.
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| The Monastery |
I liked walking around in the monastery; it had a very
strange atmosphere, however, and reminded me of the city in Charn, the ruined
planet in C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s
Nephew. There was an uneasy peace in the monastery. The pathways were lined
exquisitely with evenly-spaced conch shells, and no fallen leaves interrupted
the steps of we infrequent walkers. A corroded shrine to the Virgin Mary
watched over a dry fountain, and the grackles and warblers that sang elsewhere
on the island were not heard here.
*
I realize that I
promised to go into the many names, both common and scientific for so many of
the fantastic creatures I saw, but I must disappoint. There are too many to
mention, and such limited space here to give them any proper description. I
encourage you to go see them for yourselves, and to support organizations and
researchers who aim to better understand and preserve them. For now, here is a
partial list! (The ordering is arbitrary.)
Coral Genera:
- Diploria (a major group of brain corals)
- Porites (we tended to see the lumpy green version)
- Acropera (elkhorn and staghorn are the species common names
- Siderastrea (star corals)
- Montastrea (characterized by its “outie” polyps)
- Favia (somewhat looks like a golf ball)
- Eusmilia (looks like flowers)
- Agaricea (lettuce coral)
- Millepora (fire coral---stings!)
Fish Common Names:
- Butterfly Fish (I saw Four-eyed, Banded, and Spot Fin)
- Damselfish (my favorite of this group were the sergeant majors, genus Abedefduf, the only Arabic genus name as far as I know; blue tang also in this group)
- Angelfish (Queen, Rock Beauty, and French)
- Grouper
- Grunts (Blue-striped and French—I liked these a lot too)
- Chromis (beautifully bright blue!)
- Parrotfish (immature moment: these fish eat coral-which is unusual-then grind up the coral’s calcium carbonate bodies by digestion. This makes the parrotfish poop out loooong streams of sand, which is apparently funny enough to watch that I laugh so hard I gulp in a huge amount of saltwater through my snorkel—bahaha)
- Wrasses (Blue-headed and Yellow-tail)
- Hogfish
- Puffer fish
- Triggerfish (odd looking yet elegant)
- Squirrelfish (giant eyes!)
- Trumpet fish (often hang out near gorgonians in a totally vertical position)
- Rays (we often saw small yellow rays, but occasionally, we’d see a large Spotted Eagle Ray—too cool)
Other neat critters of the reef (invertebrates besides
corals):
- Flamingo Tongue (this nudibranch wears leopard print!)
- Diadema sea urchins (it was exciting to see this keystone herbivore returning in possibly significant numbers)
- Christmas Tree Worms
- Sea Biscuits (like inflated sand dollars)
- Fire Worms
- Brittle Sea Stars
- Sponges (urchins often live in these too!)
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Spiny Lobster
Land lubbers:
- Frigatebirds (also called Man o’ War Birds: seriously worth a look-up on the interwebz, they have a two meter wing span but only weigh 2-3 pounds, excellent flyers but poor landers-they often impale themselves on branches)
- Brown Boobies (shared Bird Island with hundreds of Frigatebirds—it was a smelly place)
- Great-tailed Grackles
- Geckos
- Anoles (similar to geckos, but don’t have “suction-cup” toes)
- Hermit Crabs (popular for races-betting not advised)
I will return very soon to tell you all about Costa Rica. If
I am lucky enough to see you in person, consider asking me about the story of
kayaking around the island on our last afternoon in Belize. It is a fun story,
and much better to tell aloud by a fire with food and drink close by, and with
plenty of room for exaggerated gesticulations.
Tschuss for now!
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| A coconut sculpture near the south end of the island |
P.S. All pictures which are not credited to their photographer in the caption belong to me.
