Day 1: Port Saint Joe.
Our first mission: Count urchins in meter plots to find the population distribution in the seagrasses.
So I've been here before-- we went last year and it was just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Actually, it was way cooler than sliced bread, by about a bajillion times (why is that even an expression? So many things are cooler than sliced bread. Just sayin.). Anyways, I loved it because of all of the life in these sea grass beds. The variety of starfish, the conchs, hermit crabs, stone crabs, rays, sand dollars,and some smaller predatory fishes. Loved it. It was my favorite snorkeling spot for the longest time because you are literally in the habitat when swimming because it's so shallow. So obviously I was pumped to see again.
So we get there and it's low tide. I mean REALLY LOW tide. What used to be at least three feet was a couple inches. Obviously, there wasn't much marine life due to the shallowness. And the seagrass was covered with algae, which is bad news for an ecosystem. Looking that this once beautiful location was now nearly empty was so sad! And no one wants this to happen permanently to their favorite snorkeling spot-- this is why conservation is important! Rant time: If we don't keep our oceans happy, they're going to turn ugly. Fertilizers and runoff increase algal growth, which increases decay and decreases oxygen on the ocean floor, resulting in fewer fish because if there's no oxygen, fish can't breath and will die. On top of that, overfishing removes large predatory fishes, which increases the number of small fish, removing a whole part of the food web and leaves too many small fish hunting for the same limited food source. Fewer large fish means failing fisheries; failing fisheries means fewer jobs and fewer fish nights at your favorite restaurant; fewer jobs and fewer fish nights means a huge blow to our economy. But when these big fish are overfished and the small fish run out of oxygen, what's left? Maybe some jellyfish, which are not the most useful animals we have. So overfishing and runoff leads to empty oceans and failed fisheries and failed tourism and failed economy: just don't do it people! And don't get me started on pollution- like how FREAKING HARD is it to put your glass jars and plastic bottles in a recycling bin instead of a trash can?? The answer: not hard. Glass doesn't degrade. At all. But it is 100% reusable when recycled, unlike any other recyclable material, so why the heck would you waste the glass and room in a landfill on it?! Make a teensy tiny effort to keep this Earth nice and functioning for the future generations, okay? Okay. (Yes, I did just make a Fault in Our Stars reference. Yes, it was a wonderful book.) Just treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children. And no one like an ugly ocean. End rant.
Back to our lab... We walked out far enough that it got a bit deeper and we could do our lab work and count urchins. There was an average of 2.5 urchins in every meter, fun fact for ya! We also found a fish that we returned to the water quickly after figuring out that it was a scorpion fish and would stab us with its venom spines. This is the beauty of knowing what different kinds of fish are- you save your hand and your life! So stay in school, kids. Learning saves lives.
Our second mission: Trawling in the sand and seagrass to find what types of fish are where!
We started in the sand and found urchins. urchins. more urchins. andddd a tunicate. Yup. Not the most thrilling trawl ever, but the spot we were in was not the liveliest.
Then we moved to the seagrasses and my faith was restored in ocean humanity (just a little bit). We found lots of cool things this time! Scrawled cowfish, flounder, seahorses, a billion pinfish, seahorses, a few burrfish (type of pufferfish). That was some fun stuff!
 |
| Enjoy this photo of my first pufferfish (that I was afraid of) and me now with a pufferfish. I've changed for the better. |
Time for snorkeling! And this part was flipping awesome! Actually it was my favorite part of the trip. It was super clear water and the temperature was just right- not bath water or too chilly- and there was just SO MUCH to see, which definitely made up for my slight disappointment from the first snorkeling spot. Just to name a few things we saw: drum, juvenile cocoa damselfish (ROAR LIONS! They're purple and gold), spadefish (DISL's mascot), lookdown (you're standing in your grave...Les Miserables allusion if ya didn't catch it), yellowfin grouper, a HUGE southern ray, blue angelfish, yellow jack, feather blenny, tessellated Blenny (so cute hiding in the rocks), sea cucumber (which is not slimy and gross like I expected). There were also about a bajillion juvenile jellyfish that were constantly stinging us- it was itchy and stingy and obnoxious, but I didn't notice it for the longest time because I was so distracted by all the other pretty things around me! Literally everywhere you looked there was more marine life: in the algae covered rocks, under the rocks, in between the rocks, open ocean, in the sediment, on the sediment, and everywhere in between. New favorite snorkeling spot, guys. But I know there's still so much to explore, and I can't wait to see more places!
No comments:
Post a Comment