Work in the lab continues! We have gotten into the rhythm and are getting more efficient at collecting data. I have managed to find the time to work on my own research project which involves hunting for cyanobacterial mats that form cool morphologies/shapes. These cyanobacterial mats can grow almost anywhere underwater, but they particularly like growing on dead coral. Yesterday I hiked out to the other side of the island and found a beach with some fantastic dead coral and lots of good slime (cyanobacteria)! I was very excited! I took some sampling containers out and snorkeled out to collect the mats. While I was collecting I swam with some cool organisms including a lemon shark, a stingray, a manta ray, some barracuda, some big angel fish, and saw lots of big sea stars. The hike back was tough because my cooler full of samples and my snorkeling gear was heavy, but the walk is through a palm tree forest and is beautiful, so I managed to enjoy myself.
I think I forgot to tell you about our trip to Norman’s Pond the other day! The scientific team placed some samples in Norman’s Pond. Norman’s Pond is surrounded by mangroves and although it is open to the ocean water, only a little bit gets in, so the pond is very quiet and filled with lots of fresh rainwater. A few of us took a small boat over to the pond and snorkeled to shore with the hopes of finding the samples. We hiked across the small strip of land that separates the pond from the ocean, and then spent a good hour snorkeling around in the pond. The water is only about a foot and a half deep and the bottom is very muddy so you have to be very careful not to stir up the sediment. If you do hit the bottom you make a giant sediment cloud and then you can’t see anything! The water in the pond was fairly fresh and was very very cold. We shivered and searched, but never did find the sample poles. We did, however, have a good time looking at the Cassiopeia jellyfish. Cassiopeia is a jellyfish that lives upside down! No kidding! Even though it is an animal, it looks just like a plant. It has symbiotic organisms in its tentacles that photosynthesize! Symbiotic means that the jellyfish and the microbes in the tentacles live together and cooperate. The jellyfish feeds the microbes, and the microbes photosynthesize (make energy from sunlight) and feed the jellyfish! Cool, eh? I will paste in a picture of Cassiopeia for you to see.
This afternoon I am going back out to the ship to go on my first front bubble dive in the sub. I won’t be back on the island until tomorrow morning, but I will be sure to post an entry so I can tell you all about the dive!
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