Open Ocean

These past few days have been really research heavy. We are in the water about 5-6 hours a day collecting all the data that we need but hopefully today is my last day of collecting data so that I can get started on my project. I am feeling very confident about my project and I am so excited to go home and show my friends and family everything that I did and the research that I found! For those of you who don't know much about my project, I am doing a continuation of a research project conducted here in 2022. I am identifying the amount of diseased sea fans (a type of soft coral) in 3 different sites along the west coast of Cayos Grande and seeing if the percent of diseased fans in the area have increased or decreased. Here is a photo I took of a badly diseased one!

Purple spots 

I am also curious in seeing if there are any other factors that might have to do with the disease like depth, distance, water temp, salinity, etc. My project is slowly coming together! I am trying to work hard while also soaking in every minute being on this island! I can't believe I have officially been here over a week! The time is flying by! Usually we do my research in the morning, and I help with Josh's research after lunch. Usually in the afternoon we try to do something more fun. Yesterday, we went out to pelican point out in the deeper water where the reef wall drops really deep. When you look out all you see is the open ocean. At first I was pretty scared but once I got in it was beautiful to see this new part of the reef. 

Just me and the open ocean!!

When we got back I was walking along the beach looking for sea glass and all of a sudden I see something super big in the water right by the shoreline. I run over to it and this is what I found!!

I love these

 I also was able to see this cute little guy on my way back up to my room. There are hermit crabs, land crabs, geckos, iguanas, and humming birds everywhere! You never know what you're going to find when you go on a walk! I love it 

So cute