7.14
(Skip breakfast and getting a crab out of Codee's backpack)
After a lot of coconut ring making, dust, and lunch, I went out to do some more data collection. It went really well and I got to see another seahorse which I kind-of messed with a little bit, but he's ok!! I had such a relaxing time out there. There was also a barracuda which I got a pretty picture of. I did some nice thinking, as well as find 3 spotted hermit crabs which are so cute and will probably mess my data up, but oh well. It's been a pretty slow day, so not much activity or things worth blogging about.
There are a lot of ants and they were in my computer for a while until I angrily threw them all out. Soon, I will be reunited with Lysol wipes.
(Skip din dins)
I fell asleep on the dock for a while, but it resulted in me waking up quite damp and a little bug bitten. So I begrudgingly headed upstairs and proceeded to pass out in Mei-Jing's hammock. It was much nicer compared to inside, because there was a few degrees difference in temperature. And the mesh ensured, less bugs.

July 14

Today I went on a night dive with Mei-Jing and Grace! It was all of our first night dives and it was incredible. We all had flashlights and went with three dive masters (one for each of us :)). We got in the water right after the sunset and it was gorgeous. Diving when very little light comes through the water really forces you to pay attention to one thing at a time, whatever your flashlight can see at once. I saw a lot of different small creatures I have yet to see, like tiny crab and little fish. Each sponge and coral looked different too under such light. Shutting of your flashlight and just looking up/into the abyss was awesome. At the end, we all shut off our lights and played with the bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the emission of light by marine vertebrates/invertebrates that are tiny and just hanging out in the water. When you move anything around it all sort of comes off the object all blue and lit up. It was dope, for lack of a more accurate term. We got back on the boat to go back and the light was broken. It was awesome to get to see the bright stars on the ride back in. No flash on the go  GoPro, so no pictures, but I assure you it was magnificent.

Swimming Iguana

July 13

I spent most of the day writing essay 3 and assignment 3. The essay was to talk about symbiotic and mutualistic relationships. Very open-ended. Assignment  3 is to create a reef environment in an aquarium for a restaurant. Then explain the various species you will include, and how to make it educational for the customers. I am going to create an Asian fusion restaurant in Miami. The main dish at the restaurant will be snake head fish, an invasive specie that is found in Florida but native to Southeast Asia. I will create the aquarium to reflect the reefs of Southeast Asia. Then I will explain the differences between Caribbean reefs and Asian reefs and why crossing species unnaturally cam negatively impact the ecosystem. I went out did my daily work for my independent project as well. We had a lecture on how to review scientific papers tonight as that is an upcoming assignment. It will help us to write our own scientific research paper.

Flying Gurnard

Beyond Beautiful

For those of you back home, there was a beyond beautiful sunset tonight. 

Enjoy.

7.12
We're almost done! It's insane.
(Skip breakfast)
I was able to go out today to my usual spots to look for hermit crabs. As usual it was a challenge for an hour. While I was hunting by the drop off a HUGE spotted stingray sidled up to me and I got to swim with him! It was so amazing, and I got some great shots. Just like yesterday, it was an experience I will never forget. After seeing them at the Georgia Aquarium, this was incredible. A twice in a lifetime experience.
After a while I was able to find 4 data subjects for my study, and conclude that I have to leave out one of my data points because it's not made for the experiment due to all of the dead cooked fish. (Long story short, I can't use it because of the confounding variable... I think that's the right word.)
Back on land there was a snake!!! It was so cool to see. After Dante and a local confirmed that it wasn't venomous, Dante picked it up. I, of course, had to hold it. He was so cute!!! I carried him with me for 5 minutes posing for pictures and showing him off. (Shhhh. It's a secret.)
We released him back into the trees and then I resumed drying off. Then as I was trying to take a photo of a new hermit species I still haven't identified, Codee and I inspected this weird bug who is also still unidentified. But I got a couple pictures of it. Some sort of creepy looking thing.
(Skip moving through photos and looking up things for the paper and lunch.)
(Skip rock out work time. A lot of work time.)
(Skip dinner and sourness and key lime and work and procrastination.)
Bed time soon, after I do a little bit more work. I'm excited to draw up this imaginary restaurant with fish tank! I should be a pich person for ads or something because my idea is so beautifully and effervescently explained.

Included is a picture I took because I wasn't about to let this ray get away without a photoshoot.
-Olivia Van Housen

Condylactis Clinger

I'm currently working on a project on the symbiotic relationship between the banded clinging crab and the giant anemone. I've been studying the crabs behavior and the way in which it uses the anemone for protection. Unfortunately, I can't hold my breath long enough to take down observations while in the field so I have been mounting a go pro camera to the sea floor to take 5 minute sampling videos. When I get back on land I analyze the videos and record observations on an excel sheet. Its a pretty lengthy process, I have ten anemones flagged that I am looking at everyday. Eventually I will do something with the data to support my claim that the banded clinging crab (Minthrax cinctimanus) is more likely to exhibit feeding behaviors and is less likely to be approached by predators if it has adequate coverage by the giant anemone (Condylactis gigantea). 

You have to look pretty closely for the crab, as the red algae growing from the buildup of calcium carbonate on its exoskeleton serves as very good camouflage.

Here are some video links!

https://youtu.be/AlKCyIh8dTM

https://youtu.be/QHuWlV8zHeA

Teaching English

I really enjoyed teaching English to the kids of the village. Lack of availability of education can really drive up inspiration and increase the amount of effort a student puts in. These children are all in the same classroom ranging from 4 to 13 years old. They have one "maestro", a hardworking man who puts his all into pushing the kids to their limits. A 13 year old girl sometimes helps with the teaching. This week, the students are on government-mandated leave due to budget cuts.

Crabs Houseshopping

On my way up to the room, I noticed that one of the piles of shells available to hermit crabs had two crabs actively shopping for shells.

I quietly sat down and watched as two crabs abandoned their previous shells adopted tagged ones. I got a concise 30 second video of a hermit crab changing shells.

Pictured here is a hermit crab wearing a shell from 2014.

Banded Clinging Crab

Banded Clinging Crabs (Mithraculus cinctimanus) don't intentionally prey on but algae, particles of organic matter, and mucus ejected with the anemones digested food. Their blunted chela are adapted to to scraping algae and mucus from coral. These crabs are covered in buildups of calcium carbonate and red algae that serve as very good camouflage.

7.10
Ah a hike. Which was much easier than the first time because of the fact that I took my inhaler, but due to the calf cramps and the slight back cramps it took me a bit longer to get over there, so Thomas helped me out and he told me about hearthstone and guildwars.
Once we got over there both of us immediately began to pick up trash. Once we were all filled up on trash, we headed back on the "schoolbus" and I begrudgingly took a five minute break. After that I went out in the water and was able to find a couple locations and take some measurements for my project on the dive slate. While out there I was having a little trouble, because things would come up from my throat/stomach and my body was just so angry with me for so many reasons. But, being the stubborn idiot I am, I ignored it as well as the awful taste in my mouth.
I was able to find the 3 species I had found before, and the blues were in the most abundance. (SOO CUTE and POKEABLE.) After helping Codeee with her measurements, we headed in.
(Skip lunch which I did eat, but I still wasn't feeling too well.)
After lunch I took a 5 minute kayak out around just to go somewhere in it. And then shower.

Now cue the lovely downpour.
(SIDE NOTE ABOUT THE NIGHT SWIM THAT I DIDN'T INCLUDE A FEw DAYS AGO PROBABLY- It was so fun! People got stung by jelly fish while Codee and I were laughing our butts off looking at all of the nightlife. There were SO MANY JELLYS. I loved even the slightly scary parts. We didn't swim with any spotted eagle rays, but we did find a spotted sand ray ish thing which was super cool!)
Now din dins and then soon lecture on Annelids and Sipunculids and mites and leeches and organs and worms. 
-Olivia Van Housen

Crab Coition

Interrupted these fellows on the way up to my room last night.

Acclimation to the Island Environment

             Just want to point out how much I've been able to learn and observe on the trip!! I definitely feel the effectiveness of the immersion model of this class. Reading and learning the material in a class and a lab offers one perspective, however having visual and tactile experience to associate the labels and terminology with makes the learning process almost instantaneous! I feel very fortunate to be on this trip and to gain all of these experiences.

            On another note, the change of pace that the island atmosphere provides is much needed for me. In the setting I find it much easier to live in the moment and to set clear objectives and goals for the day. I have also had some eye opening experiences in terms of seeing how comfortably people can survive with minimal resources. The native Hondurans in the East Village of the island are some of the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet, while living in poverty with minimal resources. Their ability to form a stable and happy community in the face of adversity and without support form the unstable Honduran government serves as a source of inspiration to me, and exemplifies that notion that hardship is relative and everyone has the potential to overcome.

We have what living in our bodies?

 After getting back from Chachahuate and doing an intense garbage cleanup in the East End village this morning, I was finally able to get into the water to work on my project. Our project is taking a deeper look into the role algae has in the ecosystem. The main factors we are looking for are: whether or not increasing depth effects the organisms around the algae, whether or not more algal cover effects organisms around the algae, and whether or not there is a correlation between parasitic associates and algal development. I did a focal area sampling today of a shallow algae area. Thomas is going to do a deep one tomorrow. I took pictures and noticed that there were relatively few organisms eating the algae at this depth. We will later analyze the percent algae cover, and compare the results with sampling at greater depths. I then took a sample of the algae and we will analyze it under the microscope tomorrow. Yesterday, after analyzing our algae from that day, we saw at least 3 parasitic associates on every alga! We are trying to figure out exactly what they are called and how they correlate with the algae, but some of them are big and very lively (which we defined as moving from one significant part of the algae to another). Each algae sample that we looked at was only about a few centimeters long, yet there was another life living on it that one just can’t see. Dr. Gilchrist actually gave us a lecture after dinner today about worms, which related to our project. We discussed annelids and sypunculids and found out that we most likely have been seeing macrophagous feeders (on our algae). These are known to eat algae, seagrass, and other plants. One interesting fact that I liked about both types of worms is that they have a “straight through” gut – meaning they have 2 openings in their body (mouth and anus). This gives them an advantage over other organisms that are more complicated. Dr. Gilchrist said that the types of experts in sypunculids can be counted on one hand! She then got into the details about worms – specifically parasites. Apparently, we all have about 4 different types of species in our bodies. Many of them surround and roam our intestines. They usually get in through normal activity, especially drinking tap water and wearing no shoes (which many of the New College students do) can invite parasites into our bodies. Nothing out of the usual, just a bunch of parasites roaming our internal organs. To conclude the night, everyone asked Dr. Gilchrist about how we can get rid of these parasites that are apparently in our body. 

 

The beginning of the stupendous starfish project

Hi guys! I just wanted to give you a little preview of my project. The purpose of my experiment is to test how the size, the depth, of a starfish, as well as the long shore currents verses the currents further out affect the amount of time it takes for star fish to flip over. This project is important because when a starfish is on its back they are left defenseless against their predators and their survival is left at a the chance on whether or not a predator is near by. Here are some really cool pictures of this process. ( I took them and Tomas edited them.) I hope you think they are as awesome as I do. 

Arthropod Appeasement

Red Rock Crab
Grapsus grapsus
Munching on another crustacean

Blue Land Crab
Cardisoma guanhumi
Eating a fallen hibiscus flower

July 7

Today we started our independent research projects. I have decided to study flamingo tongue snails and their relationship to the common sea fan. On the reef there are many of these mutualistic relationships and I wanted to conduct something that is abundant to assure the most challenging aspect is not finding the species. I am looking at how much the snail eats in area per day per centimeter of snail. The feeding trail of the snail can be seen as the coloration is distinct on the sea fan. I am going to try and use a computer program to find the are of the spot eaten, as Professor Gilchrist told me about it. The only problem is she forgot the name of the program. I am going to spend some time poking around the internet later to figure out a program that will work, at least I know there is one out there. 

In the field, I went and marked 10 different fans I will look at everyday. That way I can track the change per day and find and average for each snail. It was a lot harder than I thought to physically place the flags. Originally, I was going to do half of my flags deep and half shallow but I quickly learned shoving a flag into the sand/rock was hard enough in shallow water. I used a combination of different rocks and things to keep the flags to stay put. We will see if I was successful tomorrow...

The snails stay for a while, and if one moves one day I can choose another one and just go with the numbers I already have for a data point. With that said, I am prepared to change my question and direction of my project based on what I see in the field, as I think that is a big learning objective of field study it self. I am very excited to get to do something hands on and real and completely led by my own decisions. 

Tomorrow's plan is to start taking pictures to be analyzed as well as measure each snail.

7.7

This moring we were able to go out and take a quick walk over to the edge by the firepit. There Dante showed us a beautiful looking fish. (Furiously looks up fish type) (Catches humming bird and then it escapes and then finally leaves the hang area) So I couldn't identify the fish because I was forgetting what type it was. And we also saw an EEL. A chain eel!!!! 

Moving on. 

I'm planning my research project on hermit crabs and where they reside, what types are out there, (4 types according to Dr. Gilchrist) and what coral type they prefer. It seems pretty straightforward. If I'm not able to have a semi-successful first day, I will change my idea to parrotfish coral preference, like which corals do the stoplight parrotfish eat most, etc.

Who knows. I need to get out there ASAP to do some work. But until then....

(Skip making two AWESOME coconut rings)

(Skip tasty pizza)

I went out to swim to look for hermit crabs and the boys (Thomas and Adam) roped me into going with them to explore. While they swam around I poked a couple hermit crabs and identified mostly the Dwarf Blues. Some stayed in the fire coral so I was not able to identify them.

After that was din dins and lecture time. The day ended with Natalie, Codee, Thomas, Mei-Jing, Grace, and I numbering and gluing shells for Dr. Gilchrist. It was a pretty lovely day. Before bed I read to Codee some common Spanish phrases and some things about corals in a funny voice that was very entertaining. 

-Olivia Van Housen

Snorkeling for Symbiosis

This marks day two of our individual research projects. I set out today with the goal of finding the remaining two Giant Anemones that I will be studying. It only took me a few minutes to locate the area I was working in yesterday. After flagging the remaining two, I started photographing the anemones I will be studying. I was careful to not kick my flippers too close to the anemones to avoid disturbing any organisms residing in them. In addition to taking a few close up shots I took areal shots of the locations where each anemone was found to use as reference when discussing the surrounding coral species. I noticed that many of the anemones I flagged were located under starlet coral with sea fans either nearby or directly on top of the anemone. I became tired after hunting down each flag and photographing all ten and was unable to measure the depth and distance from shore this morning. All ten anemones are flagged in a stretch no more than 25 meters long. Weather permitting, I will head back out into the field this afternoon to take the measurements.

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Two Octopuses Making Babies

The octopus you can see clearly is reaching his third arm into the den of female. You can see the funnel of the female. There's a fish in front of her eye. The male injects his spermatophore into the female. She decides whether and when to let it fertilize her eggs. It's a big decision. After fertilizing her eggs she never eats again. She tends the eggs and then dies.

7/7/2015

Got the chance to meet this fellow on the way up to the room last night.

The Big Iguana

Here is the big Iguana, sometimes seen on the path from the rooms to the beach.

Hermit Crab Shell Market

Professor Sandra Gilchrist and her students have been labeling shells and leaving them out for hermit crabs on Cayos Cochinos for fourteen years. She leaves about 6,000 shells per year for land crabs and 4,000 for sea crabs. 

This year I did my part by labeling 50 shells and creating a small market in the woods by our rooms. Hermit crabs come to market to trade their old shells for new ones. My market has seven net sales of labeled shells in two days. The pictures show today's market, nicely ordered in the morning 

and in disarray in the evening after a day of hermit crabs shopping.

Tuesday Afternoon

Thomas and Adam

Austin and Mei Jing

Carlos

Moray Eel

After dragging myself out of bed this morning and trekking down to the shore I was pleasantly surprised to see a Chainlink Moray Eel. This specimen was approximately two feet in length and was seen in a five inch crevice between two rocks. Dante, the island chef, claimed that it was his pet that was always present when fish were being cleaned. One time it launched itself onto the ground and attempted to haul a 30+ pound fish back into the water. It was ultimately unsuccessful, but to his surprise managed to move it a few inches closer before receding back into the water.

Night Swim

July 6th

         As the last of the daylight started to fade, our entire group prepared ourselves for our first night snorkel. One by one we each sat down in the water, each shocked at how cool it had become. However, that didn't phase me for too long because I was so excited to see the changes night brought to ocean life. Sophia and I both let out a little squeal as we saw our fist fish, neither of us had done anything like this before. It swam out of our field of vision too quickly to identify, but just seeing it made us both become more intrigued. We swam over to the coral hoping for a little more excitement. On the way I couldn't help but satisfy my curiosity, and I reached down to touch a nearby starfish. It was so much squishier than they were during the day, (making themselves more stiff during the day probably helps defend from enemies), and I quickly urged Sophia to touch the starfish too.  (Now starfish are my new underwater obsession.)  During our swim some other highlights were that we saw  a  Squirrelfish, Holocentrus adsensionis, which is a beautiful fish with red and white scales, and huge eyes that glimmer in the light, as well as a scorpion fish which perfectly blended in with the rubbish underneath the dock. The night swim was super cool and I can't wait to do it again.