Today is May 24th, 2014. We took the truck to Bone Fish Bay at 9 AM this morning. The goal for the morning was to become familiar with organisms that live in tide pools and under rocks. We waded out to a part where we could stand to explore the exposed tide pools. These pools were exposed because we went to this site at low tide. We were lucky enough to visit this site during a spring tide where the moon and sun are aligned, making the low tides extra low because of the combined gravitational force. While turning over rocks we noticed a lot of red wart like things called Homotrema rubrum. The abundance of this species gives the sand a slight pink color, making the beach even more beautiful. Along with these we found many sea urchins and brittle stars. This trip was fun because we got to hold these non-threatening animals in our hands. The brittle stars were very active and would climb up your arm. This site functioned as a nursery for many types of fish. The younger fish would live in these pools which protected them from predators that dwelled in the open ocean.
After a wholesome lunch we got back on to the truck and took a trip to Sand Dollar beach. Here we observed a healthy reef and the organisms that lived among it. Some highlights from the snorkel were a yellow stingray and a Flounder. Flounder are especially hard to find because of their expert camouflage, but fortunately, we spotted a few blending in with the sand. There was a plethora of parrotfish living at this site that we witnessed snacking on the coral. Near the end of the swim, we came across a Yellow Spotted Eel peeking into holes in the coral, looking for its next meal. It was evident why this site was called Sand Dollar, seeing as how many of us found sand dollars on the ocean floor. As our swim came to an end, the sound of thunder and the view of immaculate lightning from a storm over the water sent us on our way as we packed up and headed back to the GRC.
by Dani Lacy '16 and Levi Burns '15