Hello from Belize!

8-13-14

Hello from Belize!! I am on the beautiful island of Carrie Bow Cay. Hard to believe that I woke up in Atlanta, caught a 9:45 flight and was on this remote island by 2 pm. (with a puddle jumper flight, a car ride and a boat ride in between). The island is very small - basically 3 buildings (a 2-story lab and 2 sleeping cabins) and no source of fresh water, if you can believe it. Shower and cooking water is collected from the rain and drinking water is brought to the island via boat once a week. I am sharing a room with a girl my own age named Lane. The cabin sits not 10 feet from the water and we always keep the doors and windows open. I don’t even notice the lack of A/C because the sea breeze is wonderfully strong. 

When we arrived, we set up our gear and then tried to access the internet with no avail (the reason this post is so far behind schedule and is picture-deficient). Then my advisor, Danielle Dixson, and I snorkeled out to the buoy and marked corals, from which we will collect the spawn tonight. The reef is just a short swim away from the beach in about 6-8 feet of water. The reef is absolutely beautiful! The elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) are thriving, with elkhorn heads larger than I have ever seen! 

Shortly after our snorkel, we ate a delicious dinner provided by the local cook that lives on the island. It was amazing and included chocolate cake! Due to paperwork issues, Danielle and I were not able to dive for the spawn tonight, but we were able to snorkel. At 7:30 pm, just after dark, we donned our wetsuits and snorkel gear and headed into the water. We saw so many amazing creatures while waiting for the corals to spawn. We filmed several octopus moving along the bottom, as well as a few squid several sleeping fishes, and some large crabs and lobsters. Around 9 pm, well after dark, we realized that the corals were not going to spawn tonight. We kept checking the corals for the telltale sign of spawning - little pink balls of egg and sperm at the tip of each coral polyp - but nothing indicated that the corals would spawn tonight. 

We swam back to shore and hung out for a while before bed, hopeful that the corals would spawn tomorrow. 

*pictures will be posted later!! :)