Location-Discovery Bay Marine Lab, Jamaica

Mission – Explore the diverse undersea world

We started this day bright and early. The small breakfast with the professors before we headed out on our journey helped fuel Mike and I. Our goal of the day was to take as many photographs as we could, and to bring back as many organisms as we could to our aquarium that we maintained in the wet lab. We succeeded in both. Although we both came back very tired, for what we caught today and what we saw was definitely worth the effort we put in. The organisms that excited us the most were the different eels. A total of three were observed, two of them identified, and one of them captured. The picture included here is of the Chain Moray Eel, which we found over the reef crest of Discovery Bay a few hundred feet from shore, hiding in the coral.

The captured eel was a Goldspotted Eel, which was pointed out by a fellow classmate, Jen, and later captured by Mike and I. This added to the richness of our aquarium, not that it wasn’t great before the eel that is. Now, the rest of the day was quite different, yet still interesting, as we uploaded the pictures to our laptops, and went through some books to identify the different types of coral, algae, fish, anemones, grasses, etc. The day came to a close after we handed in our powerpoint presentations and had a practical exam on our aquariums. After a hard day’s work, we come back to our rooms and prepare for the next day filled with studying, exams and diving. Stay tuned for more!

-Alex