On Friday we made several snorkeling trips in order to collect specimens for our tanks. In the morning the water was pretty rough due to high winds. This made the visibility much lower than usual, and we weren’t able to find very much. When we went back in the afternoon, however, the water was much clearer and we were able to get going on our collections, grabbing most of the more common algae and invertebrates that we have studied so far, including an upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea frondosa) that for some reason seems to prefer to stay “rightside-up” in our tank and we caught a suckfish. Several of the other groups had the good fortune to catch a few fish, but they all managed to ellude us.

An electric ray photographed during the night snorkel by Billy Lake

Tonight several of us went on our first night snorkel of the trip. It’s amazing how different the lagoon is after dark. Balloonfish (Dioden holocanthus) and Squirrelfish (Holocentrus adscensionis), which I have only seen a few of during the day so far were everywhere. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures with my new external flash, but unfortunately my camera has been fogged up, and the flash unusable since we got here, which is a shame because I have no evidence of the Peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus) I spotted in a sandy section of the lagoon earlier. Even so, I was able to see some interesting species for the first time tonight. We saw several octopi (Octopus vulgaris), and a few rays which we have yet to identify. I also gathered a few Spotted seahares (Aplysia dactylomela), though one somehow managed to escape from the closed collection bag on the way back to the lab. Hopefully we will have more opportunities to explore the various parts of the bay during the rest of the trip, including the deeper sections once we get to start SCUBA diving. Anyway, off to bed, there’s lots to do tomorrow.

-Kevin Maritato