I'm sure the student's will be  posting lots more underwater photos shortly, but here are a few things from this morning's snorkel.

Right next to the dock area is large mangrove forest. When you try to take a half-in/half-out photo, sometimes things get a little blurry.  But the brown things below the green things in the "air-side" of the photo are mangrove prop roots which go down into the water.

When you go underwater, things come into a bit more focus. The prop roots serve as habitat for a variety of algae, bacterial mats, and (as seen above) thousands of small fish (probably silversides similar to what we have in the bays of Long Island back home).

Also in the mangrove area are a lot of dusky damselfish. These fish are territorial and will "charge" at you when you swim over their turf algae areas.  They are very small, but will occasionally bonk your facemask.

Stay tuned for student posts starting tomorrow.

Prof. Warren