A giant stride entry from the boat.

A group of us left DBML at 7:00 this morning on the Scomber, a sturdy metal boat with two engines. We were off to deploy and recover BRUV devices, as well as do some diving. The sun was shining and the ocean was calm—a perfect morning for us. For each device, we attach a bait bag (full of dead, slimy mackerel) and a GoPro camera, and lower it to the seafloor. Ninety minutes later, we come back to each one, pull it up by the buoy—which is no easy task on the rough seas—replace the bait and camera, and drop it down again. Later, we will review and identify all the creatures caught by the camera. Most of this went without a hiccup, save for one instance where we pulled up a device missing a bait bag. Dr. Warren heroically geared up and dove down to retrieve it.

We did a dive to about 60 feet, in water clear enough to see the reef from the boat. We saw flamingo tongues, plenty of reef, a giant barrel sponge, and beautiful views of coral structures.

A Flamingo’s Tongue on a sea fan.

We arrived back at the lab at 12:30 pm, just in time for lunch. It was a great morning on the boat, and we had a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this trip holds!

Doing a handstand on a giant barrel sponge.

Hi Mom and Dad!

-Lila

View from my dormitory at Discovery Bay.

The light shines into my window, as I lay on the upper level bunk bed in my PJ’s. As I begin to regain consciousness I hear, at a distance, the crystal clear waves crashing onto the beautiful Jamaican shoreline. I hear the lush green leaves stirring in the wind and the mildly humid salty air enters my lungs as I sit up on the mattress. Even though it’s already Day 4 of this adventure, the scenery and the pleasure to all my senses that this view invokes is nothing short of priceless. As I sit, I stop and think to my self, although the days are long, so long as the food is good, the professors helpful, and my classmates funny, this will undoubtedly be a trip to remember.

• Andrew

This is a photo of the red lights set up around the recording device as a means of illuminating the sea floor with out interfering with the natural behaviors of different organisms.

Diving into an underwater world is like visiting a different planet, every thing is different from the colors to the creatures. Sight is most commonly used to explore this world but Colin Wirth (a grad tudent in the Warren lab) is trying to unlock the mystery of sounds. Because of the density of water sound travels faster and further allowing you to hear waves crashing, fish feeding and moving, and shrimp hunting. This sources of this symphony changes following a diurnal pattern making identifying the night time sounds much harder because you can not see what is going on. In order to overcome this problem Colin (our TA) constructed a “red light district” to illuminate the sea floor. Fish and other sea creatures can’t see these red lights creating an environment where their natural activates can be carried out un impeded by our recording. This “red light district” was constructed by a series of eight red LED lights placed into the sand bottom shining down to the sea floor with two acoustic recording device synced to their own GoPro. The site was left alone for an hour allowing the natural activities of these creates to continue. The hope is that the source of the sounds recorded can be identified using the video footage revealing who’s playing what instrument in the sea.

This is a photo of the recoding devices that where deployed for one hour. The yellow box contains the acustic recording device with the microphone connected to the top. The GoPro is mounted facing the the direction the red lights are shining.

This is a photo of the recoding devices that where deployed for one hour. The yellow box contains the acustic recording device with the microphone connected to the top. The GoPro is mounted facing the the direction the red lights are shining.

– Will

Various coral and a fish.

Another day in beautiful sunny Jamaica. The weather was as perfect as yesterday but the mosquitos seem to be getting more and more used to our blood. But as long as they can’t swim they shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Snorkeling is getting more and more fun everyday as we gain experience and learn more about the habitats and behavior of the species we are observing. Some of species are very rare and it always feels like you just won the lottery every time you see them. But nearly all species are majestic in their own way and it never stops to feel like it is a great privilege to observe and swim alongside them.

– Albert

One of the (only) good pictures from today, a few Giant Anemones (Condylus gigantean) and some Rock Boring Urchins (Echinometra lucanter).

It’s our second full day in Jamaica, and we’re slowly starting to get into the routine. The certified divers suited up for their checkout dive, and it was the first day of training for the DITs, and they were incapacitated for the whole day in order to squeeze in all of the coursework needed for scuba certification. A couple of others went with Prof. Peterson to set out the BRUV we set up yesterday. This left a good five of us with some free time before lunch, and we all decided to snorkel and see what we could find for our collections, especially in such a beautiful, warm sunny day.

The water began very calm, but as the tides began to change and the wind began to pick up, us snorkelers were stuck fighting currents and trying not to get washed onto the reef crest or into any Diadema! Nevertheless, it was a very productive snorkel, as the water remained clear and visibility was good. We even saw an octopus! In broad daylight! I hope all snorkels (and dives, when I’m certified) are as productive as this one, and hopefully I can start naming all the fish, invertebrates, and coral in a blink!

-Deana

Today, our class was spilt up into different groups. Some people were in the classroom learning diving basics so they can get SCUBA certified. Others were on the boat with Dr. Brad Peterson deploying BRUVs (baited remote underwater videos) off shore with Go Pro cameras so we can later watch the videos and identify the organisms that were seen. My group had our check out dive. Myself, two other students and our TA Colin had previously gotten SCUBA certified in the past so the dive instructors here at Discovery Bay Marine Lab wanted to make sure that all of our scuba skills were fresh in our minds before going on any dives. After breakfast the four of us set out on the SeaHorse with our dive leader, Snow, and into the water we went. We went to the bottom in about 20 feet of water and performed all of our skills. Some of the skills we had to perform included losing and retrieving our regulator (which is what a diver breaths with), buddy breathing (sharing your air source with a partner) and buoyancy control. Once Snow saw that we were all able to safely dive, we set out on a mini adventure along the outskirts of “The Blue Hole.” We didn’t see many interesting organisms on this dive, but it felt great to be in the beautiful blue water diving again. I’m already excited to get back in the water and see what else I can find!

The Clear blue water of Discovery Bay.

– Marissa

Loving the Beautiful Sunsets in Discovery Bay

We started day 3 in Jamaica at 7:30 am with a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and sausage. Juice and fruits were also served to complete our nutritious and balanced meal. After breakfast, the students started their preparations for diving. The students with diving certificates, Lila, Nikki, and Marissa, went out for a checkout dive at 9 am for a test and a refresher of the necessary skills for safe diving. The rest of the students met with the diving instructor, Dayne Buddo, to schedule their pool dives, their open water dives, or the whole diving course from scratch. The inexperienced students started their diving courses today by watching Dayne give lectures and watching the videos provided by the diving certificate association, PADI.

Another bunch of students went on boat trips to locate the Cameras needed to monitor the sea creature movement. We will be participating in collecting data for a big research project. A group went at 8:30 am and another group went at 1:30 pm. Luckily, the friendly roommates packed the missing students their lunch. For lunch, we had Spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese, fruits, and juice. At 5 pm we had a lecture with Professor Brad on Marine Ecology.

The day was long but exciting and we are all looking forward to learning and experiencing new things!!!

– Yuliya

Our room has high ceilings and the window lets in the Jamaican sunshine !

Today (1/9) we finally got to Jamaica. Forget waiting through the long day of travel that got us here with cars, planes and vans. We’ve been eagerly awaiting this day since the minute we opened our acceptance-to-the- program emails months ago. We took ourselves and our luggage up to the open rooms and picked our roommates. I am rooming with two other girls in a room with two bunk beds and one single bed. We all chose to sleep on the bottom mattresses. Why make things complicated? We spent the remainder of our day acclimating to the life we are about to live for the next two weeks. We were given a walking tour and were lectured on the history of Discovery Bay Marine Lab. We spent a lot of time getting to know our new home, the staff, and each other. I am floored by how fast we have all cliqued. Everyone’s differences are just as exciting to learn about as our similarities. At dinner we all sat at one long table and laughed and shared stories. I am so happy to be sharing this experience with such a wonderful group of men and women.

Our balcony has a view of Discovery Bay in the distance.

Our room on the second floor opens up to the walkway and the volleyball court.

-Peace, Sunscreen, and Neoprene Nikki

[Ed: The first two days of blog posts may appear out of order due to the Professor being very sleepy and forgetting when each of them should have posted…]

This is our view from the docks where we get on the boats to go out scuba diving or just hop off the edge and snorkel.

We arrived today and were given a nice tour of the facilities. They showed us the classroom, where we had to sit through some introductory lectures while fighting off the sleep deprivation of our travels. Also during the tour, they showed us the wet lab. We will be collecting samples and using this room to keep them alive while we study and observe them. This will give us the option to see the wildlife without having to suit up, especially if the weather is bad. And at the end of the tour, they brought us to the docks, and everyone let out a gasp of joy at finally being able to see the ocean after hours and hours of crowded planes and vans.

This is the wet-lab where we will be holding specimen that we collect from the reserve for observation.

This is the classroom where we are having our lectures and meetings.

Love you mom!

Shane Gallimore

First sunrise at Discovery Bay Marine Lab!

It’s now our second day in Jamaica and we’ve finally gotten in the water! After a delicious breakfast made by a wonderful woman named Precious [Ed: and several other women in the cafeteria], we set out to the docks in our wet suits for our first snorkel. We were off to a rather slow start where many of us needed assistance with our gear and getting acclimated to our new environment and wetsuits but boy, was it entertaining and fun. It’s crazy to see a group of such motivated and supportive students here where each and every one of us is eager to learn and appreciative of one another.

Checking out the bay before we prep research equipment.

Our professors, Dr. Brad Peterson and Dr. Joe Warren, have already taught us so much in one day and we are already able to name some organisms and species we’ve found on the reef in Discovery Bay. Today, I even saw an octopus, a spotted snake eel, and a few brittle stars. I’m even getting braver and more comfortable flipping rocks to reveal hidden organisms in the water and picking them up myself! We went out for a second snorkel and I partnered up with Frankie to collect some organisms for the wet lab. We made out pretty well and still have a night dive ahead of us this evening. Tomorrow, many of us start scuba diving and training and we will begin one of a few research projects that we will be working on; stoke levels are HIGH to say the least! I promise to post some more pictures of these incredible organisms but for now, I can only say how beautiful life is below the surface of the sea. It’s a whole other, beautiful world down there!

– Suzie