Hello, I’m Neil! I’m a marine vertebrate biology major, but I’m not just here for the fish. I’m pretty much interested in everything that moves, and my first full day at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab delivered. Before breakfast, I took a morning stroll down to the water, and I immediately saw around 6 different fish species, including a porcupine fish, several juvenile Atlantic blue tangs, and more damselfish and dwarf round-herring than I could count. After breakfast, we took our first snorkel trip of the class, and it was incredible. Just around 30 or so feet from the lab, I brought my porcupine fish count up to two, and Dr. Warren showed us several inverts up close, such as West Indian sea eggs and a massive conch. After snorkeling and lunch, me and my group took a quick walk down the boardwalk through the limestone forest, where I found beautiful plants and small insects and spiders, including one of Jamaica’s endemic jumping spiders, in the genus Compsodecta.

Male Compsodecta jumping spider, endemic to Jamaica.

Caribbean land hermit crab (Coenobita clypeatus)

At the end of the boardwalk is a stretch of shoreline, where we found hundreds of chitons, snails, and hermit crabs, as well as a beautiful Atlantic peacock flounder which let us come right up to it.

Atlantic peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus)

After dinner and Dr. Peterson’s lecture, my group and I returned to the water, where we scoured the area with flashlights and saw a yellow stingray, a needlefish, juvenile barracuda, and at least two different species of cardinalfish. The trip started out better than I could have imagined, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

– Neil