Sadly, we are nearing the end to our trip. Things are really picking up here in Discovery Bay, and everyone’s feeling the heat. Despite our school stress and sunburns, most of us have found that working in such a beautiful environment has really helped anyone from blowing their top (yet). If you take a moment to walk down the boardwalk, watch the lizards, or wake up for the sunrise, you can sit for just a moment and appreciate that you’re here in Jamaica, and not braving the 20 degree wind chill back in New York.

A 6am sunrise over Discovery Bay

Despite the tensions and studying, Brad offered (convinced) us to venture out on a dive in the afternoon to a canyon about 20 minutes away. Once I saw the flying fish gliding along past the boat, I knew I had made the right choice to go. We had been studying all day for other tests we needed to take a break. Sometimes its hard to look past the coursework backbone and take advantage of being here when you have limited time and lots of work to do. We are Stony Brook students of course; we are expected to go “Far Beyond” and do so fervently.

The ride was rough, but the dive was probably the best we have taken so far. Besides the impeccable variation of wildlife, swimming over a canyon is like jumping off of a cliff, and floating across. Peering down into a 200 foot drop, I couldn’t quite grasp that the bottom was in fact down there somewhere. It made it a lot more believable to me that we know more about the stars in the sky than the bottom of the ocean.

-Sascha Starfruit

Tonight, a couple of us went night snorkeling. The mangroves and the crest can barely be made out from the edge of the dock. Looking down with my flashlight, I can see the diadema crawling along the side of the dock at the surface of the water. I quickly put on my snorkel gear and jumped into the water as Nick followed right behind. We both moved slowly with our flashlights on because it was very dark. The silversides were darting back and forth through our lights as we moved through the dark. It was another world at night. The urchins and squirrelfish were more active. The diadema and lytechinus were crawling about munching on algae. There were a bunch of worms about one foot or more crawling about. As we sawm to deeper water, we began to come across more beautiful creatures. Hiding in crevices were a couple of spiny lobsters, one big and one small.

Two spiny lobsters under a rock

A couple of meters away from the lobsters was a big yellow stingray sitting on top of some Thalassia. I shone the light on top of it and it didn’t move, giving me the perfect opportunity to take a photo.

Yellow stingray laying on Thalassia.

Before departing the ray, I gave it a little pet on the nose. The ray was not the only thing we saw. We saw many small common octopus. When we shine the lights on them, they change colors. They change to a blue, green, and brown mix. They put on a fantastic display changing colors as we got closer to look at them. Going on the night dive has been the best experience I had here. I plan to do one more night snorkel before we have to leave.

Lemon Lucas

The Balloon Fish just hanging out by the docks. Photo Credit: Lucus

As the last few days come and go, we are all preparing for the end of this trip and of this class. These past two days we have mostly been working on some group project Dr. Warren and Dr. Peterson gave to the class. One having to do with transects and the other having to do with sorting through sediments and finding how much diversity there is in even small sections of the ocean. We also had out Identification test yesterday. We were all pretty nervous at first but it was not as nerve racking as we thought it would be and now I know that a Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber’s scientific name is Holothuria mexicana. After the test today, everyone mostly just relaxed and started to study for our test on the course material, which is today. While studying together on the dock, a group of us saw a cute Balloon fish (Diodon holocanthus). It wasn’t scared of us and even came up to our hands when we would lightly splash the water. It even let us pet it. It was a good break from all of the stress and anxiety placed on us these past few days.

-Julia

Today is the culmination of everyone’s stress and fatigue; some of us are suffering from mental breakdowns, bone injuries, accidental soiled wetsuits, and even bloody noses, however, we all continue to laugh and dance it all off with a smile. Today we started off the day getting up at 6:30am for early snorkeling and dives which was a blessing compared to previously getting up at 5:30am. Then after breakfast, we finished any missing data for our transects by measuring diadema, parrot fish, surgeon fish, and bottom cover. Following data collection, we had lunch and a couple of us went on either research dives, contributed to organization of data sites consisting of seagrass or clams, continued to study for our ID test tomorrow until dinner, and played with a sea turtle near the mangrove nursery.

A sea turtle eating a jellyfish, Cassiopea frondosa, which was found by divers and placed into the nursery because it was blind.

At dinner, those who had been participating in dives, snorkeling, or ID presentations were overwhelmed with the lectures and ID’s they had to catch up on. The ID project entails that students remember the Phyla, Classes, Genus, and Species of invertebrates, plants, and algae typically found in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. We’ve managed to survive this stress by playing jeopardy, using funny pneumonics, singing songs, doing pushups for wrong answers, and playing hangman. However, I don’t think we would have made it through this trip without our kitchen cooks, Mrs. Precious and Mrs. June, because they always lightened up our anxiety with DESSERT! It’s the perfect way to end to the day and it always keeps us going. Thus, although we are experiencing overwhelming stress right now for our ID test tomorrow, we will eventually look back on our stress as rewarding and prize ourselves with Dessert at the end of the day.

– Sydney

Today was filled with adventure despite the stress of schoolwork. We had gone on a dive at Dairy Bull reef earlier in the morning and saw a sea turtle. Back on dry land we began to feel the heat of assignments and upcoming exams. To cool off we ventured out on a dive in the afternoon. Our professor Brad told us about a cavern that had a unique feature, so we headed there to see what it had to offer us. We rounded up a bunch of divers and made a speedy getaway to our location. With all of us geared up, we began our descent and made our way towards the cavern. As we were approaching, the sunlight that was trickling down on us became obscured. I looked up in shock to find massive fish larger than my head circling around us. Bermuda Chubs were schooling all around us trying to see what we were and if we brought any treats for them. My fear melted away into awe as I watched these monstrous fish dance around us. They were so close that I was able to reach out and touch them as they swam past.

Our new friends, the Bermuda Chub (Kyphosus sectatrix)

The Chubs followed us on our journey to the secret spot my professor was raving about. At 50ft down there was a birdbath with benches in a circle that were anchored to the bottom. In the birdbath was a collection of bottles that were weighed down, so they wouldn’t float away. It was as if someone knew we were headed there and left out some refreshments for us. My friends and I decided it was the perfect place to relax from all our hard work and had ourselves a drink.

Here’s to a great day in Jamaica

-Siobhan

Yesterday on the 15th I was trying to take it easy in the water and hit the books to work on studying and some assignments we have in our last few days in Discovery Bay. That didn’t last long…. Hesitant at first to go on a dive, Professor Peterson reminded me to have some fun and that I wouldn’t regret going out on the boat- and he wasn’t wrong! On the way to explore a new dive site we rode through a school of flying fish. Although I don’t have any pictures of the experience, I can only explain it as I thought it was a bunch of birds gliding along the water. The flying fish can glide very far, and their “wings” actually resemble a birds fairly well.

I didn’t spot any flying fish underwater, but 40 feet below rather I saw a large diversity of other fish and was not disappointed. One fish I haven’t seen before yesterday was called a “chub” (Kyphosus sectatrix) and they were very friendly. Once they saw a group of us divers they schooled around us and swam side by side with me and my dive buddies. I assume they believed we were large predators and they’d get scraps from us, but they stayed with us nonetheless when they didn’t get any food.

A picture my friend, Siobhan, took of me with a school of Chubs.

After finding an arrow crab (Stenorhynchus seticornis), my dive buddies and I took turns passing him around. Seemingly content with being handled we took some pictures. Arrow crabs are one of the few species of crabs I don’t mind handling because their pinchers are too small to cause any damage. They are often smaller and blend in really well to the rocks and crevices, so spotting one is always fun.

Siobhan is great at taking pictures of us all while diving and captured another great sot of me holding my arrow crab friend.

After the dive we headed back to the boat, all in great spirits! Siobhan was taking a picture of me at the surface with a beautiful resort behind me, but I got photobombed by Professor Peterson as he was snorkeling by. I won’t complain- it’s not everyday someone gets to go diving with and photobombed by their professor snorkeling by!

Professor Peterson photobombing my surface picture after a great dive.

– Kayla

There’s about four more days left of this journey and tensions are a bit high. We are all a little bit irritable because of all the assignments due and upcoming examinations. There’s been a higher frequency of arguments between the students this week. I guess we are driving each other a bit crazy lately. Memorizing the scientific names and identifying dozens of species can put a lot of people under pressure and I totally understand that. However, I really wish people weren’t so stressed. I mean, we are in Jamaica! Peace, love, and respect, mon! In retrospect, we have had so many great adventures. I’ve gotten awesome footage of climbing waterfalls and snorkeling over reefs. I’ve been making so many great friends and meeting many different new people. The employees working at Discovery Bay Marine Lab are probably some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, a lot nicer than people I’ve met in New York City!

I am kind of sad that this adventure is coming to an end. I’ve been having so much fun. I am very happy to be going home, though. I miss my friends, my family, and my dogs so much. However, I am not missing the snow! It’ll probably take me a while to adjust back to the cold weather, but at least I’ll have a nice tan to last me throughout the rest of the harsh winter! I am very thankful to have had this experience. Although I might feel a little bit stressed now, I know that in a few months I will look back and only remember the great times I had on this trip. Maybe someday I will come back to Jamaica and be able to impress my friends and family with my extensive knowledge of Tropical Marine Ecology!

Here is a picture of a sponge with my friends Lucas, Avocado Andrew and Asparagus Andrew in the background.

– Emily

Hi everyone! The past couple of days have been so busy! Today we went to the east coast of discovery bay on a snorkel trip around 7am and we got to see a lot of hydrocorals and fish. It’s an awesome experience to be able to look at all of the different parts of discovery bay and get to see the differences.

Morning Boat Ride!

In the afternoon a few of the other students and I were invited on a research excursion to help collect sediments for analysis later today. It was so much fun to go out and practice the field work! As a molecular biology student this trip has provided both a relaxing yet also thrilling change of pace. As the winter semester comes to a close and the final projects are starting to be submitted, I can’t help but I think how much I am going to miss my little Stony Brook family! It was such an honor to be picked to go on this trip. Everyone has become so close over such a short period of time and I have already begun making future plans to visit the friends I’ve made here in Long Island!

Until then!
• Andrew B.

Swimming, diving, and snorkeling requires much more energy than we commonly think. For most days of the past week, a majority of us have gotten up at around 6:00 AM to explore our underwater world. This meant exerting large amounts of energy at very early times. Due to the common occurrence of being overtired and hungry, today I experienced nausea at sea. I decided not to SCUBA dive this morning because my nose was slightly congested and we were always told not to go diving if we did not feel great. I had been snorkeling right outside of the marine lab, but this morning we hopped on the boats and went about 15 minutes west (or east; I am not entirely sure). [Prof note: It was East.] This was to get to a new site we had yet to explore. It was gorgeous and the water was crystal clear with visibility down to around 50 or 60 feet. The only downside as a snorkeler this morning was the fact that you are right on the surface of the water and therefore receiving the blunt end of the incoming waves. Unlike our nice little sanctuary at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab, where we have a reef to buffer the incoming waves, here we were being tossed around straight on. It was not terrible and I definitely did not fear for my life, but it did make me slightly nauseas not being able to control my body movements and being involuntarily swooshed around by the massive forces of the ocean.

On a happier note, after Kelly and I had enough of the drifting and snorkeling, we swam back to the boat and peacefully floated on our backs in the water. This was extremely relaxing and definitely took away from the nausea we were both slightly experiencing. It was a great experience though because we were able to clearly see yellow stingrays and beautiful sea fans from about 30 feet away. Being able to have this incredible visibility is one huge benefit of Jamaica because you don’t need to dive or be able to swim really well. Instead of putting your body under stress, you can simply strap on your mask and snorkel and float on your tummy while looking down and seeing a perfect view of the underwater world. I imagine we will continue to dive bright and early, and I look forward to continuing the learning and exploration available to us here. Maybe next time I will just take some Dramamine before.

The common sea fan in our recent scuba dive this morning.

The yellow stingray has become a bit of a commonality here in Jamaica.

Fay

So today we began to help in continuation of research done here in Discovery Bay regarding the state of the reef. During the 1990s, a team of scientists, Richardson B. Aronson and William F. Pretcht, began conducting transect-like recordings to help distinguish the densities of herbivores, including Urchins, Surgeonfish and Parrotfish, as well as the seafloor habitat, mainly regarding if it included sand, coral, or algae. As of 2012, our professors Dr. Bradley Peterson and Dr. Joseph Warren, as well as their previous student Dr. Amber Stubler, began to continue Aronson and Pretch’s research in Discovery Bay, Jamaica.

In order to partake in this continuation, my classmates and I took out tape measures to measure 5m linear point intersections which we used to count up herbivores and the bottom structures in various locations. Originally my group thought this procedure would be fairly simple, especially since we were divers so we could stay under the water, however it did not turn out that way. Trying to make our way out into the bay with our heavy gear on, against a decent current, and then balancing in almost 4 feet of water, trying not to stand and harm the habitats underneath, was as hard as it sounds. Due to these difficulties, we could not finish the linear intersection recordings we had planned out. Of course, setbacks like these happen in research when you are in the elements where everything is unpredictable. Therefore, we decided to continue our recordings by snorkel tomorrow, which hopefully will allow us to finish and analyze our findings against previous data. So even though today was slightly disheartening, I am still very excited to continue and compare this year’s data to previous years, allowing us to see how well the reef is doing.

One of the green urchins counted during our assessment of the reef! Credits Siobhan. 1-13-19; ~4:00pm.

Signing off

-Apricot Ann Marie