On day 7 of snorkeling in Jamaica, the transformation from my hesitant start on day 1 was remarkable. In the initial days, grappling with malfunctioning snorkel gear and acknowledging my limitations as a swimmer posed many challenges in reaching the reef crest. This struggle not only impeded my ability to navigate effectively but also restricted the diversity and quantity of species I could find. But now, the spectrum had broadened significantly. The reef was a tapestry of diversity, showcasing massive starlet corals standing tall, intricate brain corals nestled among vibrant finger corals, and the mesmerizing yet cautionary fire corals. Schools of parrotfish, angelfish, and colorful wrasses danced among the corals. The unidentified plant species added an air of mystery, their unique shapes and hues captivating our attention, prompting discussions and speculation among our group as we marveled at the sheer abundance and variety thriving beneath the surface. Here are some of the cool things I’ve seen so far:

Peacock flounder spotted by Tim and me.

Queen Conch spotted by Tim.

Balloonfish spotted by me.

Despite the breathtaking beauty, this experience has been challenging, pushing me well beyond my comfort zone. Confronting my fear of the ocean was a hurdle I needed to overcome, and though it’s been a rough couple of days, the sheer diversity of over 120 species of plants, fish, and invertebrates has been both awe-inspiring and overwhelming. Trying to memorize the scientific and common names of these numerous species has been daunting. It’s been a mental workout, and truthfully, I haven’t felt confident about my grasp on the course material. However, I’m striving to maintain a positive outlook, embracing each encounter as a chance to learn and grow, even amidst the uncertainty and occasional discomfort.

-Ariana

Yesterday was an exciting day for me. In the morning after breakfast, I went out snorkeling with a couple of friends. The waters were exceptionally calm making for clear views. We decided to visit the section of the reef by the mangroves.

A picturesque view of the calm waters off the dock.

As I snorkeled towards our destination, I excitedly spotted a Long-Spined Sea Urchin with had eluded me during my past snorkeling trips. Reaching the area near the mangroves, a huge diversity of organisms greeted me. The sunlight penetrated the water and made rainbows appear on the seafloor. A few brave fish stayed out in the sunlit waters, but most huddled under the protective shading of the reef. Venturing deeper into the mangrove roots the water became shaded. I could feel a noticeable dip in water temperature. The various crevices in the area were full of organisms. Midway through my trip among the mangrove roots I found a small group of Houndfish.

Some Houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus) found among the roots of mangroves.

Further in and by squeezing through a small opening I found a small “cave”. There  many species of Damselfish guarding their territory peered back at me. As I was exiting, I saw a Damsel with a bite taken out of its side. The poor fish lost a fight.

­A Red Land Crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) scampering along the mangroves.

I’m excited for what another day snorkeling in Jamacia.
• Mooncake Michelle

We have been here for 4 days now. I woke up at 4 am for the flight, and 7 am every day since then for breakfast. It’s the earliest I’ve consistently woken up in a very long time but it’s been so fun I don’t want to miss a second. As I am typing this we are discussing snorkeling tomorrow at 6:30 to hopefully see some organisms that aren’t common during the day. The first day we snorkeled, my underwater camera flooded and broke so I couldn’t get a picture of the only spotted eagle rays I’ve seen so far. It’s been sitting in rice for 2 days now. Julia has been nice enough to let me borrow one of her 3 cameras (she came very prepared for this trip, also bringing ID books which have been extremely helpful).

I’ve never had roommates before but everyone here is so nice and I consider us all friends. It’s great having 3 roommates that scuba dive because I’m not certified yet. I’m learning about what they do, how they do it, and organisms they can see deeper than I do snorkeling. We have been snorkeling everyday, at least twice a day, in order to identify as many plants and animals we possibly can. We stayed up late last night in the conference room studying their scientific names, until the Canadian professor gave us a pep talk. We were reminded it’s not all about memorizing, but actually learning. After leaving we played with the marine lab’s stray kittens for a little while. Today after breakfast I took an hour to work on our ID project then went out snorkeling. Immediately I saw a cushion sea star (oreaster reticulatus).

A cushion sea star (oreaster reticulatus) very close to the dock

Jaden and I wanted to snorkel beyond the reef crest but we couldn’t find the path. When we noticed the time we had 20 minutes until lunch. We quickly swam back to find chicken nuggets and mac and cheese waiting for us. The food has been amazing and so is everyone who works here.

My goal was to find a sand dollar. My new goal is to find a live one

An invasive Lionfish sleeping on coral

– Kiwi Kristina

Today is currently day 4 of our 14-day adventure! In a couple of days, we will have our identification test. It’s a big test of around 50-100 species we need to memorize and learn their scientific name. With that being said, countless hours have been dedicated to snorkeling around trying to get photos of all different types of plants, fish, and invertebrates. Everyday seems to embrace us with a new species.

My group has seen multiple sting rays, a giant sea star, West Indian Sea egg, etc. BTW: rumor has it we may be doing a night snorkeling soon. So stay tuned to see some amazing photos!!

Here is a photo of a west Indian sea egg: Tripneustes Ventricosus. I found while snorkeling. For reference it’s about as big as a soccer ball

Starlet coral from today’s snorkel!

Skittle- Sarah signing off.

After a filling breakfast of pancakes and fruit, we all jumped right into either our photo identification projects or studying scientific names for the exams coming up in a few days. Learning the common and scientific names of 150 different species of plants, invertebrates and fish is no easy task, but we are all working hard to get it done. At 9:30, about ten of us were geared up and ready to explore the dive site: dairy bull. The purpose of the dive was to take more photos and videos to add to our identification projects. My project group decided I would focus on looking for new sponges and algae we hadn’t already identified. Take a look at this cool sponge I found:

This is an Orange Ball Sponge, its scientific name is Cinachyra sp.

My favorite thing to find during a dive is a flamingo tongue. Apparently there were a dozen on the dive, but I didn’t see any. Dr. Peterson and Dr. Warren teased me relentlessly for this. Next time I hope. Dr. Peterson was our dive leader, but he chose to go off on his own pretty early in the dive, so I got to practice my navigation skills. It did not go as well as I hoped.

After the dive it was time for lunch and a lecture from Dr. Warren about coral reef stressors. The rest of the day was spent identifying species. I didn’t quite finish mine, so I will be back at it tomorrow!.

-Claire

Today was a full day of snorkeling. Immediately after breakfast a couple of us practically ran into the water and went out to the reef crest. The visibility was perfect and the water was calm. There was so much life and color. It is amazing how diverse such a small area can be. During our swim we encountered a Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), Balloon fish (Diodon holocanthus), Peacock Flounder (Bothus lunatus) and many others. After two hours of snorkeling, we headed in for a perfectly scrumptious lunch. After inhaling our food, we had our tropical reef fish lecture where we learned about all the fish we had seen that morning. Fun fact, some fish have bones (Osteichthyes), and some have cartilage (Chondrichthyes)!

After the lecture it was time to snorkel again. We swam over the hole which is a very deep section close to shore. All of a sudden the sand dropped into darkness and the comforting sight of the bottom was gone. I became completely still and floated in the blue. Suddenly a long skinny tail caught my peripheral. It was a beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinar) gliding through the water. It was small, only about three feet long in diameter but it felt massive. We swam with it for over three minutes watching the way it flew. Eventually we couldn’t keep up and had to stop.

Afterwards, we started identifying everything we had seen and began to compile a slideshow will all the organisms. As of right now my group has photographed and identified over 70 different species. The day was filled with amazing discoveries and I’m excited for what has yet to come.

Pictured left to right: Rose, Sarah, Emily, Christine, Camille, and Paxton at the reef crest.

A Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinar) that we spotted which caused a multi minute swim along.

– Raspberry Rose

While it has been an adjustment waking up at 6:00 am every morning to make sure we have enough time to each get ready for breakfast at 7:15 am, it’s already gotten a bit easier only two days in. This morning my roommates and I were ready about 20 minutes early so we decided to start our day by going to watch the sunrise over the water. It was amazing to see how calm the water was and how the water got bluer the more the sun rose. After breakfast a few of us went for a morning snorkeling trip and decided we had enough time before lunch to head out to the reef crest. We were able to see a spotted eagle ray (again!!), barracudas, and a ton of corals with itty bitty fishies hiding out as soon as they spotted us. A night snorkel is definitely in planning between a group of us to see just what kinds of animals come out and lurk around the marine lab at night. Overall, we’ve had an amazing start to the trip and I can’t wait to see what else we’ll be able to see as the days go on.

The sunrise on January 4th as the day started with a few of us taking in the view of the super pretty calm and blue waters.

A well camouflaged flounder that we excitedly spotted while snorkeling out to the reef crest on January 4th.

– clementine camille

After an exciting morning of scuba diving and snorkeling in the morning, and after a hearty lunch of veggie soup and cheese whole grain sandwiches, we went snorkeling again in the afternoon around three pm and it was such a beautiful day.

The walk from our dorm to the beach is a long two-minute walk, and I made that journey with a pep in my orange and black booties, and jumped into the bay. My roommates had gone out earlier than me so I just swam around and the first thing I saw was my familiar friend the spotted eagle ray burrowing in the sand. I scared him by my presence so he quickly scampered off. I continued with my snorkeling journey and swam towards three free-standing rocks and corals, and then couldn’t believe my eyes! There was just a small blue octopus hanging out floating in the water. I swam closer to him and he darted towards a little hole underneath the coral where he peaked his head out and watched me as I watched him. I swam free-style to my friends and splashed at them yelling that there was an octopus. They followed me back and our blue friend was still in his hole and we all marveled at him. I am looking forward to all the other ocean friends that I will make at Discovery Bay.

Small inquisitive  octopus hiding in a hole from some scuba divers while still peeking his eye out.

– Ana

Today started off with a dive right after breakfast at a site called Dancing Lady. We went down to around 60 feet and saw a lot of cool marine life! We passed by a lobster cage that had a king crab, some Caribbean spiny lobsters, and a few balloon fish, as well as seeing lots of different corals, reef fish, and plant life. The dive went for around 45 minutes, and after the boat got back to shore most of us hopped right back in the water to go snorkeling. I started out looking in the rocky areas by the mangroves since someone said an octopus lived there, but unfortunately we didn’t find him yet (later in the day a couple of people saw two octopi!) so we explored the areas a little farther out. Hiding in some sea grass, I spotted a sharp-tail eel and managed to get two photos of him before my camera died. About five minutes later I saw some kind of moray playing hide and seek, but when I tried to show my buddy to get a picture it was gone, so unfortunately I couldn’t figure out what species. After snorkeling was lunch and a lecture on reef fish, after which we decided to go snorkeling again out to the reef crest. This turned out to be a great decision because I saw a couple of lettuce sea slugs, which are one of my favorite animals.

These slugs absorb chloroplasts from the algae they eat, so they’re able to do photosynthesis for energy!

I also spent a lot of time doing a photoshoot of a balloon fish, which are quickly becoming another favorite of mine, as I seem to run into them everywhere I go.

He was ready for his close-up.

We came back to shore and worked on some species identification from the photos we had taken and started to put the pictures into a slide show. The rest of the night was spent looking over the massive list of species to start learning all the scientific names for our upcoming ID test. Overall, we had a great day and I’m excited to see what happens next!

These French Grunts seemed to be having a spirited debate.

-Monkeybread Maddie

On Tuesday we finally arrived in Jamaica after a long morning of travel. There were many steps to officially be in and many of us had the pleasure of being questioned by security of why we were staying in a marine lab, but we all made it in! After being greeted by the hit of warm air outside the airport, we waited for our mini buses to arrive so that we could make our way to the lab. This took a while because we were waiting for a professor and her two students from another school, but this gave us plenty of time to get to know each other! Most people were able to fit into the first bus, but those who went into the second one, myself included, had to keep reminding the driver that we had to wait for the rest of our group. At one point, he drove us away and we had no idea what was going on, but don’t worry, he looped us back to get Dr. Warren and the others! After a 45 minute drive, we finally arrived to the lab!

We unloaded our bags and were quickly greeted by the cutest kittens I have ever seen. One of the kittens is the size of my palm and me and a few others have taken it upon ourselves to name him Lizard… hopefully it’ll catch on. After choosing our rooms, we hung out with our roommates then all met up for a tour. The people that work here are so nice! They showed us around and everything honestly still hasn’t felt real. We then played a game to get to know everyone in the class, and I feel like I’m friends with everyone already even though we just got here. The game entailed us calling ourselves a food that started with the first letter of our first name, though, so now I have to think of a food whenever I’m trying to remember someone’s name. After arriving, all of us were so so hungry and didn’t get lunch, so we had to wait until dinner to eat. So, as you could imagine, playing a game where we had to think of a food while we all hadn’t eaten for hours was quite the struggle. Afterward, we all ate an amazing dinner together, honestly the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. I am so excited for everything about this trip and it’s been the most amazing start!

“Us waiting along with lots of others for our ride outside Montego Bay Airport.”

“Lizard the kitten asking for some well-deserved attention.”

“Pierogi Paxton (me), Raspberry Rose, and Monkey Bread Maddie in front of our awesome new classroom!”

Until next time,

Pierogi Paxton 🙂