Hello from Roatan! We have definitely had one jammed packed exciting day. We started with a lecture at 8 am this morning talking about mangroves and the algae of the coral reefs found in the Meso-American reef, which is what the reefs around Roatan are. During the lecture we talked about how mangroves are helpful in keeping the waters clean and absorbing the sediment runoff from the land. During lecture, it started raining a lot outside and when we got out, the lagoon that we were sitting on was a brown color from all of the sediment runoff, but the area near the mangroves they had planted was mostly blue and clear still. After lecture we went out on a dive where we were trying to identify corals which we were learning how to do yesterday. While we were out there identifying the corals, we saw a very large loggerhead sea turtle with barnacles on its back. Along with the loggerhead sea turtle, we saw a big channel clinging crab. We finished the first dive and had a little bit of free time, which was very unordinary in our filled days here in Roatan. We then went to lunch before going out on our second dive.

Our second dive was full of lots of different things. The lesson behind this dive was learning the different types of algae which we were taught this morning and then figuring out which kind it was. We were all given small bags where we had to go and pick off the different forms of algae growing on the reef, some of which could be good and some of which could be bad depending on the type of algae and how much of it is growing there. When we were down on this dive finding the algae, we got to see a large spiny lobster hiding in a crevice in the corals and were able to see a spotted eagle ray which was very exciting. When we finished the dive, we headed back to shore and worked at identifying the algae that everybody had found and at least being able to classify which category of algae it fell under. We also had another lecture on the different measuring methods used to survey the coral reefs to do our research projects which are coming up next week. This lecture was teaching us different skills that we will be practicing for the next few days prior to starting our research projects.

Dinner was a little different than normal tonight. We had a barbeque over on Anthony’s Key where we all got to eat at a buffet on the island. After dinner finished, there was a hermit crab race which unfortunately, absolutely none of our hermit crabs were able to move on to the final round or won. We will definitely try again next week though. We then got to watch the traditional island dancers, the Garifuna. They came over to the island to perform for us. This is a group of people from St. Vincent, descended from African origins and Caribbean Indian origins, that were forced into the island by the British and became Britain’s prisoners. They were brought to the island because the Garifuna weren’t doing what the British wanted them to on St. Vincent, like farming and doing different labor things for them. The Garifuna settled in Punta Gorda, a community on the northeast side of the island where they established a home and became a part of Roatan’s community. Punta Gorda is not made for a lot of tourists to come there which is why the Garifuna dancers normally come to different places to try and show their culture, even though they don’t always get a choice in how it is portrayed to different people. After the Garifuna dancers, a few of us participated in a limbo contest with Landon getting third place and me almost making it to the end. We then all went back to our rooms to get ready for the next day and finish writing in our journals for every day.

Until tomorrow,
Roatan Biology Group January 2020