Monday, June 18, 2012
Finally, all the Cobia are in their open water cage! I think we have about 1100 right now. Spent the afternoon doing the whole procedure one last time to get this last batch of about 300 cobia into the cage, went way smoother than our main move on saturday. Now all we have to do is dive the cage occasionally to feed them and do some cage maintenance.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Since we had the rest of the day off, we got on our bikes and went to a series of small cliffs on the west side of Cape Eleuthera to swim/snorkel.
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| High Rock, Eleuthera |
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| Chris |
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| Tyler |
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| Stefan |
Here are some pictures of part of the Cape Eleuthera Institute I took, more on the way.
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| from left to right, intern dorms, visiting scientist house, Island School campus |
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| inside of dorm |
Saturday, June 16, 2012
I haven't had time to update since I just got internet yesterday, so I'm going to skip over a lot.
Flight into Rock Sound, Eleuthera was very cool, the sandbanks in the sound making some really cool shapes.
Dorms for the interns here are small and are ovens which absorb heat from the constant sun. Since the research lab I am working at, CEI, is making attempts to be self sufficient from other power sources, there are only poorly working fans to offer any help.
last night all of the interns and the teachers affiliated with CEI's environmental education branch, the Island School, went to a party a couple miles south of the lab. All interns are given bikes, so we rode down to a delicious BBQ grill session and rode back at 11 on the main highway in eleuthera - two cars passed us. Heat lightning was blinking on overhead coupled with the bright night sky to make an awesome 30 minute ride back to campus.
Today we transferred some of our Cobia from our wet lab to our offshore aquaculture net. We have around 1500 individuals to transfer, going from tank to tubs on a truck to more tubs on a boat before we can release them in the water via a long tube. We had to transfer each fish one at a time from the boat to the cage, which took forever and was painful as Cobia have sharp spines on their back which tore up my palms as I transferred them. Hopefully we will finish next week.
Hopefully will get some pictures of the island and the lab up sometime early next week.
Dorms for the interns here are small and are ovens which absorb heat from the constant sun. Since the research lab I am working at, CEI, is making attempts to be self sufficient from other power sources, there are only poorly working fans to offer any help.
last night all of the interns and the teachers affiliated with CEI's environmental education branch, the Island School, went to a party a couple miles south of the lab. All interns are given bikes, so we rode down to a delicious BBQ grill session and rode back at 11 on the main highway in eleuthera - two cars passed us. Heat lightning was blinking on overhead coupled with the bright night sky to make an awesome 30 minute ride back to campus.
Today we transferred some of our Cobia from our wet lab to our offshore aquaculture net. We have around 1500 individuals to transfer, going from tank to tubs on a truck to more tubs on a boat before we can release them in the water via a long tube. We had to transfer each fish one at a time from the boat to the cage, which took forever and was painful as Cobia have sharp spines on their back which tore up my palms as I transferred them. Hopefully we will finish next week.
Hopefully will get some pictures of the island and the lab up sometime early next week.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
FISH OF THE DAY - I will try to post pictures of a species of Caribbean reef fish every day so you can see the kind of fish diversity I will be seeing.
Today will be the Sharknose Goby (Elacatinus evelynae), of which the aquaculture lab at CEI breeds. We breed them, I'm told, to clean parasites off of the small Cobia, but I have never seen or known of this behavior before. I've seen them mostly on brain and plate corals, where a pair will stake out a corner of coral as their own territory. They are really fast, and look like little jewels darting about on the surface of the coral. See more pictures at http://ie7.reefguide.org/carib/sharknosegoby.html
Picture is not mine, all rights to Florent's reef Guide
Picture is not mine, all rights to Florent's reef Guide
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Ok so this blog is going to be taking a different direction in the next couple of weeks as I prepare for an internship at the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas. I will be mostly serving as an Aquaculture intern, but I will also be assisting with fish surveys for the lionfish research aspect of the Institute. The Aquaculture branch of the institute breeds Cobia in a giant open water pen at around 85 feet, as well as, as far as I can tell, sharknose gobies and rotifers. My responsibilities will include cleaning, cleaning, and monitoring water parameters in the giant tanks on land that are used for raising the baby cobias and the other fish, and power-washing the netting of the open water pen. Although I don't know exactly what I will be doing, I update regularly. Hopefully I will be able to make a couple of posts every week for the two months I will be down there ranging from discussion of daily activities, the science of what I am doing, and musings on whatever I am reading/seeing at the time. Please subscribe to be kept up to date!
I've been doing some reading from different scientific journals about lionfish, and I feel that I should give a brief summary of the lionfish problem in the Caribbean. The populations of the Pterois volitans, or the Volitans Lionfish, in the Caribbean are not native - they are invasive species that originally hail from the indo-pacific. Although we don't know exactly how they got into the Caribbean, we think that Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was responsible, as the Miami Seaquarium was inundated by the surge and it is thought that several individuals on exhibit escaped. Anyways, the problem now is that they are really, really, really successful predators. Part of this is due to the native fish populations' not being used to this new type of predator. While the Caribbean has it's share of other sit-and-wait predators like frogfish, the rapacious hunger of these guys in addition to their increased mobility over frogfish, etc. are making their populations explode (see Arias-Gonzalez, J.E.,et al.,Predicted impact of the invasive lionfish Pterois volitans on the food web of a Caribbean coral reef.Environ.Res.(2011)) Personally, I still wonder why lionfish are so much more successful than the other sit-and-wait native predators, but that is something I hope to find out. So the lionfish are decimating native fish populations, and part of the research CEI is involved in are reef fish surveys, where they survey the biodiversity and biomass of fish populations in lionfish infected zones. While I'm not sure if I will be participating, many SCUBA divers have taken matters into their own hands and have started a spearfishing rampage in an attempt to slow the spread of the lionfish. Apparently they are good eating, and some restaurants are now using them on their menu. Personally, I have started to wonder if the marine aquarium trade will start importing Atlantic, invasive lionfish in lieu of the indo-pacific populations.
Thanks for reading this, and I hope you will stay tuned for further updates!
I've been doing some reading from different scientific journals about lionfish, and I feel that I should give a brief summary of the lionfish problem in the Caribbean. The populations of the Pterois volitans, or the Volitans Lionfish, in the Caribbean are not native - they are invasive species that originally hail from the indo-pacific. Although we don't know exactly how they got into the Caribbean, we think that Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was responsible, as the Miami Seaquarium was inundated by the surge and it is thought that several individuals on exhibit escaped. Anyways, the problem now is that they are really, really, really successful predators. Part of this is due to the native fish populations' not being used to this new type of predator. While the Caribbean has it's share of other sit-and-wait predators like frogfish, the rapacious hunger of these guys in addition to their increased mobility over frogfish, etc. are making their populations explode (see Arias-Gonzalez, J.E.,et al.,Predicted impact of the invasive lionfish Pterois volitans on the food web of a Caribbean coral reef.Environ.Res.(2011)) Personally, I still wonder why lionfish are so much more successful than the other sit-and-wait native predators, but that is something I hope to find out. So the lionfish are decimating native fish populations, and part of the research CEI is involved in are reef fish surveys, where they survey the biodiversity and biomass of fish populations in lionfish infected zones. While I'm not sure if I will be participating, many SCUBA divers have taken matters into their own hands and have started a spearfishing rampage in an attempt to slow the spread of the lionfish. Apparently they are good eating, and some restaurants are now using them on their menu. Personally, I have started to wonder if the marine aquarium trade will start importing Atlantic, invasive lionfish in lieu of the indo-pacific populations.
Thanks for reading this, and I hope you will stay tuned for further updates!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Marianas Trench Exploration Update
So i've come across some more sites relating to the "race" for challenger deep that i found interesting from Marinebio.org (a great site, check them out)
BBC has come up with a great mini-site about the race where you can see the physical obstacles the explorers will meet as well as the vessels they intend to use: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285 . There wasn't any info on James Cameron's sub, so I did some digging and found this video which was released within the last week: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/habitats-environment/habitats-oceans-env/deepsea-challenge-first-attempt/
I'm excited to hear that they plan to launch in the next few weeks, so I will make sure to keep up to date on that.
Although it appears Cameron will be the first to reach Challenger Deep on over 50 years, I'm kind of bummed that the scientific contestant, Google's DOER, won't be the first. At the same time, such a monumental feat will be better shared by Cameron and his fleet of HD cameras.
My Picture of the Trieste, the first and last sub to reach Challenger Deep.
BBC has come up with a great mini-site about the race where you can see the physical obstacles the explorers will meet as well as the vessels they intend to use: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285 . There wasn't any info on James Cameron's sub, so I did some digging and found this video which was released within the last week: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/habitats-environment/habitats-oceans-env/deepsea-challenge-first-attempt/
I'm excited to hear that they plan to launch in the next few weeks, so I will make sure to keep up to date on that.
Although it appears Cameron will be the first to reach Challenger Deep on over 50 years, I'm kind of bummed that the scientific contestant, Google's DOER, won't be the first. At the same time, such a monumental feat will be better shared by Cameron and his fleet of HD cameras.
My Picture of the Trieste, the first and last sub to reach Challenger Deep.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Pressurized Aquariums
I have been a marine aquarist for three years, and it has been quite a thrilling, and sometimes frustrating, hobby of mine. Now I have a tank that looks somewhat like a reef, perhaps a Pacific patch reef or rubble zone. I will try to talk about it in a later post. This tank has educated me about coral propagation and fish breeding (tank-raised animals I believe will enable us to maintain captive populations of reef organisms that will go extinct in the next few decades) the impossibly delicate water balance required to keep such corals and fish in health. Reef tanks have allowed thousands of amateur marine biologists like myself to make extensive observations on the habits of many organisms (albeit in a controlled environment, by no means perfect), helping scientists understand habits, food preferences, breeding behaviors, etc.
But what about the Deep Ocean? Aside from Tropical Reefs, I would posit in my unprofessional opinion that the Deep Oceans contain the second most threatened ecosystems, particularly Lophelia reefs and hydrothermal vents. Gulf of Mexico Lophelia reefs were hit particularly hard by the Deepwater Horizon spill and are extremely selectable to deep water trawling. Hydrothermal Vents contain unsurpassed species diversity in a mineral rich ecosystem. While somehow (another unanswered question!) species are able to survive the mercurial geological nature of these vents that are the lifeblood to these organisms, deep sea drilling will become a major industry in the next few decades (see Nautilus Minerals) We know nothing about how this ecosystem will cope with increased human activity, so we need to start picking up the pace on species description.
I'd like to see pressurized tanks that allow scientists, aquariums, and even hobbyists like myself to cheaply set up pressurized, cooled, dark tanks in which deep sea critters, be they pelagic jellies or benthic corals, can be observed over long periods of time. Sure we have subs and rovs that allow us to occasionally peak down into this environment, and we do have fixed data collecting stations (actually pretty cool - video) but none of these allow a consistent environment where experiments and observations are much easier, human contact becoming a constant.
Some pressurized tanks exist, such as this one for deep sea rockfish from Monterrey Bay Aquarium. See this discussion for a really good rundown of what technology is available for such a venture. I see several obstacles right now that are preventing us from enjoying aquariums of anglerfish and gulper eels in our living rooms; the pressure/temperature change from the time the organism leaves the depths until it reaches a pressurized tank is too much for many organisms, particularly fish whose swim bladders swell and gelatinous pelagic invertebrates which just disintegrate make just collecting organisms difficult (although some have tried - see this ngm article) Also, I'm no expert in physics, but to create cost-effective tanks with spacious viewing windows to contain water at a pressure of from 90-1000 atm seems near impossible.
Coral reefs are at the forefront of our imagination when we say Ocean Conservation because it is a highly accessibly environment; one can go to the aquarium downtown or build one in your own home for less than $2000. Although the glamor factor of deep sea worms is significantly less than sprawling brain corals, the uniqueness factor and importance of deep sea ecosystems should stand along with the recognition granted to reefs, polar seas, and mangroves. I believe the best way to do this will be to create these pressurized aquariums, so that we all can marvel at the deep.
But what about the Deep Ocean? Aside from Tropical Reefs, I would posit in my unprofessional opinion that the Deep Oceans contain the second most threatened ecosystems, particularly Lophelia reefs and hydrothermal vents. Gulf of Mexico Lophelia reefs were hit particularly hard by the Deepwater Horizon spill and are extremely selectable to deep water trawling. Hydrothermal Vents contain unsurpassed species diversity in a mineral rich ecosystem. While somehow (another unanswered question!) species are able to survive the mercurial geological nature of these vents that are the lifeblood to these organisms, deep sea drilling will become a major industry in the next few decades (see Nautilus Minerals) We know nothing about how this ecosystem will cope with increased human activity, so we need to start picking up the pace on species description.
I'd like to see pressurized tanks that allow scientists, aquariums, and even hobbyists like myself to cheaply set up pressurized, cooled, dark tanks in which deep sea critters, be they pelagic jellies or benthic corals, can be observed over long periods of time. Sure we have subs and rovs that allow us to occasionally peak down into this environment, and we do have fixed data collecting stations (actually pretty cool - video) but none of these allow a consistent environment where experiments and observations are much easier, human contact becoming a constant.
Some pressurized tanks exist, such as this one for deep sea rockfish from Monterrey Bay Aquarium. See this discussion for a really good rundown of what technology is available for such a venture. I see several obstacles right now that are preventing us from enjoying aquariums of anglerfish and gulper eels in our living rooms; the pressure/temperature change from the time the organism leaves the depths until it reaches a pressurized tank is too much for many organisms, particularly fish whose swim bladders swell and gelatinous pelagic invertebrates which just disintegrate make just collecting organisms difficult (although some have tried - see this ngm article) Also, I'm no expert in physics, but to create cost-effective tanks with spacious viewing windows to contain water at a pressure of from 90-1000 atm seems near impossible.
Coral reefs are at the forefront of our imagination when we say Ocean Conservation because it is a highly accessibly environment; one can go to the aquarium downtown or build one in your own home for less than $2000. Although the glamor factor of deep sea worms is significantly less than sprawling brain corals, the uniqueness factor and importance of deep sea ecosystems should stand along with the recognition granted to reefs, polar seas, and mangroves. I believe the best way to do this will be to create these pressurized aquariums, so that we all can marvel at the deep.
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