Rebecca Vermeesch

Saying goodbye to the CCMI staff and each other was sentimental, we have all become friends during our time in Little Cayman.  However, we all promised to stay in touch and to make vacations visiting each other across the country, I now have to visit Miami, Texas, California, and Canada!

This trip has taught me so many valuable lessons.  I learned from so many people, staff and other interns.  This entire time in Little Cayman was a “once in a lifetime experience.”  I am so thankful to the people who helped me through the process and helped me get to where I am in school, and in life.

Little Cayman taught me about conservation and how just one person changing their lifestyle to be more conservative can make a difference.  If I stop using plastics, whether it is plastic bottles, plastic bags, or microplastics in soaps and toothpastes- this decreases the amount put into the environment.  In learning about conservation, we learned about what we can do in order to help the environment- no matter where we are in the world, everything eventually makes it to the ocean.  Just because I was staying at CCMI and showering in collected rainwater and being conscientious everything down to the soaps because everything drained right into the ocean, does not mean that I can come back to NJ and forget everything.  I am now going to look into products to see the chemicals and microplastics put into it in an effort to be more aware of my footprint on the environment.

               

Leaving Little Cayman, from the height you can see the sea grass darkness and the reef where the waves break, and then the open ocean.  The last picture was the first sight of America, I was already missing the clear blue waters.

I am forever thankful for this experience, thank you!

Wednesday was our last full day here at CCMI.  We started the day with last minute presentation edits.  The posters  and slides we created for our project were presented to our “judges” consisting of the CCMI staff that we have worked closely with the last 2 weeks.  The presentations went well and were followed by the fish behavior movie that each intern made (for fun).

We finally got to snorkel out to Owen’s island! Throughout the whole trip this has been a “must see.” We got to kayak and paddle board around in the water and the sun for a while.  This was both fun and relaxing for both the staff and the interns!  As we snorkeled back to the dock, Tom showed off his drone as he flew it around recording the beautiful view from above.  We all got to wave and smile for the camera!

The mangroves on Owen’s Island

When returning from Owen’s we got ready and packed the truck with the necessary gear in order to have a last night here / Brian’s birthday party at Salt Rock Dock.  This party was a lot of fun as we got to grill some burgers and hot dogs and enjoyed the sunset over the water.  Unfortunately, it was slightly too cloudy as we were unable to see the green flash.  The night ended with an enjoyable evening with all the interns and staff enjoying each other!

 

We finally got to have some fun dives! All the dives thus far in the trip have been research dives, which I have loved but it was also great to look around more at the reef and appreciate the world under the waves.  Being able to look around at the fish and how they are acting was refreshing.  It was not like anything I have ever seen before.

Even though we have been in the water almost every day, the fun dives made the hard work worthwhile.  They have given me a renewed vision of the world under the waves.  I can not believe that tomorrow we leave, I am going to miss being in the beautiful, clear water everyday.

The research that we contributed to while we were here was an experience.  In the two weeks we were here we collected data and were finally able to analyze the data yesterday.  The sponge project that I was a part of was looking at four boring sponge species- meaning that the sponges grow within the substrate, not that the sponge is plain and boring.  The data we collected, although it was a small sample size, did report some statistically significant results in surface area of the sponge.  We found that the sponge Cliona tenuis had a much higher surface area than Cliona delatrix, which were the most common boring sponge species we saw.  The data we collected will go towards a CCMI researcher’s project.

Working on this project where we had to write a proposal, collect data, analyze it, and present it has given me a new respect for scientists and a better picture of what is to come.  It takes a lot of work and dedication in order to get all of this work done with each deadline.  I am fully appreciative for the exposure to field research, rather than the lab research I have been a part of at Rutgers.

To lighten the mood, here are some pictures from the fun dive!

 

The research diving and learning continues!  School and sitting in a classroom always bored me, focusing while a teacher lectured at you just does not have any appeal- but diving and learning about corals and fish that I have not seen before changes the classroom! We have been keeping busy like you would not believe- island relaxation does not apply to research interns.

Tuesday we “braced for the storm” that was coming our way…… it was sunshine and blue skies- some storm! So we had an “indoor” kind of day where we learned about lionfish, Pterois volitans.  Lionfish are an invasive species to the Caribbean and up the US East coast as well.  They can be described as the “perfect invader” because they look strange so native predators do not attack them and small prey do not know to avoid them.  They have also adapted well to temperature changes, eat just about anything, and reproduce like crazy (up to 100,000 eggs every 3 days)! I know this sounds like we had a lecture, and we did- but we also got to look at the lionfish venomous spines (boiled and sanitized-so no danger!) and dissect a lionfish! This hands on activities adds to the experience.  While dissecting we learned some fish identification as we saw a wide variety of prey in the lionfish stomachs.  There were a lot of lionfish to dissect (since they are an invasive species) the CCMI staff has permits that allow them to go spearfishing for lionfish, to take as many as their air tanks allow in order to attempt population control.

In our various dives, we have seen some awesome fish, sea turtles, and ….. sharks! Mostly nurse sharks, although yesterday a small reef shark swam by keeping her distance, of course.  Wednesday we saw a nurse shark minding his own business while we swam by to get to the CCMI coral nursery.  The nursery was really cool as well- they are growing coral! When the coral becomes a bigger size, they outplant the fragments, which we got to help out with! It is a bit of a process- you have to scrub clean the area, hammer a nail into the coral pavement, and them stick the coral fragment into some epoxy and zip tie it to the nail.  The coral will then (hopefully!) grow down over the epoxy and attach itself to the coral pavement, grow around the zip tie and nail too! This has made me realize that in order to help the ecosystems around us (that we are indirectly affecting) is necessary and a lot of work.

Living here for 12 days has been a wake up call.  The staff here is very conservative in order to make the most of everything.  The power is expensive here on the island and at CCMI it mostly comes from solar energy.  The water is also collected rain water– it does not rain too much on the island and not for long.  This has made me so much more aware of the amount of water I use in the shower– I waste so much at home!

 

First picture: Some cool fish that swam close by 🙂

Second picture: The little blue fish are called Blue Chromis, Chromis cyanea, and are found everywhere in schools around the reef!

Third picture: My dive buddy going along out transect looking for sponges to identify and photograph in order to find the total surface area of the bioeroding sponges.  The project (that I am working on) is setting out to quantify the coral-sponge interactions.  Determining which substrate sponges “prefer” to grow on- live coral (eventually killing the coral), dead coral, or pavement (plain bottom).

Time is flying by! Until next time 🙂

P.S. I learned how to enlarge the images if you click on them (I went and changed all the pictures posted so far).  Now you should actually be able to see the pictures!

Today we went for some more dives starting bright and early.  As much as I love the dives, I wish they didn’t have to be 8 in the morning (I am in central time but it still feels early).

There is a storm coming in tomorrow (hopefully it just stays a small storm with rain!) but the waves and surge was crazy! I have never seen waves so tall in my life- it was cool and sea sickening.  For the first time in my life, I experienced sea sickness- it was terrible.  Staring at the horizon helps, but just not enough.  The best thing was getting back in the water so I wasn’t a sitting duck rocking and rolling with the surface waves.  However, the surge underwater was very strong! If I was swimming against the current I felt like I was going nowhere.  It was cool to see the surge really moving the soft corals back and forth, but not so cool pushing me around 40 ft down.

Coral identification is going really well! Going out on the dives and seeing the coral in person (rather than on my computer screen) is extremely helpful.  I am able to look at the identifying characteristics and actually see what they look like.  This coral is called Orbicella annularis also known as the “Lobed Star Coral.”  Each lobe you see in the picture is actually all connected in the carbonate structure and makes up the 1 coral colony! This is what amazes me the most with the corals- they are animals and they can be so spread out and large but still just one colony.

         

We have on worked on corals for 1 week and as cool as I think they are (it is a new coral fondness), I think I am ready to move on– maybe to identifying common reef fish species?? They are some of the coolest animals that make up the reef ecosystem! Here are some more fun pictures that I was able to take while diving today, hope you enjoy 🙂