Facing Fears

This week has been exhausting! Who knew swimming to the reef crest and back five times a day carrying three bags of coral rubble could take so much energy!? It's all been worth it though, because we are getting data!! :) Each herbivory assay seems have one obstacle or another.... One morning, I was out on the reef at 7am, starting to put out my algae segments. Thankfully, the wind was minimal, and so I felt relatively comfortable being out there by myself. I almost had everything out, and was planning on setting out a new transect for an afternoon run of the experiment while I waited to collect them again. I was at the reef crest when a surge came and knocked me into a coral bommie. I banged my knee pretty good, but it didn't hurt too bad, and didn't seem to be bleeding much, so I didn't worry. Between the reef crest and boat however, I had very close encounters with four black tips, which I thought was an unusually high number of sightings over such a short period. When I got back to the boat, I realized that my knee was actually bleeding quite a lot. I'm pretty sure none of them would attack, but to avoid attracting any more than I already had, I decided to stay out of the water until it scabbed over before collecting.

The next day, instead of doing a run on the back reef, we decided to check out the layout of the forereef, so that I could decide on how many set-ups I would need, how far apart to put them, and how long to leave them out. Normally, the forereef requires diving, since it is about 30-50 feet deep. However, for some reason we were unsure if I was cleared to dive yet, and so it was decided that two people would dive, and I would snorkel and observe from the surface. Can you say shark bait?? Basically we're talking the open ocean, and me floating/flailing vulnerably at the surface. I was terrified, but told myself that I had better suck it up because I didn't have a choice. If there were any giant barracudas, lemon sharks, or tiger sharks around, I didn't see them. I forced myself not to look around, and only to focus on the divers below. I made sure to stay directly above the diver making the largest bubbles, in the ridiculous hopes that being surrounded by a cluster of bubbles would somehow make me look larger and scarier. Sometimes I could see myself in the large bubbles, and was afraid that in the next bubble, I would not be alone in the reflection. Anyway, it was the longest half hour of my life, but I survived!
The past couple of days have been really windy, making boating (particularly for a beginner) a bit difficult. Yesterday, I tried to go out at 7am again, somehow managed to anchor before getting blown onto shallow coral bommies, and sat for about 20 minutes contemplating whether or not it was a good idea to be out there by myself in such conditions. I went back and forth telling myself to stop being such a baby, but the uncomfortable feeling in my gut eventually overpowered my stubborn will not to give up, and I went back defeated. However, it was not to be an unproductive day, as one of the grad students graciously volunteered to come out with me. We did two full runs! This morning I watched some corals for spawning, but nothing yet. We'll see how it goes over the next few days.

Still the Storms Come

The storm approaching...

I have officially done two full runs of my experiment, and it's been exhausting! The weather all week was perfect and calm, but today, just as I was setting things up, a storm rolled in. It was amazing to watch it approach, and know that I would still be out in the water by the time it hit. It turned out to look a lot scarier than it actually was, but did manage to produce enough of a current to make things challenging for me. I lost several of my set ups throughout the course of the morning, and had an exceptionally difficult time finding the ones that I had set out the reduced visibility in such turbid conditions. We left the dock at seven, and when I came back to the boat at about eleven, I had probably swallowed about a liter of seawater. I decided that although things did not go as well as planned, that the day was not over. I had been having a difficult timing finding the algae that I have been using for the herbivory assays, and as I was almost out, was hoping that today would be different. After spending the afternoon searching, with no luck finding algae (although I have been finding Fungia corals that I'll watch for spawning around the new moon next week), I was getting a bit worried that I'd have to expand my search beyond the north shore. Around four, Anya suggested that we check once more on the fringe reef closest to the station, which is the only place that we had found any before. We thought we had found it all, but it was worth another try. Well, despite all of my frustration from this morning, we found it... a ton if it!! Who knew I could get soo excited over algae!? So, it looks like the experiment will continue after all! ... and hopefully the ocean will calm down for the next few days :).

sooo excited we finally found algae!

Acanthophora spicifera up close

Trial and Error

It's amazing how even the simplest of experiments can be soo complicated! I attached algae segments to weighted clothespins to be placed in five microhabitats within three different zones along a transect extending from the reef crest through the back reef. Monday evening, a grad student from CSUN helped me to deploy a pilot experiment. Everything was going great, the sun was getting ready to set, and I was about to head back to the boat  when I stopped dead in my tracks. I had absolutely no idea that it was possible for an eel to get four feet long, and to be almost the width of my thigh. Well, it is. Eventually, when I am setting things out by myself, I really hope that we do not meet again.

The next morning, we spent 45 minutes snorkeling around what we thought was the transect, and eventually gave up. The set-ups were very inconspicuous, which is great for the experiment, but not so great for us. We started over, this time marking the transect every few meters with flagging tape, and placing the algae in the vicinity of markers. By the evening, when we went back out to collect, we had a much better idea of how to go about setting things up, and successfully located all but one. Our pilot experiments have given us some interesting preliminary data, but finally I think I am ready to put out the first full run tomorrow morning.

searching for target algae
Acanthophora spicifera in
the eerie bay waters

The weather has been absolutely beautiful all week... mild wind, calm seas, and clear skies! I have basically spent the majority of every day in the water, and am now cleared to take out the boats and set things up by myself. Every day (and with each run-in with a black tip reef shark), I get more comfortable doing things on my own, less surprised by the assortment of creatures in the back reef, and my boating skills get better every day.  The CSUN group I am with is awesome! They have been really helpful, lots of fun, and more than happy to tell me all about the research that they are doing. I feel so insanely lucky to be back here, and have already learned so much! Hopefully over the next few days of my project, we start to see some patterns.

Moorea: Round Two

Back again... and I couldn't be more excited! Yesterday, I was reunited with chocolate croissants, baguettes, brie, Rotui mango juice, and two of the sweetest dogs ever! Now, I am ready for what will be a busy, but awesome four weeks of field work!  The goal of my REU project is to quantify fish herbivory on various parts of the reef in the hopes that this data can be used to help relate coral cover and algal cover in those areas. Other than that, I'll be helping out with other experiments that will be running as a part of the Moorea Long-Term Ecological Research Project (M-LTER).