Laughing so Hard I Snort, Day Three of Three

Hello again!  This has been a most interesting week in Bonaire and it's not over yet - last night we went on a night dive, and today I finalized my plans for my Independent Research Project.  Quite exciting, I know.  Furthermore, judging by today's title, lots of laughs have been shared in these last couple of days.  Ah yes, but that is normal when living with such lovely people on a beautiful island. 

I shall begin by recounting the events of last night's dive.  I was a little scared but also super excited to see the reef we've grown accustomed to but at a totally different time than ever before.  We had our flashlights and little tank lights so we were equipped for exploration!  Before we set off, the sun was setting over Klein and the sky was a beautiful pink/orange - a good sign for the dive ahead!  The stars had just started to come out when we entered the water and were about to make our descent.  To begin, we made our way to the reef crest, and traveled along, poking our lights into the little crevices of the corals, looking for fishies and creatures.  The coral polyps were extended because they feed at night.  Some animals my buddy and I saw were:

Several (but not quite this abundant) long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum, my homeboys),

And a midnight parrotfish that was about two feet long and chillin under a coral head. 

Some other things we saw were a spiny lobster, a cute shrimp, some nocturnal squirrelfish, and tarpons that were the length of my body! 

Let me just tell you about the tarpons - they're shiny and super big and feed on little fishies.  When divers go out at night with their lights, tarpons like to chill with the divers because the lights shine in their prey's eyes and they become stunned, making them perfect snacks for the tarpons.  The first time we spotted one, my buddy and I locked eyes for a good minute, shocked at the size of the fish.  After we got over that, we continued swimming along, me a little frightened of the large fishes lurking near us. 

Ok, so this might be a wee bit of an exaggeration, but I swear they looked like this.  Maybe a foot or two shorter, but not by much.  And they traveled in pairs. Talk about scary.

Anyway, the dive was continuing very smoothly until we had to turn around on the reef and continue back in the direction from where we had come.  This was a challenge because the second group of students was behind us and we were being pulled very rapidly by the current towards them!  So many of us were bumping into each other, becoming very flustered, and ocassionally losing sight of our buddies.  I did not like this at all because I like my space (as you all probably know), and this rule also applies in the water.  It's almost even more difficult to watch out for other people while underwater (and in the dark) because you have to look behind your fins, and above, below, and in front of your body.  Once we hit the current and were past the other group, we were soaring!  It was like being in Narrow River in the summer when you ride the current and it's moving the fastest it's ever gone.  If I wasn't so paranoid of bumping into a coral, I would have enjoyed this a little more.  Alas, we made our safety stop at 15 feet and my buddy and I turned off our lights and swooshed the water in front of us so we could see the bioluminescing dinoflagellates - they were so cool!  Despite some pile-ups and the crazy current, everyone was super excited after the night dive!  To make things even better we had cake waiting for us at the house (we always get dessert on nights we get dinner)! 

As for the academia, today I (hopefully) finalized plans for my Independent Research, which I hope to begin next week.  I am going to try and determine if the long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, is recovering at our dive site by noting their density as well as measuring their recruitment (so the number of little baby urchins that stick onto some structures we put out on the reef).  I also hope to look at the amount of algae and coral cover in areas where I find urchins and areas where I do not in order to see if there's a correlation between urchin presence and algae/coral cover.  It's been a bit of a challenge to come up with methods for the field because you can think something is a good idea and then try to actually implement it in the water and it doesn't quite seem possible any more.  With the assistance of our lovely interns and professors, however, I am certain it will all work out! 

Things are very quiet tonight since many people went out to karaoke night at one of the local bars.  Because I am not quite the singer (except in the car, alone) and I don't like going out on school nights (I know, such a nerd), I declined to go.  It's kind of nice to just have a night to relax and figure out things with my research. 

After Friday of this week is Carnival week (NO SCHOOL!!!!) so we're all planning on renting bikes, exploring the island, partying with the locals, ya know, typical tropical doings.  I'm excited to see what Carnival really is as well as to have my research sorted out by the time the weekend rolls around.

Alrighty then, this mermaid has to hit the primary literature (ah, such is the life as a mermaid-slash-scientist).

Bon nochi!