I think today was the most beautiful site we've seen so far! We went out to Media Luna this morning to do benthic surveys, where my group captured a dead coral site. As much as the world is aware of coral bleaching and dying off, being able to actually swim into a patch that experienced it was eye opening for me. Besides the sadness of dead coral, the reef was beautiful!!! There was a huge diversity of fish like parrotfish, butterfly fish, and my personal favorite, CUTTLEFISH! (2 of them got super close) and we collected some of natures souvenirs to take home, which was beautiful conch shells. Once back on land, we heard from Johanna Rotterová (Assistant Professor in Department of Marine Sciences University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, Isla Magueyes Laboratories) about microbiology and ciliates. She emphasized how crucial it is for environments to have these organisms and how they play a vital role amongst Eukarya, Bacteria, and Archaea. Amanda though, was so awesome to get to meet! She gave us a tour of the campuses facilities with aquaculture such as crabs, urchin larvae, and vast species of corals. She's a graduate student studying biological oceanography (so awesome to hear about her research with wahoo fish) and her experience as the outreach coordinator for the aquaculture projects across campus. I think today was spectacular and I'm so excited for what's in store tomorrow!
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