First Day!

 

Howdy! I'm Ryan, a senior Marine Biology and Marine Fisheries major with a minor in Dive tech! I'm super excited to be on this crazy fun two week adventure in Puerto Rico and have this incredible 

hands-on research and data collection! 

After a long week of learning so much about the island and the many species we will encounter, I was so happily overwhelmed! I mostly slept through the 4 hour flight, and after a quick scenic drive through la Cordillera central; the most amazing mountains with the best views, we finally made it to casa Garito in La Parguera. One of the most excited things for me is getting to experience the deeply powerful culture of Puerto Rico and its natural beauty, so I'm thrilled to finally be here!

So far, we have spent the time unpacking and setting up our gear for the weeks ahead; there is a lot of work to be done! After a great first night at the house, we woke up early and split the group to set up our lab equipment at the University of Puerto

Rico on the small island Magueyes. 

After setting up and gathering the rest of the group who had gone to get some extra groceries, we had lunch on the top of the island, at Point Tsunami, which had the best view of the small off-shore mangrove islands that we will be visiting to do our surveys!

When we returned from lunch, we got into snorkel gear and headed out on the boats to Caracoles, an area with some of the highest anthropogenic traffic, to conduct the first of many surveys. 

We started in the mangroves, taking photos of individual roots, to survey the epibionts that were thriving on the underwater roots. Jose and I found some pretty cool brittle stars and some sponges growing!

After the survey, we quickly moved to the nearby seagrass meadows to try to find some Queen Conch, which our group has been tasked with surveying for the purpose of conservation, since this species has been severely depleted. We measured a 10-meter radius circle with our transect tape, and carefully searched the field for the large shells. 

Unfortunately, this area did not prove fruitful for the gastropods today, but we did find some smaller snails, and we will continue to survey for them in the days to come!

Mangrove root surveys, Queen conch counts, and an quick tour of the UPR campus on Isla Magueyes, not bad for the first full day! I'm so excited to see where the week takes us, because there is so much to learn and experience, both in and out of the water!

-Ryan