Friday, June 6, 2014

Old Sweat Bank



      Watching a beautiful sunset over the bay yesterday on the deck above the office at the Keys Marine Laboratory I thought about Old Sweat Bank.  This was the third site we visited on our first day here.  It is a grassy flat area with a very complex topography.  There was a large number of Manicina areolata (Rose Coral) and Porites divircata (Finger coral) spread out throughout the Thallassia testudinum (Turtle grass) and all over the sandbar.  Overall the site was highly current influenced and much closer to the channels making it a suitable environment for many benthic invertebrates.  One of the coolest species that we found was a Neogonodactylus wennerae (common mantis shrimp).
       We saw a few different species of small fish including but not limited to Haemulon carbonarium (Ceasar grunt), Haemulon flavolineatum (French grunt), Lagodon rhomboides (Pinfish) and Acanthostracion quadricornis (Scrawled cowfish).  It seemed that the seagrass as well as some of the Porifera species provided a suitable habitat for small fish only.  This area was largely dominated by seagrasses and green algae.  The most prolific algal species seen was Halimeda incrassata.  This is an area that should be snorkeled with caution.  There were some spots where it was apparent that some seagrass beds had been destroyed by boat anchors as well as motors at low tide. 




 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment