Friday, June 6, 2014

Stag Party East Site

6/4/2014
Day three in the Keys Marine Lab

This week in the Keys with FAU faculty has been unforgettable. I've been waiting this whole time for this particular week because I knew my guys Dr. Voss and Dr. Hanisak would not disappoint. We have been traveling all over the Keys and observing various ecosystems by way of snorkel and fins. This weeks blog will be somewhat different in the fact that each student is blogging about a particular site and then a second one on a specific organism that we found interesting. We would snorkel two to three sites each day and compile a species list for each site.

Day three site three was called Stag Party East simply for the fact that it was a natural Acropora cervicornis(Stag-horn Coral) population. The Stag-horn coral is a popular one because it grows extremely fast and is used in many restoration projects. This site was a flat "mesa" type of ecosystem with very high coral diversity, including the largest sea fan (Gorgonia sp.) population we had seen thus far. The depth was about 7-9 meters which had been the deepest for the day and the water was crystal clear. For some reason, even with the high coral diversity the fish abundance and diversity was lacking. Unfortunately this was our last site for the day and we only spent about twenty minutes in the water. Below is the species list I compiled for the day. Unfortunately, my GoPro died before I could get any pictures from this particular site.

Fish List   Algae list   Coral list
Common name   Scientific name   Scientific name   Scientific name
     
Bicolor Damsel fish   Stegastes partitus   Halimeda opuntia   Meandrina meandrites
Spotted goat fish   Pseudupeneus maculatus   Halimeda tuna   Porites astreoides
Slippery Dick   Halichoeres bivittatus   Halimeda goreaui   Siderastrea siderea
Gray angel fish   Pomacanthus arcuatus     Acropora cervicornis
Queen angel fish   Holacanthus ciliaris     Gorgonia ventalina
French angel fish   Pomacanthus paru     Colpophyllia natans
Stoplight Parrot fish   Sparisoma viride     Diploria labyrinthiformis
Princess Parrot fish   Scarus taeniopterus     Dichocoenia stokesi
Blue head wrasse   Thalassoma bifasciatum     Montastrea cavernosa
Scrawled Cowfish   Acanthostracion quadricornis     Solenastrea bournoni
Porkfish   Anisotremus virginicus    
Rock Beauty   Holacanthus tricolor    
Filefish      
Smooth trunkfish   Lactophrys triqueter    
Black Grouper   Mycteroperca bonaci    
Four eyed Butterfly fish   Chaetodon capistratus    
Yellowtail snapper   Ocyurus chrysurus    
Spanish Hogfish   Bodianus rufus    
 Hogfish   Lachnolaimus maximus    
Blue Tang   Acanthurus coeruleus    
Ocean Surgeonfish   Acanthurus bahianus    
Scrawled filefish   Aluterus scriptus    
Christmas tree worm   Spirobranchus giganteus    
Doctor Fish   Acanthurus chirurgus    



   

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