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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