After going an whole week with beautiful weather, Hilo has finally gone back to its usual rainy self. It had rained so many times in the last two days that I have lost track. The rain however did not keep my coral reefs class from going out in the field for lab on Monday nor does it really effect any activities. I guess you just learn to accept the rain and know that it will be gone in little while. On Monday my coral reefs class, combined with the turtles class made our way to Richardson's Beach Park for our first snorkel lab. After assessing the conditions and taking note of the couple dozen "warning: strong rip current zone" signs we decided to scope out a new location. We ventured north up the coast a bit to four mile, decided conditions were workable and got in the water. While the current was very strong and it took a whole lot of effort to keep yourself from being pushed backwards, let alone swim forward, the water was fairly warm and I was glad to be getting my feet wet in a little marine biology...literally. At first it was really difficult to see due to the high energy of the waves stirring up the sediment on the bottom of the ocean, however we eventually met up with our professor and a whole new world was revealed. Let me tell you there is something incredible about being in the water with an experienced marine biologist. My two buddies and I had seen a whole lot of nothing up until that point, but the moment we met up with our professor the marine organisms were everywhere!!! With in a matter of minuets we saw two brittle stars, a green sea turtle, a puffer fish, and a sea cucumber!!! It was crazy!
Common Name: Spiny Brittle Star
Scientific Name: Ophiocoma erinaceus
The brittle star is said to be Hawai'i's most abundant echinoderm. There are 57 known species of brittle stars found in the Hawai'ian waters. These little organisms move very quickly along the bottom of the ocean once their hiding places are disturbed. (we found them hiding under rocks) The spiny arms of brittle stars are their fist line of defense, breaking off if they are attacked to get away from the predator. No worries though the lost limbs regenerate very quickly. (Hoover, 1999)
Common Name: Green Sea Turtle
Scientific Name: Chelonia mydas
The Green Sea Turtle is one of the largest turtles on earth getting up to 700lbs. Unlike most sea turtles, as adults Green Sea turtles are herbivores, consuming algae off of rocks. Sadly these turtles are endangered and much of the decline is due to human actives such as net fishing and encroachment on nesting land. (National Geographic 2012)
Scientific Name: Arothron hispidus
Puffers were given their name to due their self defense mechanisms of puffing themselves up when alarmed. There are 14 species of puffers that have been recorded in Hawai'i. If you are wondering it had a very soft almost jelly like feel and the skin was mucusy in texture due to the mucus produced by the fish in order to keep disease and such from entering the body (Randall, 1996).
Most cucumbers are soft bodied, and they feed by sweeping their mouths along the bottom of the ocean like a vaccume. A funny fact is that sea cucumbers not only use their anus for excrement, but it is also the location of their respiratory system. As they contract and release their muscles water flows in and out of the anal opening rushing over respiratory trees which extract the oxygen from the water (Hoover, 1999).
As for today, Tuesday, I did not do much of anything other than go to class and read some research papers about sharks.
Tomorrows my day off so hopefully I will have some wonderful stories to tell!!!
Aloha!
No comments:
Post a Comment