Bahamian Reef Survey with Sherri Dappen

What is the main form of pollution you are seeing on San Salvador Island?

Sherri Dappen — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:59:00 +0000

My reflections on the Earthwatch experience on San Salvador may take more than one post. Like any other important experience in life, my time there has influenced my ideas in a number of ways. In addition, the students I've been working with raised many thought-provoking questions during our teleconferences using Skype and their comments to my blog.

So, I will begin with questions that I did not have a chance to answer while on San Salvador....

What is the main form of pollution you are seeing on the island?

Plastic everywhere~
I was shocked to see how many tons of plastic is washed ashore daily on the remote island of San Salvador. It is far too much, proportionally, to be coming from the immediate area...the nearby Bahamian Islands. What is going on?

East Beach- San Salvador Island

Ghost nets - East Beach San Salvador

I posed this question to two of our resident experts, Bahamian Reef Survey staff members , Annette Pennock, and Elizabeth Brill. Annette, an environmental consultant who has been on the project since 2003, and Elizabeth, an artist and environmentalist who has been working on the project since the very beginning, said that this much plastic has been washing up on San Salvador for years, and it is from all over the Atlantic Ocean...New York, England, and as far away as Africa.

East Beach, San Salvador Photo credit: Christina Willmarth

Annette pointed out that since plastics don't biodegrade, or break down on their own over time, they stay in the ecosystem, in some form, pretty much forever...thousands of years, at least. Plastics do break down, but they break into smaller and smaller pieces, releasing toxins (such as DDT, PCB, formaldehyde) during the process, in the presence of the UV rays in sunlight. This is called photodegrading.

However, no matter how much the plastics break down, they simply become smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. Fish, birds, even filter feeding marine invertebrates, like jellyfish, eat the plastic, mistaking it for food. Since there are no nutrients in plastic, eventually, the animals who eat it either strangle or die of malnutrition.

A dead albatross on a remote island in the North Pacific, it's gut filled with indigestible plastic Photo credit: Charles Moore

Even if an animal who has eaten plastic doesn't die, the toxic compounds from the plastic become concentrated in the animal's tissues, poisoning any other animal who, in turn eats the animal. In this way, toxins work their way up the food chain in marine habitats, which as you know, includes man, since we eat marine animals.

Elizabeth Brill with Earthwatch volunteers cleaning up beach debris on San Salvador

When I started thinking about the amount of plastics my family uses, multiplied by all of the households in the United States, I began to see that we are creating a huge amount of waste that may never break down, and a great deal of it is ending up in our oceans. I did some research, and I found out that closer to home, there is a raft of floating plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas. It is in a place called the Pacific Gyre.

Image credit: Charles Moore

It just so happens that Annette's next research project will involve joining a group of scientists who will travel to the Pacific Gyre to map and study the huge 'floating continent' of trash in the ocean there. I'll add more to this blog as I get info about Annette's project, but meanwhile, I'm asking myself "What can I do?"

I found a great San Francisco Chronicle article by Justin Berton, on plastics in the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL

Here are some suggestions that we can follow to help stop this problem from getting even bigger:

Limit your use of plastics when possible.
Use a reusable bag when shopping. Throwaway bags can easily blow into the ocean.
Take your trash with you when you leave the beach.
Make sure your trash bins are securely closed. Keep all trash in closed bags
Investigate biodegradable alternatives to plastic

Here are links to other articles on the plastics problem in our oceans:

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Sea-Plastic-LN-PG5oct05.htm

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2.shtml

Trash is also a problem in parts of San Francisco Bay. For an interactive map showing some of the worst locations, go to

http://www.savesfbay.org/baytrash

Scientists Develop Strategies to Help the Coral Reefs Return to Balance

Sherri Dappen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:11:00 +0000

Thanks to Mrs. Becker’s class for the fun teleconference Thursday; it was my last one for this trip. I really have enjoyed learning about and using the Skype technology to do live communications.

A Construction Project~

Not all of our work here has been recording data on the health of the coral reefs. Tuesday afternoon, we did a different kind of activity aimed at maintaining the coral reef ecosystem.

Some of you may remember that the Bahamian Reef Survey project has been going on for the last 15 years. During that time, the composition of the local coral reefs here have changed.

Photo credit:NOAA

When we do the underwater point-intercept survey that I described on Monday's post, we count six features of the coral reef: hard coral, soft coral, algae, sand, rock and 'other'(anything else). Over the 15 years this study has been conducted, the percentages of these features in the San Salvador reefs have changed. The percentages of hard corals have decreased and the percentage of algae has increased. Also, certain fish populations have declined.

To be in a healthy state, the coral reef must maintain a balance between all the types of organisms that live in the reef. The hard corals are necessary to maintain the health of the reef; their hard skeletons are like bricks in a wall. They are called the 'reef builders' because the rest of the creatures of the reef live on and around the hard calcium carbonate skeletons that the hard corals form. Also, the branching shape of some of the hard corals (such as the Elkhorn, Staghorn and Fire Coral species) form lots of nooks and crannies in the reef necessary for a good fish habitat.

Fire Coral - note the different structural elements present in the reef Photo credit: Annette Pennock

Variety of coral structures on the reef Photo credit: Elizabeth Brill

The hard corals are declining on the San Salvador reefs, and the healthy balance has been disturbed. In an ecosystem, any change will cause other changes to happen. Algae is covering increasing amounts of the reef, depriving the coral of needed light and nutrients, the hard corals are dying off, so the structure of the reef does not have any nooks and crannies for fish to hide. With fewer fish to eat the algae, the algae continues to multiply.

Reef species need the hiding places supplied by those nooks and crannies Photo Credit: Elizabeth Brill

A Nassau Grouper hides in the reef Photo credit: Annette Pennock

The structure of a declining reef can be replaced in two ways; one involves transplanting living coral to the reef and the other involves attaching artificial ‘corals’ to the reef to replace structural features necessary to maintain the habitat for other species, such as fish. The reef rebuilding experiments being conducted by the Bahamian Reef Survey team on San Salvador will involve the creation of artificial structures to replace hard coral sections that have died and broken away

On Tuesday, we experimented with building a simple artificial coral structure.

We made a form with a box, sand and cardboard.

We poured special hydraulic cement in the mold.

While the cement was being molded, we also built a raft for the artificial coral to float on. We planned to attach boat bumpers to make it buoyant.

Here is what our completed structure looks like. You may be thinking that this doesn't look much like a coral; it will still provide the reef with the kind of structure elements it lacks, now that so much of the Elkhorn and Staghorn coral have dissappeared. This summer's volunteer groups will develop a design that has branching features, more resembling real coral.

Celebrating a team effort Photo credit:Elizabeth Brill

Another Day of Data Collection...Cut Short!

Sherri Dappen — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:27:00 +0000

A storm over south Florida made the ocean here too choppy for data collection, so we stayed on land today.

The Teleconferencing Has Been a Success!!

It has been great to try teleconferencing with Mr. Kelly's 3/4/5 class, Ms. Hemsley's 4th grade class and Mrs. Hudson's 5th grade class at St. Helena elementary and Ms. Lisa Neal's 4th grade class in Clearwater, Florida. One of the great things about this project has been experimenting with the technology and sharing information and ideas with the six other teachers here on San Salvador with me.

Thanks for the comments and questions you've posted to this blog...quite a few of you asked questions about what types of coral I'm seeing, so I thought I would give you some info about that. I'm also adding several pages to my school district website, so look for those.

Now, about the coral...

Photo Credit: Steve Pressmore

There are two categories of coral that we are studying: hard coral and soft coral. Today's post will cover several of the hard coral species we are seeing.

Photo credit:Annette Pennock

Lettuce Coral - Agaricia agaricites
Lettuce coral colonies take on four different forms - hemispherical or encrusting, thick flat leaf-like plates with valleys and ridges, thick leaf-like flat plates without valleys and ridges, and lobes. Cups are located on both the upper and under sides of each colony. All forms are tan to yellow-brown, gray-brown, or brown with purplish tinges.

Photo credit: Annette Pennock

Elkhorn Coral - Acropora palmata
The branches of the elkhorn coral are flat and broad, resembling the antlers of elk or moose. The surface is covered with small, protruding round cups. It is brown or yellow-brown with white corallites along the edges, appearing as a white outline. Colonies cover acres of shallow reef bottom, just below the low tide line.

Photo credit:USGS

Staghorn Coral - Acropora cervicornis
Staghorn coral forms antler-like branches growing in tangled dense thickets. The surface is covered with small, protruding round cups. It is brown to yellow-brown with a pale tip on the end of each branch. The tips are quite delicate and easily broken. Found 10-160 feet (3-49 m) below the surface in protected clear water, colonies cover large areas of the reef. The staghorn coral is listed on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 due to its recent decrease in range.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Grooved Brain Coral - Diploria labrynthiformis
Forming round boulders, colonies have deep interconnected valleys that contain polyps along with broad ridges that have wide, trough-like grooves running down the middle. The grooved brain coral appears tan, yellow-brown, or brownish gray. Commonly inhabiting the seaward slope of the reef, it ranges from 15-50 feet (4.6-15.2 m) in depth.

Photo credit:Steve Passmore

Common Brain Coral - Diploria strigosa
Colonies form smooth plates or hemispherical domes at depths ranging from 3-130 feet (0.9-39.7 m) The corallites are arranged in long valleys along with ridges having no top groove. This brain coral appears green to brown or yellow brown in color with valleys often of a lighter color.

Photo credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Knobby Brain Coral -Diploria clivosa

Colonies form irregular domes at depths ranging from 3-130 feet (0.9-39.7 m) The corallites are arranged in long valleys along with ridges having no top groove. Irregular, knobbed or encrusting formations. This brain coral appears darker green to brown or yellow brown in color with valleys often of a lighter color.

Photo credit: Kate Semon

Mustard Hill Coral - Porites asteroides
Forming rounded heads and domes in deeper waters, this coral occurs only in the encrusting form in shallow high water energy environments. The bright yellow or yellow-green surface appears lumpy and porous due to the closely set corallites. The polyps give the colony a soft, fuzzy appearance when extended. The mustard hill coral is common throughout all areas of the reef to depths of 160 feet (48.8 m).

Photo credit: Kate Semon

Massive Starlet Coral - Siderastrea siderea
Forming rounded heads or boulders up to 4 feet (1.2 m) or more in diameter, the surface of the massive starlet coral is covered with round, pitted corallites. These light gray to golden brown uniformly colored corals inhabit shallow to moderate reefs at depths ranging from 25-45 feet (7.6-13.7 m). The massive starlet coral prefers clear water and lives in protected areas of shallow reefs.

Photo credit: Kevin DuBart

Fire Coral - Millepora dichotoma Fire corals have a bright yellow-green and brown skeletal covering and are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters. They appear in small brush-like growths on rocks and coral. Divers often mistake fire coral for seaweed, and accidental contact is common. The hair like tentacles are the very powerful stinging nematocyst cells that cause a burning sensation when touched and give fire corals their name. In addition, fire corals have a sharp, calcified external skeleton that can scrape the skinWe don't get anywhere near these guys!

Information courtesy of Florida Museum of Natural History

These are only a few of the different species of hard coral we see in the patch reefs of our study sites, off of Lindsey's Beach, Rocky Point and Monument Beach here on San Salvador.

Collecting Data on the Health of Coral Reefs

Sherri Dappen — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Last minute preparation~
As you have read, our last two days spent training for the project: familiarizing ourselves learning how to identify the corals we will be studying, brushing up on our snorkeling and diving techniques, conditioning ourselves for the 5+ hours per day of ocean swimming. Today was the big day we started really collecting data. We headed for Rocky Point, to review our research procedures (scientists call these 'protocols') and to take our final test on identifying plants and animals found in the reef zone.

Here is a typical view of the reef zone taken by Annette Pennock, an environmental consultant working on this project:

And here I am, coming out of the water at Rocky Point, in a photo taken by my roomie, Heather Brown, who teaches in Massachusetts. It has been a blast getting to know the other six teachers on this project!

The Real Work Begins~

After lunch, we went to another reef area of Rice Beach, and began our data collection. These are the three basic tasks that we will be doing all week:

Point intercept analyses: Identifying hard corals, gorgonians (soft sponges), sponges, algae, rock and sand under marked underwater points within the one-square-meter survey frame.

Basic transect data: Collecting temperature data and water samples and conducting visibilityand bleaching surveys underwater.

Shoreline and nearshore environments physical changes analysis: Beach profiles consist of
observers measuring the change in beach elevation every two meters along set lines. This task is accomplished by the use of survey (stadia) rods, a two-meter survey line and a line level. The survey rods are placed every two meters from the top of the beach to the low tide mark. The drop or the rise in elevation is recorded.

Here is a NOAA photo you may recognize from my website. This is what it looks like when we do the point-intercept analysis. Mrs. Hemsley’s class had a question about what this was. We look to see what is under each one of the points where the grid lines cross: hard corals, gorgonians (soft coral), sponges, algae, rock, sand and other (anything else), and tally how many times we see each item. Each team drops the frame and tallies the data about 20 times. At the end of the day, we total up all the data we collected this way, and it gives us a pretty good idea of what percentage hard corals, gorgonians (soft coral), sponges, algae, rock, sand and other (anything else) that a particular reef contains.

This one is a photo of some of the members of our team doing the kind of beach profiles I described above. They are collecting data on changes in the width and steepness of the sandy part of the beach.

It Was Great Teleconferencing With Mrs. Hemsley's Class~

The last thing I want to report on is that I was really happy to talk with Mrs. Hemsley’s class today. We did a teleconference over the internet, and I’m happy to say everything worked very well. Mrs. Hemsley’s students had excellent questions about the project here, and I want to thank them for taking the time to share this experience with me,

Tomorrow, I will have a chance to teleconference with Mr. Kelly’s class and Ms. Hudson's class, and on Thursday with Mrs.Becker’s class.

Arrival and Training

Sherri Dappen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Hi All...
Thanks for the great comments. I'll answer a few now and more later:

J. H., I will try not to get eaten by a shark, but if I do, you should finish the book without me.

J.P., so far I have not seen any hot cheetos in the Bahamas. I think they are illegal here.

Yes, you can show your parents my website from any computer. You can get there from the school district website or through the link in this blog.

ARRIVAL ON SAN SALVADOR ISLAND~

Almost there!

De plane

San Sal International Airport

Connie and Annette enjoy our mode of transportation

TRAINING DAY~

Today, we spent in training for our research work, which starts tomorrow. First, we took a class in snorkeling, to be sure we could do the swimming that we will need to do. Next, we took a class on identifying the different types of coral, and how to tell if coral is stressed, diseased or dead. We have seen some incredible coral reefs and tomorrow, our work will really begin.

More on that later...

Sherri Dappen — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Bahamian Reef Survey Project
February 23-March 1
San Salvador Island,
The Bahamas

Welcome to my Blog guiding you through my work on this project, led by scientist John Rollino on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas.

How Do Man's Actions Change the Environment?

Webpages~

Bahamian Reef Survey Project Website: http://www.earthwatch2.org/LFF/Rollino/

Sherri Dappen's webpages, with lots of background info and interesting links:

http://shusd.schoolwires.com/1573201114111825857/site/default.asp?

Ms. Dappen's webpage topics:

Project Overview and Guiding Questions
Man on San Salvador Island
The People of San Salvador Island in Literature
What Is a Coral Reef?
Why are Coral Reefs in Danger Worldwide?
More on Coral Bleaching
How Can I Take Action to Preserve Our Planet's Coral Reefs?

About the Project~

Who?

A team of teachers, volunteers and scientists will meet on San Salvador Island to observe, document and explore the coral reef habitat. Scientists John Rollino, Dr. Garriet Smith (University of South Carolina at Aiken) and Thomas McGrath (Corning Community College) are in their fourteenth year of their search for better understanding of the reefs and the causes of coral afflictions.

What?
The Bahamian Reef Survey project is one of the longest running coral reef research projects in the world, and it has contributed a large body of data on coral reef ecology and coral diseases to the scientific community.

Why?
The island’s low population and pristine crystal clear waters provide an ideal setting to study coral reefs. On more developed Bahamian and Caribbean islands, patch reefs, as well as other coral reefs, are often under enormous pressure from development, pollution/runoff, fishing and recreational activities. These reefs also serve as a nursery area for many denizens of deeper water habitats.

Where?
San Salvador is a remote, sparsely-populated Bahamian Island about 350 miles southeast of Miami. On San Salvador, our research sites are located on patch reefs. These patch reefs are small isolated reefs that are located in shallow waters only a stone’s throw from the shore.

How?
Our team will systematically survey the reefs to document their health and what threats they are facing. We'll learn to conduct a number of ecological field measurements while snorkeling: surveying hard corals and other reef animals and plants, mapping transect sites and taking reef measurements, and testing water chemistry. On land, we'll map corals in tide pools and monitor beach profile changes over the seasons.

Photo credit:Beachfront Property Group