CORAL REEFS of San Salvador!

Well... I could not get into the water yesterday because the waves were so big! Check out my photos of the beautiful Bahamian waves!

Did you know that corals like to live here in the Bahamas because they like to live in clear water – which is nutrient poor. The coral polyps depend on the intercellular algae (zooxanthellae) inside the cells in their bodies to do photosynthesis for them. If coral is stressed, it expels algae, if it expels algae, it loses color, if coral loses color, we call this coral bleaching (BRIGHT WHITE AND CLEARLY DEFNIED POLYP CUPS). If we can still see polyp cup definition, scientists know that the damage has only recently occurred.... although parts of the coral may be bleached, or stressed, they are not yet dead and may still possibly survive.

We're going to be counting the number of bleached corals found on transect and random surveys! It will be LOTS of math and science... or as I call it... SCMATH!

Also, most corals are also nocturnal feeders and use tentacles to feed on plankton at night! They are really interesting animals.

Here's one last photo of today that I took with my mask at San Salvador's beautiful reef at French Bay. What a lovely sight... it was awesome.

Until tomorrow..

Mrs. Hester