Skype and Lionfish

Queen Angelfish 

    One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish! Dr. Seuss's book has more meaning now. My head is spinning with fish, but I am getting better. Today we added the challenge of counting the fish. On one patch I saw 200 French Grunts, 150 White Grunts, 130 Juvenile Tomtates and 80 White Margates. Of course these are all my best estimates.
    I am getting used to the routine now. We dove on two reefs in the morning and two reefs in the afternoon. I had fun Skyping with lots of Harbor Day students. I talked with kindergarten and third grade during lunch and fifth through eighth this evening. Everyone had great questions!

Lionfish Spearing

   Duck diving is getting easier. I am learning to take a deep breath and dive straight down. It is the only way to see the fish that hide under the ledges. The Groupers and Parrotfish stay tucked away in the reef. It takes a little more work to find them.
   After our surveys, a few of the guys dove in with spearguns to catch the lionfish. The spears have three prongs so that the fish does not slide down and sting them. They caught 12 lionfish. The researchers examined the stomach contents of the fish to determine what they were eating.
   Tomorrow we start our first real data survey. I will have to make sure that I take good notes on all of the reefs. We will enter them into the computer when we return to shore. Alistair says that data is not data until it is in the data system.

Nassau Grouper 

Damselfish