SNORKELING IN THE CARIBBEAN

Belize Forest and Marine Ecology

On our way out of Belize City for a full day of snorkeling.

Went past Frigret Island Home of the frigret birds

Getting wet! We were able to observe a huge variety of

species while away from the touristy spots.

Blue tang at a cleaning station

Black Grouper

Blue Stripe Grunt

Blue Tang Fish

Butterfly Fish

What is coral, a plant or an animal? A coral is made of tiny little

carnivorous (meat eating) animals called polyps.

These polyps live in colonies. Each polyp forms a little limestone

case around it. Coral reefs are made up of

thousands of limestone cases around it.

Coral Reef- The coral is made up of tiny stinging cells. When an animal swims past this and brushes up against it, it kills the animal.

Coral can be soft or hard.

Brain coral

Stag horn and brain coral

Brain coralSome coral reefs can take hundreds of years to

form.

Fan coral, brain coral

Elkhorn coral and yellow tail damsel fishReefs provide housing and protection for thousands of

animals.

Elkhorn coral

Feather duster worm

Gorgonia Coral

Fan coral is a soft coral.

Coral reefs have different shapes, this is determined by their environment and wave action.

As many as 200 kinds of fish can live in a coral reef. They range in size from 10mm to 20 meters long. Food for little fish is supplied there which attracts larger fish.

Coral reef provides nooks and crannies for fish to hide in.

Nudibranch Clinic

So much life in the tropics depend on coral reefs.

It is related to the jelly fish. A coral polyp is the size of a pearl. It is like a mouth with tentacles stuck to it. These coral live in colonies.

The coral skeleton is made up of calcium carbonate. It

Coral BleachingWhat is coral bleaching?

What causes coral bleaching?

Coral Bleaching

Is caused from the water being too warm, too low of tide, pH changes are a few reasons.

Global Warming causes the reefs to bleach and die out.

It results in the coral turning white and is a sign of the coral being stressed.

This can result in the coral dying.

Variety of Fish

Why is coral dying important? Nearly all life in shallow tropical beaches

depend on coral. If the reefs die out , the fish die out.

Fish diversity dies out as well as the number of fish.

Here are some different kinds of fish encountered while we were snorkeling.

Parrot fish are one of the few fish that eat coral. What they excrete is partly sand.

Stop light parrot fish

Parrot Fish

French grunt fish

Grey angel fish

Grey Angel Fish

Grouper

Hog fish

Jake the Barracuda

Lion Fish

Although lion fish have a unique appearance they are a very invasive species.

Nassau fish

Queen Trigger Fish

Blue Tang Fish

Queen Trigger Fish

Queen Trigger Fish

School of jack fish

4 Eyed Butterfly Fish

A close look at a ray

Sea biscuit

Seahorse

Spotted eagle ray

Spotted eagle ray

In Shark and Ray AlleyNot a lot of different varieties of species found here! There are a lot of tourist !

Autumn gets a closer look.

Nurse sharks surround our boat. Our tour guide was attracting them by feeding them.

Octopus

Sea Turtle

Starfish

Storms rolling in

A first hand look at the waters of the beautiful Caribbean. (The waters are lacking plankton and accounting for their blue color.)

Full day of snorkeling

Special Thanks

A special thanks to my classmates in the Miami Dragonfly Belize 2013 Class for sharing their photographs.