We boated out to an ecotone, where the mangroves meet the reef to form an interesting combined habitat. This was a short snorkeling trip where the main goal was for the Marine Lab instructors to find a pink algae which ended up being a habitat for tons of different invertebrate species. During the introduction of…

We started the day off with hearty breakfast of Bacon and Pancakes (very delicious) Following that we got on the Nari taking a trip on a survey of the keys. Seeing a hardbottom, patch reef, bank reef, artificial reef, and then the Deep Blue (over 250 feet deep!) Lunch was tacos with a delicious homemade…

Coral Reef Trip We boated out to the Banana Reef. The Banana Reef is one of many SPA (“no take, no touch”) zones. This protects the coral reefs from the effects of tourism in the area. Coral reefs are essential to the ocean ecosystem. Coral reefs house 32 of 34 total phylums of animals and…

Today we focused on turning service into learning, instead of “what can I do to help” we thought about “what can I learn about the problems and solutions.”    One thing that was meaningful to me was the Barracuda we saw while doing our swim test. Many of us, including myself, were afraid. We were…