You may know that I love fish that others find "ugly." Perhaps you received a Christmas card with such a fish on it? Shortly after arriving at Yakima Valley Community College, I gave a talk about my volunteer work in Roatan, Honduras. I started the talk with the images that as a child made me want to be a marine biologist. Those images were of batfish, frogfish, toadfish, viperfish and scorpionfish among others. I love the "ugly" in the sea. The strange. The different. The alien. I had the pleasure of spending a little one-on-one time with Bob, the batfish(pictured above), near our dock a short time ago. He's a pretty low-key fish. I haven't seen him lately and I kind of miss him. Here's some video to give you a different view of Bob. I love how all of my videos look like they were shot in the 50's on 8mm.
This is my botany post.
Some are bark, toys, or thorns. Yet, they show up on shores all over.) Let's start with one that you know, the coconut. It's a really big seabean. Here's a sprouting coconut (I may show you in another post how the water in the coconut at this stage is a lot like styrofoam, but sweeter). One of my favorite seabeans, is called the Hamburger. Look at them! Aren't they cool! So tempting.
These "beans"
float long distances before they finally wash up on the beaches.
is my favorite method. Many of you know how to do this already, so get to it. Granted this isn't a wild image or terribly superb stereo (now you really want to look at it don't you?), but it does have a reasonable 3D effect. If you have a mirror, then follow the instructions outlined in this picture that I found on the web to view this image (Yeah, that's how lazy I am going to be --as lazy as a 3-toed sloth in an EZ chair -- that simile is for the folks that understand why I'm trying to use simile.) Come on. Do you really have anything better to do? Learning this technique will be one more skill to add to your resume. Note for those who care: I actually took this image without any beam-splitting devices. This is pure, free-form, hand-held, stereo sweetness that's as easy as pie to do with any camera.
The coconut was brought to this area as a crop and it can overtake the native forests. The littoral forests that covered the island are endangered by these coconut palms. If the littoral forest is replaced by coconut palms, then the Red-footed Boobies (that's a bird) that nest in the native trees will also be displaced. To help control the coconut palm growth, the students walk through the forest and pick up sprouting coconuts and drag them to a big coconut pile. 
This group pulled out more than 300 coconuts and three weeks ago another group of academic trek students did the same. There is an attempt on the island to leave the coconut palms in place on one side of the island but prevent them from taking over the littoral forest on the other side.
that was resting between a couple of coral heads. A few of the snorkelers saw a group of about 5 nurse sharks sitting in the sand.
OK. I stole the idea for the title from a t-shirt that I saw on Half Moon Caye, "I've got what the beaches want." I thought it was very funny.
which caters to sportfishing enthusiasts, on the northern portion of Blackbird Caye. The contrast between the resorts beach and the neihboring beach that we saw that day was stunning. The sand at Turneffe Flats was immaculate while the quantity and diversity litter on the nesting beach was overwhelming. As I mentioned before, the litter that is on the beaches does not come from dumping on the island itself, but from the incomprehensible amount of trash that is dumped in the ocean. We were all stunned by how many shoes washed up on shore too. That was unexpected. In a matter of minutes, Nicole was able to create the following shoe-store display. Most styles were represented. Flip-flops made up a significant portion. Most of the shoes were women's, but there were no matching pairs.
tourist for a few days on the mainland. I've spent the last four days with a super fun couple from Denver, John and Molly. John is a semi-retired high school AP chemistry teacher who's golf game has improved since he shattered his arm falling off of a roof. Molly is a world-traveling former-special-education teacher turned administrator, who has only 4 years before she can play, play, play
. I've had a great time getting to know the couple. They are so well-read and excited about learning that we've sat around talking for hours and hours each day. Today we all went to the Blue Hole together to snorkel. I think that it is a much better snorkel than it was a dive. Here are a couple of pictures from my trip. The soft corals around the Blue Hole are absolutely amazing.
I love these feather duster worms (toward the bottom). I think that John may love them too.
Some of you know how I feel about Anemones.
Here are pics of some of the folks that I've been working with at the Oceanic 
Society field station. Some of them are staff of Oceanic Society and others work with OS. There are some folks that I'll have to include later because I haven't been able to get a good photo of them yet. Starting with some of the staff, one of the hardest working guys down here, Chico (pictured on the right). He takes care of the grounds. He's working all of the time. The dude is always smiling! Unfortunately, my Spanish is so bad these days that I can hardly talk to the man. Chico tries to keep up on all of the trash that washes up down here, but it would take a crew working around the clock to keep up. 
I still need pictures of Rose, assistant cook and housekeeper, and Wanda, our head cook, so I'll have to post them later. Sometimes Wanda's grandchildren visit the atoll too. Here's a picture of Maureen, one of her grandaughters. 
I think that it's great to have the local kids around. Giving them a chance to see more of what goes on here is perfect. I would like to see a program develop through Oceanic Society for the local kids from Belize. We'd need a donor to support such an project, but I think that it could really pay off in the end.
is a geneticist from San Jose State University. She's does work on all kinds of organisms, but is well known for her work in Sirenian (manatee, dugongs) 
genetics. Her good friend, colleague and drinking buddy, Mario Mota, will undoubtedly hate this picture, but, fortunately, he's not a big fan of blogs, so it doesn't matter. He's looking pretty serious here and all decked out for protection from mosquitoes as we went into the freshwater lagoon out back to look for crocs. Mario has also worked with a lot of different marine megafauna, but turtles are his specialty these days. Finally, there's Kathryn Patterson, and she'll hate this picture too, 
but until I have a different one it will have to do. Kathryn is currently working on her Masters degree. She's down here studying Bottlenosed Dolphins and relationships between mothers and calves. Many of the groups that come down here go out with Kathryn to help her collect data (and to see some of the charismatic megafauna themselves). I think that she's sad here because we didn't see any dolphins while out looking for crocodiles.
A spotted moray eel
A Ruffled Feather Duster Worm
A neon goby on Whitestar Sheet Coral (Agaricia lamarcki)
Grooved Brain Coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis) polyps
Blue Bell Tunicates
Sponge Brittle Stars on Pink Vase Sponges
Since my last post, we surveyed a beach for crocodile nests, and found several, performed night shoreline surveys for croc eyes, caught a couple of crocs and had a lot of nice meals anchored in the boat waiting for dark. In case you haven't caught a crocodile from a boat before, I'll outline how it works.
e.g., wolf spiders). Thomas can't actually see the red, due to his color-blindness, but trust me, it works. When discussing your crocodile captures, you may want to employ Thomas' "Rambo Scale." Catching crocs rates higher on the Rambo scale than, say, analyzing satellite images of coral reefs or crocheting. Although we caught some nice crocs over the last few days, they didn't put up enough fight to be high on the Rambo scale. They fell somewhere in the mid-to-low range. We actually wonder if some of the crocs that we caught, which were recaptures from previous croc surveys, maybe enjoy being sexed (determining if they're male or female -- in case you were confused) a bit too much and thus didn't put up a fight. There is a bit of cloaca manipulation
that has to take place to sex a croc. I digress.
"blind" it so that it can't see your approach.
and tail. Sit on it, if necessary.
Cover its eyes. This may calm it down some.
Here's Kat and Thomas collecting location information. Take measurements of the crocodile (length, snout width, etc.) and mark it, so that if you catch it again, 
you can see how it has changed or if it has moved. Take a break and look at the funky crocodile features. Check this out. This croc's lower teeth go THROUGH its upper jaw!
That's most of it.
