Our day (Thursday) began with a bang thanks to Mother Nature. Lightning kept us off the dock in the morning and me out of the water. So, no data collection occurred today. We did, however, assist Jennifer with a Coral Tree Cleaning (aka Coral Christmas Trees – in October!). RIMS and AKR have a forest of PVC trees adorned with coral clippings. The coral is grown in situ and when it has grown enough, is transplanted to the reef. In this way, there is an effort to help the reef. The PVC tubes that are the backbone of the trees need to be cleaned regularly to keep algae from growing on them and harming the fledgling coral growth. You can see me and a buddy doing a safety hang after cleaning a few trees in this photo. Toothbrushes and scrub brushes were our friends for an hour underwater today! I also include before cleaning and after cleaning views of one of the trees. The afternoon offered a chance to review video clips from earlier in the week. Even though rain was the predominant weather pattern of the day, we got much accomplished!
Let’s hope tomorrow is better and offers a chance to collect more data!
Cheers
Kathleen & the DCP Eco-tour Gang!
Thank you to Madison for sharing the coral christmas trees and our cleaning efforts!
Before cleaning and after cleaning 