Hello again! During my second week at HIMB I focused primarily on my experiment regarding multi species coral growth. The process for all three of my experiments is similar, rigorous, time consuming and must be very precise. This week we epoxied and mounted all of the corals for the multi-species project and also we had to remeasure the week 0 corals from the recuperating flow corals. Which sounded a lot easier than we anticipated.
Corals are extremely sensitive animals, they can respond to a variety of stress factors including: Water temperature, PH levels, light, the surrounding nutrients, and more. So you can imagine taking fragmented corals out of their natural environment them stresses them out. Corals have extremely thin tissues; when we measure them by taking wet mass we have to dab off any excess water and place the coral on a scale. However, dabbing the corals on a paper towel is equivalent to someone sandpapering a human’s skin.
In order to stress them out as little as possible, we have to work quick and make sure the water is not too warm. To minimize the time process, we used a paddle board to sit on while keeping the corals in the water. To keep the corals under, we had to ziptie the tray of corals to the underside of a life saver.
Miranda measured the volumes while I measured the masses.
Miranda showing how exhausting the process is.
Each day seems very long but the weeks go by quickly. I am becoming very comfortable with my roommates and have been having a lot of fun. We have found our favorite restaurant, Pho My Vi, where we enjoy Pho at least twice a week.
On Saturday morning, I enjoyed a two and a half hour tour of coconut island where I learned about the interesting history of Coconut Island. Then myself and two of my roommates, Madeline andCasey, went for a spectacular hike along the Old Pali Highway.
More Photos from our hike!
I can not wait for next week and getting to take care of my corals, hike the local trails, hang out on the beach, and hopefully get a few dives in!
Thanks for keeping up with my journey!
Glad to see your having a blast and learning a lot too!so how much have your corals grown?cant wait to read next blog,nice photos too!xo