Hello again! I have spent my last week on Coconut island doing a variety of projects to help out other visiting researchers. During the beginning of the week, Miranda and I helped out a woman named Julie Zill who is doing her PhD research at HIMB. At the moment she is setting up an behavioral experiment for moray eels. We caught and released two eels from a previous trial and then worked on creating safe and relatively comfortable traps to collect eels for the next trial. These traps were mainly constructed with mesh and zip ties. Later on we cleaned a bunch of sea water filters and helped Julie with some other small tasks.
On Wednesday Miranda and I took the wet mass and volumes of our individual coral fragments, then recorded this information in our spreadsheet. We have decided to record that all four of the Pocillipora Meandrina species in the EZ tank have been completely bleached beyond recovery. This year is supposed to be the worst year for bleaching yet in the Kaneohe Bay area. During the evening I went to the another lab and helped some of my housemates with their Montipera Flabalatta spawning work.
On Tuesday Rob Toonen took Miranda, Leah, Anne and I to the Waiahole Poi factory to try some traditional Hawaiian food. Here we were able to try squid laulau, kalua pork, haupia pudding, poi, and a dessert named the sweet lady of Waiahole made with taro root.
Near the end of the week Miranda and I mostly worked at the coral farm after checking on our coral tanks and cleaning out the sea water lines. We took the volumes of the 162 fragments from last year and recorded their mortality. We then cleaned some racks and put up shade cloth to help the corals survive as the days get hotter. One of the best parts was finding a baby Cassiopeia jellyfish and two nudibranchs in the coral farm.
I am forever grateful for this entire experience and am glad to have been able to call Moku o Loe my home for the last few weeks. I have met and worked with many kind people and learned so much. Thank you.
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