Take-off

Our morning began with a high-speed ride through this
narrow passage outside PICRC.

One of our tiles deployed in dead coral next to a live colony

The deep, throaty rumble of the engine got louder, and all at once, we were going three times as fast as we had been. The wind rippled over my face as I sat in the bow of the motor boat. We charged forward, through a narrow passageway between two jagged cliffs. The rock islands towered high on either side of us, undercut by the tide, covered in determined greenery clinging to the vertical stone faces. I felt like a kid. In fact, when I was younger, I loved to sit in the bow of my godparents’ motor boat and zoom around the lake near their cottage in northern Michigan. I sat as far forward as I was allowed so I could feel the wind rippling over my face, and I would imagine that I was a princess from some exotic foreign land. Friends, my inner child was alive and well today.

Our first study site was Risong, an enclosed lagoon south of PICRC. We made sure to sample there at high tide because if the tide is too low, the boat cannot make it through the passageway to the innermost portion of the lagoon. We jumped in with just our fins and snorkels and surveyed the site first, then donned our dive gear and re-entered the water with our sampling equipment - a hammer, a screwdriver, steel rods, C-clamps, and terra cotta tiles. Hard-core.

Hanny getting ready to chisel a young coral colony

We deployed the terra cotta tiles on the seafloor, either in dead coral or in sand. Our major objective for this project is to see whether coral larvae spawned in enclosed lagoons can disperse and settle at outer reefs or vice versa, so we're using the tiles to "catch" new recruits. The terra cotta mimics the texture of rock or coral rubble, and the tiles have been conditioned with a biofilm that signals to larvae "this is a good place to settle." We're putting the tiles out during coral spawning season, so hopefully things will settle on them! 

Once we had all the tiles deployed, we also sampled young corals in the lagoon. We're targeting the smallest colonies we can find - ideally about 6 months old - to see if their genetic signatures match adults nearby or at reefs farther away. We used a screwdriver as a chisel and pounded on the back of it with a hammer to collect tiny chips of coral. It was a lot of work and we both had sore biceps by the end of the day, but we have a large collection of samples to show for it! 

Friends, I absolutely love my job. We had a very successful first day, and I can't wait to see what the other sites yield!