Collecting brooders, no spawn - WS Curacao 2013
Once arrived at the right spot, Kim and Mark demonstrated how to chip of pieces of corals with a hammer and chisel and then handed the tools over to the group so they could collect specimens themselves. Though it looks like a quite rough way to handle the corals, if done in the right way, the corals will survive. We only take specimens for research purposes and they will be reintroduced to the reef.
Brooder town gets residents
Once enough specimens were collected, we brought them into the tank and let them float in their plastic bags for a while to acclimate. Because the water chemistry in our nursery has the same water chemistry as the ocean, it didn't take long before we could lay them out on the stands. Right before the night dive, the specimens were placed in cups with a flow through system and the overflow that went into a collecting bin. Tomorrow we will check the bins to see if the corals have released any larvae during the night.
[brooders]
In anticipation of spawn
Around 8 PM we headed to our collecting sites for the first night dive with a chance to witness coral spawning! One group eagerly awaited to get into the water at Spanish Waters, the other group at the Sea Aquarium. This time, Jeff Corwin and his team joined the team at the Sea Aquarium, so Dirk's briefing was accompanied by a large camera and even larger microphone. Which only added more excitement to the atmosphere!
[corwin]
The few people that stayed behind followed the moving dive lights from shore. Within 40 minutes the first divers showed up at the exit, unfortunately with empty collecting cups. There was no spawning to be observed. Only Mike Brittsan witnessed some corals releasing just a small number of gametes, which might be an omen of (mass) spawning tomorrow!
[night dive]
Exchanging data
Since we're in contact with other researchers that are currently monitoring Elkhorn and Staghorn coral spawning at other places in the Caribbean, we want to make our observations valuable for the research community. To be able to compare the findings, we use a format that has been provided to all groups by Dr. Nicole Fogarty (Nova Southeastern University, Oceanographic Center).
The collected information will help contribute to estimate the current reproductive state of the Elkhorn coral and the Staghorn coral populations in general, and the data will help us to predict future spawning events in the Caribbean.
Principle observers: Dirk Petersen, Valérie Chamberland
Region: Curacao
Site: Sea Aquarium
Date of observation: Augustus 23, 2013
Sunset time: 7pm
Monitoring start time: 9:10 PM
Monitoring end time: 10:00 PM
All species monitored: Acropora palmata
Depth: 3-7 ft
Approx. monitoring area: 30x50m
Species that spawned: none
Time Set: -
Time Spawn: -
Approx. % of corals monitored that spawned: -
Environmental date (i.e., conditions, tide, moon rise time): calm, slight surge
Principle observers: Mark Schick, Kim Stone
Region: Curacao
Site: Spanish Waters
Date of spawning observation: August 23, 2013
Sunset time: 7pm
Monitoring start time: 8.40 PM
Monitoring end time: 10 PM
All species monitored: Acropora palmata and Acropora cervicornis
Depth: 3-23 ft
Approx. monitoring area: 30x20m
Species that spawned: none
Time Set: -
Time Spawn: -
Approx. % of corals monitored that spawned: -
Environmental date (i.e., conditions, tide, moon rise time): partly cloudy, calm, light current, slight surge
