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Archive for the ‘Hard Corals’Aug 2, 10 Comments Off
Hey guys, how was your Monday?? I spent most of the day on the computer at work and getting ready for a dive with the sub tomorrow morning with paying guests. We are all busy still getting the Substation finished with the final touches including building a new deluxe dock for the sub to park in while in the water.
I shot a bunch of macro photos the other day of all the different colors and kinds of coral, these are just a few of many. The first one, (going clockwise) is a strange color of Giant Star Coral, the second is called, Whitestar Sheet Coral with a little Peppermint Goby on top, the third is a close-up of Pillar Coral and the last is another variety of Giant Star Coral with a few polyps open. These are all Stony Corals or so often called Hard Corals and they are the basic building blocks of tropical coral reef systems. These animals, “yes they are animals” secrete calcium carbonate to form hard cups called Corallites, that provide protection for their soft delicate bodies. In tropical waters most species grow colonially, joining their corallites to produce a substantial structure, I call these structures “coral heads”. These coral colonies can be big or small depending on the species. Some of the largest coral heads I have seen are the mountainous star coral and the pillar corals, those can get big!
Very tired, have a big day tomorrow, thanks for all the notes, Barry
May 31, 10 Comment (1)
Good evening once again from a tiny little island just 37 miles off the coast of Venezuela! Here’s my newest and coolest Damselfish Garden I found the other day. This is a little four inch Threespot Damselfish who is guarding his most prized possession, his “Brain Coral Garden”. The story with the damselfish is that they find a bit of coral they like and peck off the living coral tissue. The exposed skeleton becomes overgrown with algae that the damselfish like to eat. The fish defend these little farm territories so aggressively that they will even chase off larger herbivores like parrotfish that would quickly clear away the algae. Apparently with the decline of larger predatory fish on reefs worldwide, these little guys have become much more abundant and can be a real threat to reef health. The photo here is a great example, you have what appears to be a perfectly healthy brain coral on the left but missing tissue on the right. The brain coral head now has a thick mat of algae growing on the white skeleton, that’s his personal supply of algae and he will defend it to the death!. Thanks to my friend Nick, I now know what to look for and am seeing these damselfish gardens more and more. If you want to hear more about these guys and the damage they are doing check out this piece NPR did on damselfish in Bonaire a while back. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1117
It was another super hot day but at least the wind is back and the ocean once again has some current moving in the right direction. We still need a home for one of the puppies, I can’t believe there isn’t some one out there needing a great companion?? See you tomorrow, Barry
May 10, 10 Comments Off
Good evening from Curacao. Here’s a real shocker for you all tonight, this is what a dying coral reef looks like up close and personal! I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this reef USED to be just two short years ago. Hurricane Omar hit our South coast line with such force that it just wiped out everything in the shallows and as you can see here even in deeper water as well. When a Hurricane comes to shore it drives massive waves with it that completely churn up the ocean bottom. This means the sponges are the first to go as they are so delicate and are only attached at the bottom to some kind of solid substrate. The corals immediately get covered in silt and sand and slowly choke to death as there is no current to flush the sand away and your end result is this, just barren mounds of rock where corals and sponges used to call home. While swimming thru this mess we saw so many different kinds and colors of algae and moss that are now taking over making it impossible for new coral growth to begin. Also the water temp here at Varsenbaai was warmer than usual which also is a clear sign of Global Warming and is the fuel that keeps the alga’s growing.
Yet another super busy day at the aquarium today, this sure has been two busy weeks!! Many thanks for the countless compliments on the Sea Lion photo from yesterday, boy was that ever an unseen hit with everyone!!
It’s off to bed, the puppies are wearing us out!! Barry
Apr 19, 10 Comments Off
Hi friends, I did a dive this afternoon and saw a bunch of new Coral Bleaching! This is a very serious matter which scientists are now linking to Global Warming. This is big beautiful colony of Boulder Star Coral and it’s beginning to die! Coral bleaching is the whitening of corals, due to stress-induced expulsion or death of symbiotic, algae like protozoa, or due to the loss of pigmentation within the protozoa. Still with me?? The corals that form the structure of the great reef ecosystems of tropical seas depend upon a symbiotic relationship with unicellular flagellate protozoa, called zooxanthellae, that are photosynthetic and live within their tissues. Zooxanthellae give coral it’s coloration, with the specific color depending on the particular clade. Under stress, (which you see here) corals may expel their zooxanthellae, which leads to lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term “bleached”. Once bleaching begins, it tends to continue even without continuing stress. If the coral colony survives the stress period, zooxanthellae often require weeks to months to return to normal density. The new residents may be of a different species. Some species of zooxanthellae and corals are more resistant to stress than other species. Scientists believe that Global Warming is the key factor in the rapid decline of many coral species. The other main cause’s of coral bleaching are increased or reduced water temperatures, increased solar irradiance, changes in water chemistry, starvation caused by a decline in zooplankton, increased sedimentation, pathogen infections, and changes in salinity. Ok, maybe that’s too much information but folks it’s a fact the corals are dying Worldwide and in some places they have been wiped out completely due to the change in water temperature.
Most of the time our coral’s heal themselves but I will be watching this colony very close in the weeks to come.
We are still planning on picking up the three puppies Wednesday morning. We went tonight and Aimee gave them all de-wormer, it’s a first step and it went very well, the puppies are very friendly!
Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Apr 10, 10 Comments Off
 Bonaire Reef Scene Good evening all, here’s another fun shot from Bonaire. This is a beautiful specimen of Grooved Brain Coral with our new friend Bonnie taking pictures in the background. I must admit I was kind of overwhelmed with all the beautiful things I saw on each dive and may have missed many great shots because of having my “head in the clouds”, there was just so much stuff to see! Soon after getting home Bonnie sent me a photo of this beautiful sponge cluster that she recently found and that I would love to photograph, am trying to find more time and money to get back there soon.
Not much at all going on. Tomorrow morning a friend is helping me with the new trail so I will be out there doing that in the morning, after that it’s still up for grabs.
Have a great weekend, Barry
Mar 25, 10 Comments Off
 Grooved Brain Coral Good morning all, there’s nothing like waking up to the best coffee on Earth, what would we do without our Highlander Groog, thanks Lori! I got caught up in watching a movie with Aimee last night and after I went straight to bed. Not feeling great today, maybe a bit worn out I have been doing quite a bit so maybe I will listen to the body today and rest. Yesterday morning we got our first taste of rain again but it was very short. Afterwards everything smelled so fresh and wonderful but it wasn’t enough to really water anything so I am hoping for a whole lot more.
Here’s a fun shot from a dive site in Bonaire called O’l Blue. This is a giant ball of Grooved Brain Coral living in just a few meters of water and was the only living coral in the area. When Omar went thru last year it wiped out just about everything in the shallows including sponges, gorgonians and corals but not this one, this baby must have a good hold! I shot this after the dive as we were on our way our out, that’s Sal on the left and Scott and Tammi on the right and I am sure they were asking each other “where is Barry”?? After shooting this I swam closer to really look at it and you could see tiny little secretary blennies in all the holes and other baby fish hiding around it’s base, this is really a very beautiful specimen. The last few weeks I have really been wishing I was back there diving and making photos, I feel like I just got started and had to leave, maybe Aimee and I can go back again soon.
Again sorry so late, have a great day, talk to you more this evening. Barry
Mar 12, 10 Comments Off
 New Coral Growth Good morning all, such a busy day yesterday I had no energy left last night for anything! We got home from our night dive to the Superior around 10:00 and the dive was great. We did have a little difficulty getting in and out as usual but the Superior reef is really worth exploring. Well the next morning (yesterday) I had to get up real early to meet a couple I met that is here from Virginia, Mike and Susan and they are here just to explore the island on bikes. They have no rental car, just the bikes so I told them I would give them a sort of grand tour. We started out by riding many of my single-track trails and then rode over to the salt ponds, from there we took off to the North coast. At the North coast we started at Saint Joris bay then rode over the mountain to the ocean along the coast to the windmills and then back, we were gone for three hours! It was a great ride and after I left them at the Aquarium. There they parked their bikes and walked to Mambo beach and found a nice chair under the palms and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and snorkeling. I on the other hand, cleaned my very dirty bike, went shopping, returned tanks from the night-dive, worked on my honey-do-list and played on the computer. I had wanted to take a nap and rest but never found the time. At 5:00 I rode back down to the aquarium and picked up our two new friends and had them follow me to our house where Aimee served up a wonderful homemade pizza dinner. After dinner I loaded their bikes on the car and took them back to their hotel which is down near Hooks Hut and upon getting back home fell into bed!
Here’s a real cool photo from a dive site in Bonaire called Invisibles. This is a new Grooved Brain Coral colony just starting to grow on this old rock. Hopefully if all goes well, this coral will keep spreading out more and more and will eventually cover that whole rock, and that will take years but could someday be quite a big specimen.
Running late, I need to get moving, talk to you tonight, Barry
Dec 29, 09 Comments Off
 Damselfish Garden Good morning friends, someone was kind enough to give me a cold for Christmas so I am a bit under the weather this morning and went to bed early last night.
Remember a month ago or so I sent a photo of a pillar coral with green alga on top?? I had told you I thought it was a dying colony of coral or some kind of coral disease? Well here’s the exact same thing except this time it’s on a big colony of grooved brain coral. See the little damselfish at the top of the coral head? He did this damage to this beautiful coral, it’s called a “Damselfish Garden. My friend Nick who is a coral expert explains below just what your looking at, it’s very interesting so read on. Nick writes, the story with the damsel fish is that they find a bit of coral they like and peck off the living coral tissue. The exposed skeleton becomes overgrown with algae that the damsel fish like to eat. The fish defend these little farm territories so aggressively that they will even chase off larger herbivores like parrotfish that would quickly clear away the algae (I have definitely had them bite my fingers while working with the corals & once had one hit me right between the eyes…good thing I had a facemask on). Apparently with the decline of larger predatory fish on reefs worldwide, these little guys have become much more abundant and can be a real threat to reef health. The photo you took is a great example, where you have what appears to be a perfectly healthy coral missing tissue only on that patch at the top of the pillar where there is a thick mat of algae growing on the white skeleton. The angry looking three spot damsel fish staring you down in the center of the photo tops it all off! If you want to hear more about these guys check out this piece NPR did on Bonaire last month.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1117 I found this scene again on my first dive to San Juan a few weeks back. I have been telling everyone that my dive there wasn’t the greatest but in fact I captured some really cool pictures from there that morning, I guess I didn’t realize just how many. When I was shooting this I watched this little fish chase off many other bigger fish who thought they could stop and graze on what seemed like an unprotected buffet of algae, boy did he ever teach them a lesson and me as well! The closer I got to his little farm the crazier he got! As I passed he came up and bit my wetsuit twice, I am not kidding when I say these fish have no fear!! Another Lionfish was found by our Sea Aquarium staff and is now on display at the aquarium, if you haven’t seen one yet come on it! Have a wonderful day, Barry
Dec 24, 09 Comments Off
 Fallen Pillar Corals Hi all, we just got home from watching a great movie called Avatar in 3-D!! It was non-stop excitement from start to finish! I swear every movie is getting better and better, the special effects in this are out of this world, no pun intended, you guys have to see it!!
I was just sitting here thinking that tomorrow is Christmas, it just doesn’t seem like it. We are going to a fun employee party tonight at 7:30 and then unfortunately I have to work tomorrow while Aimee gets to stay home. I went over to a friends this morning and installed a driftwood towel hanger that I made for her, it looked pretty good once it was up. Also the driftwood box that I have been working on so much will finally be going to it’s new home as well some time next week, will take some photos before it goes.
Here’s a very interesting photo, this is a large colony of Pillar Coral that I assume was knocked over by the monster waves from hurricane Omar last year as it passed thru. Those waves were so big that pretty much anything in 20 feet of water was destroyed or re-located. This beautiful colony of Pillar Coral is supposed to be standing straight up but has fallen over but is still very much alive!! Many corals can be placed back in their upright positions but this one was just too big and heavy!! So what’s going to happen to it now?? Well if you look closely you can see lumps starting to form. Each lump will eventually grow into a pillar of it’s own and the base should once again fuse itself to the ocean floor creating an even stronger foot or hold for the next storm. I found this specimen at San Juan and like a few of the other shots I took I want to return in a years time to see the progress.
I guess that’s it, have a great Christmas eve and super fun day tomorrow!! Merry Christmas all thanks for another great year!! I’ll be back tomorrow, best wishes, Barry, Aimee, Inca, Indi and yes the cat!
Dec 21, 09 Comments Off
 Grooved Brain Coral with Elephant Ear Sponge Good evening once again. Yes it’s time for your daily dose of the underwater World from a little island called Curacao! This is really something unique that I have never seen before. This is a large piece of Grooved Brain Coral with a bright orange Elephant Ear Sponge growing right in the middle of it! How cool is that?? This is something I want to go back to each year to see just how much it has grown, I would love this same shot with the orange sponge just a little bigger filling the hole a bit more, or is that asking to much?? I found this a few weeks back when Aimee and I went to San Juan on my first ever dive there.
Well Christmas is now just days away! Living here makes it so hard to get into the Holiday spirit, the sun is shining and everyone is running around in swimwear and wearing flip-flops!! We do have our little fake tree up and it’s all decorated and we have our stockings hanging but it’s just not the same without a little snow!!
Well, I just don’t have much for you all tonight, it was just another day in Curacao! Dinner is smelling good, I am going to go check it out, see you tomorrow, Barry
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