 |
 |
 |
 |
Archive for the ‘Endangered Species’Sep 1, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Coral Good evening friends, well believe it or not I did close to nothing today!! And no I’m not sick! Maybe just a tad bit lazy or unmotivated. This morning I took the bike and the dogs to the North coast on a mild one hour ride. They pretty much just played or should I say laid in the water while I searched for usable pieces of driftwood. After that small adventure I had to take apart and replace my shower hose. That consumed a bit of time driving around looking for parts plus I made a quick stop into a new grocery store and like magic it was noon already!! At 5:30 I met the tuesday riding group for a short very relaxed one hour bike ride. We did the normal loop starting at the Aquarium riding the trails to Jan Thiel then to the salt ponds and back on the Calabash and Inca trails, it never seems to get old.
So I guess that’s kind of my day in a nutshell! I noticed throughout the day that there was a homeless guy walking up and down the street in front of Mambo beach. At 6:30 on my way back from riding I ran into Bill and Christine (our two local walkers) and they told me, that’s the guy that walks up and down the streets looking for cigarette butts to smoke?? Yikes, no thanks!! But then again everyone needs a hobby??
Your photo is another wide angle shot of the spectacular clusters of Eklhorn Corals that we have right out in front of the Sea Aquarium, they really are incredible! Well, I need to go find some food and I still have tons of computer work to do tonight, be back tomorrow, Barry
1-9-2009
Aug 27, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Coral Reef Scene Good evening readers, as I type Aimee must be landing in New Mexico after a very long day of travel. We got up at 5:00 this morning and had her to the airport and checked in by just a little after 6:00, it was sad to see her go but I know she’s going to have a great time! I went straight home and grabbed the dogs and took them for their morning walk thru the Curacao desert. Our island has actually greened up again a bit after that last hard rain a few days ago and the trails are in perfect shape for riding. After our morning hike I rushed home and got my dive gear together and met our friend Dirk at the aquarium for a dive. Many of you remember me talking about Dirk, he’s one of the leading experts on Elkhorn corals and has done so much to help save these endangered corals. We had a nice dive, the water was pretty clear, fish everywhere and just a slight current. This is one of the hundreds of Elkhorn coral shots I took today. All of the clusters of Elkhorn’s were home to countless schools of fish today, it was really quite the sight and for once I had the right lens!! I did not see the spotted eagle ray but I did find a big flying gurnard swimming around the reef, I thought boy your sure are lost! After about 30 minutes Dirk signaled me and went back in, I continued to hang out here in this shallow water watching all the activity and found a big school of squids to play with, it was just such a great dive!
I spent the rest of the day cleaning gear, going shopping and working on the computer and at 5:30 took the dogs for another walk. Sorry so short but that’s about it, have a wonderful evening and a great day tomorrow, bye now, Barry
27-8-2009
Aug 20, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Coral New Growth Good evening readers of the Curacao blog. Aimee and I left the house at 8:30 and headed to our new dive site in front of the new proposed resort down by the Avila Hotel. I was hoping to run into my homeless guy but he was no where to be found and he knew I was coming this morning. We had a great dive this morning. Our first stop was at this really cool chunk of endangered Elkhorn Coral. This piece is ultra unique because the base is a chunk of Elkhorn that broke off from a bigger colony (out of the picture) and is now regrowing into a spectacular specimen of it’s own. One of the coolest things about this coral is that once a chunk breaks off for whatever reason it has the ability to start a new colony from that broken piece, this is such a perfect example!! You can also see a few little tropical fish that live in this piece and also we looked under it and it was filled with all kinds of cool little creatures as well! When we first arrived here I spotted a tiny pea sized trunkfish hiding here in a little cave. I will have to go back on Sunday with a different lens and try to find him, believe it or not this is possible. After investigating this area we continued our dive by swimming over to the edge of the reef but instantly realized someone had turned the current on high! Aimee and I were hovering right on the edge of a wall of current. I looked down the slope and saw all the gorgonians bent completely over and all the fish swimming in one direction, right into it! Her and I were pretty much kicking our fins but we really were not moving, it’s like an invisible workout machine! We kind of fought it for awhile but finally said enough and turned back around, Aimee just hovered above my head sitting Indian style with her legs crossed letting the current take her back, it was so funny to watch! So other than the crazy current it was a real fun dive, I saw a little sponge that I have to go back and shoot it’s so unusual!!
At 12:30 I had a doctors appointment while Aimee took a nap. At 4:30 I went for a long bike ride with a friend while Aimee took the dogs and her bike to Canoa for an evening of shell collecting. Aimee leaves for the States in about a week for her three week vacation and I am already stocking up on frozen food!!
See you tomorrow, Barry
20-8-2009
Aug 11, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Coral Eggs Good evening friends, your not going to believe what I did today?? I slept!! I went to bed again after midnight again and was up at 5:30 driving Miss Emily to the beach for her turn watching the whale. Since I was up I took the dogs for a two hour hike to the salt flats and when I got home I went right back to bed! I was so tired! I slept till noon, ate lunch then went back to bed till 4:00!! Can you believe it, I slept most of the day away, I have never done that before!
I met the coral researchers again last night at 8:30 and at 9:00 we all jumped in the water and off we went. The night was pretty quiet not much spawning but I did get a few more shots of the guys setting up their collection nets gathering a few eggs that were releasing. This is a close-up of the Elkhorn coral polyps with eggs just moments before they were released. These eggs are so much smaller than the star coral eggs, with the naked eye it’s really hard to see them. This is what the researchers are looking for, patches of eggs like this then they carefully cover them with the nets and hopefully collect as many as possible.
Not much else for you this evening, this is Emily’s last night here, we are really going to miss her she has been such a great house guest! Aimee took Emily to a going away party tonight at Michelle’s house so I am sure I won’t see those ladies till late.
See you tomorrow, Barry
11-8-2009
Aug 9, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Spawning Good afternoon from tiredville! We are all completely wiped out!! Last night we did see some spawning but boy oh boy did we ever have to work for it! The second we jumped in we were greeted by great visibility and fast moving current! There are no words to explain how hard it can be to swim in current let alone try and take some pictures. Imagine being in a river and swimming against the current for an hour and forty five minutes, that’s what it’s like. For this shot I had to dump all my air and wedge myself between a little rock and a dead piece of coral to keep from moving as the current was constantly pushing me. I watched as one of the researchers seen here along with his assistant first found a group of eggs that were getting ready to be released then ever so carefully wrapped the area with a thin net, attached a bottle to collect the eggs and then just waited. Slowly one by one tiny little eggs started appearing in the cup and after a short amount of time he removed the cup filled with some eggs gave it to the assistant and attached another. These guys were kind enough to point out eggs to me that were getting ready to be released but with the strong current I just couldn’t stay still enough for a good shot but did get one or two that I will send you. While I was shooting Aimee was checking the surrounding corals for more eggs but found nothing and like the rest of us she had to pretty much just focus on fighting the current all night. When your swimming in this heavy current your breathing so fast or as we call it, “sucking air”, it really gives you a major headache! Unfortunately I can’t go tonight but hopefully there will still be some action on monday still, will keep you posted.
I have to get ready to drive to the other end of the island for a wedding and won’t be home till late again, I am really tired! Talk to you all tomorrow again, Barry
9-8-2009
Jun 18, 09 Comments (0)
 Staghorn Close-up Good evening from puppyville! I had a request a few weeks back for a close-up view of the endangered staghorn coral. Look closely and you can see a Polyp (which is a live animal) sticking out of each little calcium carbonate cup. These polyps feed on whatever passes by like tiny pieces of plankton, they don’t reach out and grab it, instead food sticks to the arms, kind of like a fly trap. So cool huh??
Aimee and I took off on a fun adventure this morning to the ocean collecting driftwood and letting the dogs go wild! It is so windy and so dry here right now, we really need rain! I have noticed that all the barrel cactus have lost their beautiful red color and are now just a bland greenish-brown, the rainy season is definitely the time to photograph them. We really didn’t do a whole lot today, I was going to go biking but the insane blowing wind quickly changed my mind! We just got home from a walk at the salt pans where we saw all the flamingos right up close, it was beautiful! After our hour walk we drove to Caracasbaai and looked for the mother and baby pups but never found them again, we feel really awful about losing them!
Not much else to report from banana-land all is well. Hot Curacao regards, Barry
18-06-2009
Jun 9, 09 Comments (0)
 endangered-staghorn-coral Hello, hi, howdy, yo what’s up, can you tell I’m running out of greetings!! It was another fast paced day in vacation-land for the dogs and I, poor Aimee had to work. I took the two luckiest dogs in Curacao to Saint Joris first thing for their normal two hour hike. A normal morning there consists of me either taking pictures or looking for driftwood and the dogs chasing anything that moves and eating anything that smells bad! We walked without seeing any of that smelly chicken that got dumped on the other side, so the right side of the bay seems to be clean and safe for the dogs. After getting back home and washing the dogs and eating breakfast I grabbed my dive gear and took off to the Sea Aquarium for a dive. Believe it or not the visibility wasn’t that great today although when you look at today’s photo you would never know that. We had pretty big waves again which in turn were really stirring things up. I know I have said this before but today I saw more fish on the reef than ever before! Look at the background of this photo it’s just a wall of fish! This is Staghorn Coral one of the most Endangered corals in the Caribbean and even the World. After Omar went thru last year it wiped out more than half the know population here in Curacao you now don’t see it anymore on many of the popular dive spots like at Directors Bay. On our reef we only have three or four patches of it and they are not very big. This coral is so delicate, any change in water temperature caused by global warming or whatever can greatly affect it and it will start to die immediately. These Staghorns here are actually coming back pretty strong right now, six months ago they looked really bad and I thought it was over for them. This coral is also home to countless fish and creatures, it’s a perfect hiding place from predators.
We again went to feed and water the puppies tonight. They are so cute and doing good but every time we get there they have no food or water so it looks like we are the only ones feeding them? Aimee is off tomorrow and will go and check on them more than once, please ask around and help us find homes, we will pitch in on the initial vet bill.
That’s about it guys, thanks for tuning in. Sunny regards, Barry
09-06-2009
May 26, 09 Comments (0)
 elkhorn-coral Good evening friends, how are my readers tonight?? I had another really busy day but that’s nothing new, there’s just always so much to do around here!! Well first of all I took the hound dogs on their normal two hour walk to the ocean. You would think we would get sick of doing the same thing all the time but it just never seems to get old and the dogs love the water.
At 11:00 I met our friend Dirk who is the man when it comes to knowing everything there is about the endangered Elkhorn and Staghorn corals. I took him on a tour of our reef to show him how the population is doing after Omar passed thru. Dirk who is based out of the Rotterdam Zoo in Holland is one of the World’s leading researchers on coral reproduction, check out his site, www.secore.org you can also see some of my donated coral spawning pictures there as well. He is planning on coming back in August to set up camp at the Sea Aquarium and watch these corals for any spawning, and yes I will be by his side as well to take pictures. Your photo this evening is a cluster of Elkhorn that survived Omar. We swam all over today looking at every piece we could find, many are broke but are re-growing and some just plain got beat to death, this is such a delicate coral and thanks to people like Dirk who are here to try and save what’s left and encourage new growth.
I also did a second dive today as well on our reef following a group of collage students that are here learning about the corals as well. My big plan was to try and photograph all these kids together but just didn’t work, there were just to many of them and turned out to be impossible to keep them together. I did however get them all together at the end of the dive near the big sea fan that I use so much and did get a fairly good group photo there.
When I got home I built a big driftwood bird feeder to use out in our yard and made it tall enough so the cats won’t disturb it as well. Aimee and I just got home from a party at the Sea Aquarium, it was a birthday party for Dolphin Academy’s seventh year of operation.
I’m out, Barry
05-26-2009
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
