August 18th

Anticipation for spawning!

August 18: Day 2 of spawning.....!! High hopes for tonight!


Today we focused only on Montastrea faveolata and didn't tent Acropora at all. All 3 boats went out on the water by 5:30pm. The two boats down at Mote (the Mote Boat and the "Fat Cat" catamaran), and the Diadon at KML. The boats were loaded with divers, snorkelers, "boat people" (in charge of the spawn), captains, and snacks. (of course)

Noel demonstrating how we catch our zzz's anywhere!

After making it to Looe Key site, both boats set up tents and watched a fabulous Keys sunset before waiting and waiting and waiting for corals to spawn....however, quite the tropical storm blew through, which got so bad that the Mote boat headed back to shore without even collecting all the tents that were set up. Those of us in the catamaran were lucky enough to get to stay aboard and weather out the storm for the night.

The water was deemed too dangerous to dive down to check for spawning, so we huddled under the awning of the boat to stay dry while hoping the corals actually weren't spawning so we weren't missing out!

The storm did eventually pass, and we were able to find spots on the catamaran to sleep (or at least attempt to sleep) until morning.

The crew on the Fat Cat were woken up by the Conch horn (provided by Dave Vaughn of Mote!) and watched a beautiful sunrise before getting into the water to take down the tents (and check for spawning--which never happened either)
After bringing up all 8 tents, we proceeded to Buoy 10 where the Mote Boat was last night and collected their tents from last night too.

Chris and Charlie putting up tents at Looe Key....watch out for those moon jellies!

2-hour sail back to Mote and 1 hour drive back to KML for Shelby and Rachel....whew! It was a long night! Just to prep everything for spawning Day 3!!!

August 19th: Today is it.....everyone can feel it! Lots of excitement around KML, as we get the boats ready to go out yet again! Another storm came through KML as we got ready....luckily it passed through and didn't affect the evening's boat excursions.

Shelby and Claire scrubbing tiles that will be used for coral settlement

It did however make for an exciting snorkel out to the marina site where Shelby and Noel helped Rachel collect the falcon tubes for the Cassiopea project for the Day 3-sampling! Everything is looking good in the upside-down jellyfish side of things as Rachel spent the evening sampling polyps for her project.