August 20th

BURR lab: Anke, Shelby, Rachel, Mac and Noel

August 20th: After celebrating Anke and Rachel's birthday with chocolate cake to keep us all on sugar-highs while out on the boat for the night, we went out for the last night of spawning! Only the Diadon from KML went out; with a full crew of everyone except Noel and Pam who were good caretakers for the larvae back in the lab.

strong current as the divers come out of the water! Boat line up for the night!

We had some rough waters and quite a current out at Alligator Reef as the tents were set up. While we waited for spawning it rained a bit, but we were all in good spirits (no doubt the chocolate cake helped!)

getting ready to dive for the spawning event!

Another successful night! We set up 10 tents, and got almost as much spawn as the previous night! All divers and snorkelers worked great together and we had a lot of fun too....it was a perfect night with a beautiful moon in the sky, and many beautiful moon jellies in the water too.


Anke caring for the spawn on the boat!







Back at the KML wet lab by 1:30am and right away we went to work getting the spawn in coolers and changing the water on the spawn we have from the previous night....whew those little coral babies are a lot of work!

Mac on the boat with the spawn

We worked through the entire night....
Caring for coral larvae is a 24/7 job!!

Noel, the late-night coral larvae babysitter and Shelby hard at work back at KML wet lab