As part of my curriculum at James Cook University, I needed to take a mandatory field trip to their research station located at Orpheus Island. What a drag, right? Nah, just kidding. I LOVED IT!
All the students woke up at 4 a.m in the morning to enjoy their small nap on the bus ride to the dock. We boarded the boats that led us to Orpheus and once we arrived, we were practically in the water. As soon as we jumped in the water, my partner Scott Morrissey (@scott_morrissey on instagram) approached the reef. Yet as we swam closer, expecting to see a large gradient of saturated colors, we only saw a desert of white and pale yellow. For those who don't know, bleaching is when coral polyps expel their photosynthetic zooxanthalleae symbionts, loosing their color and leaving behind their white tissue and calcium carbonate skeleton. When a coral is bleached it does not mean it is dead, although it does not mean it is healthy either. Think about it as an empty apartment complex, where renters can either re-inhabit the apartments, but if they don't that would cause the building to go bankrupt. Those symbionts give corals food via photosynthesis (autotrophic), just like plants, but corals can also get food by catching any small organisms swimming around their tentacles (heterotrophic). Anyways, as we kept on surveying the reef, we unfortunately saw the consequences of another recent mass bleaching event. For our individual research projects we were looking at the birdsnest coral species, Seriatopora hystrix. This species is bright pink and is known to have symbiotic crabs and fish. The rest of the weekend was spent collecting data on the symbiotic relationships to see if the symbionts help the coral colony build up resistance against bleaching or mortality. Once the day ended, the class joined and ate at the research's station dining hall. We later walked down the beach to photograph the night sky and the beach. I must say, nights in that research station were one of the most peaceful I've had. The combination of small waves breaking, and the shuttering of the trees' leaf created a melodic soundtrack for the evening. The rest of the trip was filled with snorkeling trips and analyzing data. Coming close to the end, the whole class came together to share our results, and experiences. This trip definitiely added a new dimension to my Australaian journey, and I hope I have the chance to return for a second trip.
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