Stag Party East
During this week at the Keys Marine Lab (KML) we visited 10 different sites. The goals of this week were to observe and identify different species of fish, coral, and marine plants as well as learn about the different habitats in this area.
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| Photo taken by Dr. Voss |
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| Photo taken by Dr. Voss |
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| Photo taken by Dr. Voss |
On Thursday morning we visited Stag Party East, a midchannel patch reef located north of KML in the Atlantic Ocean. It was partly cloudy with water temperature at 79°C and rougher seas than seen at other sites. Depth was 12-18ft with 30 ft of visibility making it easy to spot fish, coral, and plants. Due to the location and substrate composition soft coral was more prevent. Hard substrate was observed with patches of sand making it an ideal habitat for branching corals like Acropora cervicornis, soft corals, sea fans, and marine plants but not for boulder corals like Orbicella faveolate or Diploria labyrinthiformis. Stag Party East is unique because it was a restoration site for Acropora cervicornis. Fish diversity was higher than other sites visited but was not the site with the highest diversity seen.
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