KML Week 2 - Lexy Gabos

KML Week 2

For our first day in the Keys we went snorkeling at two places: Koch Key in the Florida Bay and Zane Grey in the Atlantic Ocean. During our snorkeling sessions our goal was to identify as many species of coral, fish, invertebrates, and plants as we could and then write them all down afterwards to discuss them in class. I was one of the scribes for Koch Key, which is a mangrove island on the Bay side of Long Key; we went in the morning around 10:30a.m. so it was sunny, there was light wind and light cloud cover. It had beautiful shallow water, only about 5ft deep on average but reaching 10ft in other areas, which was mostly clear so you could see the bottom sediment quite well. This area had a soft sediment bottom dominated by manatee and turtle seagrasses, and above the water it was dominated by red mangroves. There was a narrow tunnel in the island we swam through which brought us from one side of the island to the other, and it was amazing to be surrounded by the shade of the mangroves and see all of the fishes and algae around the prop roots of the mangroves in the water. We saw a pretty diverse group of fishes including blue-striped grunts, mangrove snappers, yellowfin mojarra, and parrotfish, among others. We also identified various types of chlorophytes and rhodophytes, as well as invertebrates such as upside down jellyfish, mangrove tunicates, spiny lobster, and blue crab. Before Monday I had not snorkeled in a pretty long time, so I was really overwhelmed with seeing so many new things at once both on the island and in the water. It was absolutely beautiful at Koch Key - the water was bright blue and the mangroves were a vibrant green. It was a great reminder that there is still so much beauty out in the world that I haven’t seen yet and am very eager to explore. 

In this area in particular there is significant freshwater input and pretty high nutrient levels; it also receives a lot of direct sunlight on the surrounding waters so productivity is fairly high there. We learned that the mangroves play an important role in providing structure and nursery habitats for many species, and that they regulate nutrient cycling both in the water and on the island. I was really interested in learning about the mangroves at Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville last week, so being able to see so many of them up close today was a really incredible experience. The rest of the week we are snorkeling in other places around the Gulf and Atlantic as well, and we are always learning more specific species to identify after each snorkel trip so each day we are guaranteed to know and see more things. It has certainly been a fantastic week so far, and it is only day 3!

Lexy Gabos

05/26/2021