Zane Grey Site - Jess Marquis

 

               On our first day we went to Zane Grey, which is on the Atlantic side of the Keys. We were lucky and arrived when the tide was extremely low, and we were able to see more of the mangrove roots but unfortunately there was a strong current that made navigating some areas difficult. Where the roots were underwater there was fish and sponges! This area had a unique water color, it was tea colored due to the tannins in the water. Although this area had a large amount of seagrasses, there was some corals present, which could have been due to the mixed substrate, some sections were sandy while others had more rocky. The seagrasses were seen in the softer substrate areas, while the corals were seen in the rocky areas. The location had medium relief, by the mangroves, the water was relatively shallow, but a fair bit deeper where the current was strongest. In these areas where it went from deep to shallow there was a large number of fish, such as Parrotfish and Sargent Majors, unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of them, but I did manage to take pictures of some tunicates on the mangrove roots and a spiny lobster under a rock!