Erin Weinreich, U.R. - Indian River Seagrass Excursion

Whats down there?

On Friday, January 31st, 2014, our oceanography class at Daytona State College went into the Indian River Lagoon helping the local discovery center monitor the sea grass growth that they have been tracking for many years.
The trip started off pretty well, although the weather wasn't what we expected we made the best of it. While putting the boat into the water, Kristen realized that there was water coming out of the bottom of it. Luckily she caught it just in time for Annie (the representative from the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach, Florida) to pull it out of the water to fix the issue. While Annie was fixing that issue, Dr. Woodall realized that we didn't have enough life jackets just in case we got pulled over  by the coast guard, so she ran to the closest bait shop that Bob (the volunteer that let our class use his boat) recommended to her. After about 30 minutes off schedule we made our way to the first spot. The area wasn't anything I expected it to be. I was expecting really tall and long sea grass, but when we got there I was quickly proven wrong. The water, like I expected, was freezing. Thankfully all of us had our wetsuits so the water wouldn't affect our ability to take the data down correctly.

Annie and I on the boat

We were all split up into groups of 2 and 3 placed 20 meters apart to cover the whole 100m that we needed to take the data down. We used specially made quadrats that were helpful in plotting the data correctly. There were a few falls, a few accidental sand shuffles, and a lot of cringing faces with shaking hands but we made it through the first transect. Ate a little lunch then proceeded on our way.

The next and last transect was a little easier because I got the hang of it because we took our time in the first one and really made sure my group did it right. The current was a lot stronger at the second transect, but thankfully my team was closer to the shore while the other teams had to fight the current a little more than we did (sorry guys). But one thing that I did notice was the water temperature felt like it dropped about 10 degrees from where we were before doing the first transect, which was not fun when the water seeped through the back of the wet suit which was supposed to keep me warm.
On the way back, I jotted down in my Rite in the Rain Field Notebook a sketch of the place we did our transects so I will be able to look back at it one day, and remember the amazing experience I had doing it.

The Group

The way algae affects the sea grass beds, and how they are slowly dying off really sparked my interest in a research project based around what we did that day. Whatever I decide to do, it was an interesting experience to say at the least, and I would not hesitate to ever do it again.