The Many Dolphins We Came Across :)
IMES
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Kristen Ghaffarian, U.R. Adventures in Counting Seagrass
Wow, what an adventure I had on January 31, 2014 at 9am. We went to survey seagrass in The Indian River Lagoon in Oak Hill. It started off with me checking my email to find, despite the rain and weather we were scientists and we would be out in the field. I packed up warm clothes and off to The Riverbreeze Park I went and somehow suctioned into my wetsuit. There were a few delays to start with, but nothing we couldn't handle. It rained the entire time we were out there, and I tell you the work that these scientists do for The Marine Science Center is amazing, the conditions that they could possibly be put in are not always ideal. The work is tedious going under the water measuring seagrass with your fingers and making sure you have recorded accurately; this is data for a government organization. Once we got into the water and were becoming acclimated we were all ready for some work. We split into groups and began our quadrat measurements. We worked in 3's so that one person was able to record the data and the other two were able to dive under the water to count the seagrass, or check algae for our quadrat half. The currents were pretty strong that day and not only was it somewhat difficult holding onto our position to record the data under the water, but when measuring the floating algae it was difficult when huge clumps came floating in. Needless to say it was exciting, invigorating, challenging, and inspiring. During our research we noticed that the seagrass was pretty bare and not thriving. It is very disheartening, knowing that this is food for manatees and hiding places for baby shrimp and squirts; which we found during our time out. We did seagrass counts for 2 locations and by the end of the trip we were definitely exhausted. Being out in the field was an experience that I am happy I can say I've done, and would be happy to do again; maybe just a little warmer though.
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Your post is very true when you talked about the lack of food and shelter for the animals that come through the Indian River Lagoon is so heart breaking. For my research project I am very interested to see if because the disappearing sea grass beds is causing animals to die off or even travel in different routes. Since the sea grass beds are dying off does that mean the animals will die off too? That is so sad to think about, but thankfully the scientists at the Marine Discovery Center are trying to regrow the sea grass beds which could lead to more animal life flowing back through these water ways. Just as a side note, the background noise as you are filming the dolphins is hilarious. I hear you say "what are they doing" and everybody responds "breathing". Our class is the best.
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