So today marks the tenth and final day of the Marine Bio course (well, the last day of class portion). We spent part of class discussing the things we needed to bring, addressing any last-minute problems, and reviewing the overall expectations from our class.
Our articles today were about the peculiar terrestial behavior of the leaping blenny as well as the invasion of exotic lionfish. What I found interesting about the blenny article was that this particle species spent much of its time outside the water (despite it being a fish). It has developed a unique way of location by curling its tail underneath its body and then pushing off the ground (in sort of a frog-like manner). This article gave us insight about how the first vertebrates might have began to adapt to living on land.
The other article, as mentioned above, discussed the dangers of the increasing lionfish populations in areas it is not native to. What I found particularly interesting was that the lionfish thrive in warmer waters. With the planet’s temperature rising, things may be looking in favor of the lionfish. Native species (both prey and predator alike) simply do not have enough experience in dealing with the invasive lionfish. Sadly, there may not be a solution to this problem. But perhaps this can be a model for future reference. We see the consequences of introducing foreign species to an environment and as a result, we learn to be more careful and to take the appropriate measures to ensure that we don’t repeat this mistake in the future.
We concluded the day with notes regarding the general flora and fauna we’ll hopefully encounter at the BVI. The list was rather diversified and exciting! We’ll probably get to see everything we’d want to see when we go scuba diving! And now we await Sunday’s arrival.
So until then, this is Arturo Dominguez signing out!
