Mangrove snorkeling and Coral Garden

The sun was shining today so we got off on time. Breakfast today was a Belizian breakfast of papaya, sopapilla, and beans. We have beans a lot, but I like them so that is fine. We walked down to Goliath for our trip today and Fred, the iguana, was in his normal lookout spot on the corner by the main road.

"Fred" the Iguana

 Today, we went out about 45 minutes to the mangrove islands. Mangrove trees grow well in shallow water and are sometimes called island builders because they do help to build islands.

The Mangrove Islands

The mangroves are a great area for a fish nursery and that is what we noticed in this spot! Lots of tiny fish! We had to belly flop into the water so that we wouldn't disturb the very fine silt. It is difficult to see in the water around the mangroves if you disturb the floor because of all the silt. The first fish we saw were very small silvery fish.

 There must have been thousands of them! They were all around me at one time. This is a protected place for them to grow before they make their way out to the reef. We worked our way around the mangroves and looked up into the roots. Our guide told us about how mangrove trees can help you survive a hurricane. If you are caught in a hurricane, you should climb up into a mangrove tree and tie yourself down. He said that during the last hurricane in 2000, Keith, every mangrove tree lost all their leaves but survived. Also, while in this area we saw an arrow crab and a batfish. I got to hold the arrow crab. It looked like a large spider.

Arrow Crab

The Batfish is one of the weirdest fish I have ever seen! When you see my photo, you will know what I mean!

Batfish

 After this stop, we ate lunch and headed to our next stop, Coral Garden. This place was amazing! It was deep enough so we didn't have to worry about bumping coral, but you could see everything so clearly. We decided to start a plan for our research project so each buddy pair picked a particular species to count for a fifteen minute time period. My buddy Cari and I counted the grunts. Cari counted 82 and I saw 69 on our first count. The grunts that we saw were mainly blue striped. We also saw some French and a couple Spanish grunts. There were three schools that we observed which were hard to count. Next time, we will start marking down our counts. While we were counting, we came across a yellow stingray! It was in a little channel between some coral and had the sun shining down on it. Very beautiful! Some other members of our group saw a nurse shark and a sea turtle. My buddy also saw a group of Barracuda, but I missed them. The coral garden is a beautiful place to snorkel! It feels like you are swimming around in an aquarium of all kinds of fish and coral. There is no feeling like this! I am still amazed each time we go out and can't wait for our next trip tomorrow!