Today we visited Long Key Point on the bay side of the bridge. The site was absolutely beautiful with its diverse biomass and calm waters. This was the deepest site we had visited so far, and while the water was very clear, depth made visibility worse than sites like Old Dan Bank. However, being on the Atlantic side led us to see some differences in habitats between Long Key and Old Dan. The seafloor at Old Dan consisted of fine sedimentation, such as sand. The substrate in Long Key was very low relief in terms of elevation. This means the sea floor was relatively flat, this is important for the settlement of corals and sponges. However, at Long Key Point the ground was hard substrate with a layer of sediment over it brought in by the tides. This area did not have a lot of tidal influence and was particularly low energy at this time. This does not mean the tides and current are always low energy. There may be different times of day when the current can really whip through this site like the one at Old Sweat and Zane Grey.
In terms of flora and fauna, we had the opportunity to see a little bit of everything at this site. The site consisted of mostly sponges and corals paired with a patch of seagrass to the left side of the boat. While the corals and sponges were highly diverse, there was only Thalassia testudinum in terms of seagrasses. Some corals we saw were Siderastea radians, Siderastrea siderea. Solenastria bournoni, Monastraea cavernosa. Pseudodiploria clivosa, and Porites astreoides. We also saw a couple soft corals including Pseudopterogorgia and Eugenia. The corals were very fun to spot, however a few of us thought there were much more coral than there actually was since we were mistakenly calling sponges corals. Two types of sponges dominated the area the most. These two were Spechiospongia vesparium and Ircinia Pterogorgia. S. vesparium is also known as the loggerhead sponge. This sponge is a round dark, almost black, hemisphere that rests on the seafloor. It can be varying in size, which we saw today. The Loggerhead's at Old Dan were much smaller than those at Long Key today. This was common amongst many of the corals and sponges we saw. Many structures were much larger and taller at this site than others. I believe it is because the site was deeper, allowing them to grow taller and also reach more sunlight. However, the hard substrate on the bottom, may make it easier for corals and sponges to settle, anchor, and have more stability when growing. Today, was the first day since our coral lecture that we got to try our hand at identifying in the field, so we are excited to see if we can do better tomorrow.
However, we did spend the morning with Dr. Hanisak learning about algae and how to identify it. This created a slight bias throughout the day where we were all searching for algae species. The algae species we saw were Udotea, Sargassum, Dictyota, Penicillus, and Laurencia. The Sargassum we saw was pelagic, this means that it was floating on the surface and not anchored to anything. In the seagrass there were lots of little fish and other organisms. We collected great samples in our hair and swimsuits. One of our favorite alga is Udotea, we never knew that algae could be structured like that. Udotea is fan shaped and the complex shape shocks me when it is such a basic plant-like organism. It was very interesting going from observing these algae in a lecture and lab setting to seeing and identifying it in the field.
Many animals thrived in these coral, sponge, and seagrass habitats. The Invertebrate species we saw were Sea urchins (Echinoidia) and Sea Biscuits (Clypeaster rosaceous). A few benthic species we saw were Echinaster sepositus (Starfish), Paguroidea (Hermit Crab), and Callinectes sapidus (Blue Crab). These animals were most interesting to see because you had to free dive down to get closer to the seafloor to see these animals hiding in the corals and sponges.
We also saw a lot of fish. There were tons that hid in divots in the seafloor and in the protected habitats of the corals and sponges. This included Sergeant Major (Abudefduf saxatillis), Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus), Grey Snapper (Lutjanus griseus), Slippery Dick (Halichoeres bivitattus), Cowfish (Lactoria cornuta), Bar Jack (Carangoides ruber), Red-banded Parrot Fish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum), Mojarra (Gerridae), High Hat (Pareques acuminatus) and Neon Goby (Elacatinus). At first we travelled with the group to hear the corals and sponges identified, however we quickly broke off. This is when we saw the most fish. When there were a lot of people you missed a lot of the mobile animals that swam away for protection. A lot of the fish we found were either in the corals and sponges or living in the small depressions in the seafloor looking for food.
Finally, we saw a lot of Yellow Stingrays. We saw 4, Sydney saw 6, and many others saw them. They were beautiful. They also did not move too much, we were surprised how close it let us get to take a picture of it. The Yellow Stingray (Urobatis jamaicensis) is a beautiful ray that is mostly brown with tan spots or patterns on the top. The tail was not long, skinny, and did not look like it ended in a barb. Instead it was relatively short in comparison to body size and it was wide, almost like it had a dorsal fin on top of its tail. This was by far the coolest thing we have seen yet.
Conditions were beautiful at Long Key Point. However, a lot of us saw things that others didn't. Many factors affected what some people saw and what others did not. We think that people who travelled in large groups often scared away fish and other organisms away. Also, a few of us mentioned how it was easier to float vertically in the water, however this can often stir up sediments as well as scare things away. Those of us who were also not comfortable or good at free diving may have missed a lot of benthic organisms and fish that were deeper in the water.
Overall, this site was beautiful, full of life, very calm, and extremely rewarding. It is our favorite site as of now.
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