So, our first full day in Roatan got off to a great start with a lecture on fish identification. We learned that angelfish have a specialized spine on its gill cover that it uses to protect itself and that a blue tang is actually yellow when it is a juvenile.
After the lecture, we went out to the reef to put our new-found knowledge to the test. The snorkeling group headed inshore, while the diving group went down to 80' to see a bright yellow seahorse that was securely fastened to a flexible coral.
The photo to the left shows a Cubera snapper with a remora attached to its side. The little hitch-hiker is getting a ride on the side of this predator.
As Jeff Hoyer got back on the boat after the snorkel he said, "It's like being in an aquarium!" The bright colorful fishes that the teachers learned about were all around them as they went on the snorkel or dive.
After lunch and a lecture on marine invertebrates like crustaceans, sponges, mollusks and worms. We learned that sponges are not boring, but there are boring sponges that actually bore into reef substrate. A non-boring, bright yellow boring sponge is pictured on today's blog.
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