USA: Noelle Hurst (Learning on Excursions)

Program: UW Marine Biology in the Florida Keys, Winter Intersession

One of the many snorkeling excursions that we went on as a class during our first week at Florida Keys Marine Laboratory (KML) was to go snorkel in the open water. We went to a place called coral gardens by a research vessel captained by two KML staff. Coral gardens are a reef area that is supposed to be home to sea fans and a variety of fish species. When we arrived, we saw that the majority of the sea fans were just skeletons now. Noticing the dead coral and the variety of fish species tied right into our lecture on the lifespan of coral and different kinds of species present in the Florida Keys.

Nurse sharks can be seen while snorkeling in the bay. It is a bottom-dwelling species and can often be found in shallow areas like the one my snorkel buddy and I visited.

Pictured left: Nurse shark is resting between two large rocks on the sandy bottom of the bay.

Some of the species we learned about in class, like the Stoplight Parrotfish, we were able to identify in the ocean just by sight and seeing what kind of behavior it was exhibiting. After this class, my snorkel buddy and I decided to go snorkel out in the bay at KML and got to swim up close to a Nurse shark, which was an amazing sight!