June 26th: field work day 2
The real highlight of this day was a dive only two of us were ever meant to go on (to swap out a temperature logger): “White Shoals.” Three or four years ago, it was apparently a barren wasteland of dead staghorn coral, and, while still far from pristine, it was nice to see thickets of Acropora cervicornis overgrowing their dead brethren. In fact, this is the first wild (non-out-planted) staghorn coral I have seen in Florida in 20-odd years. Also, it was the lone day where we had a significant amount of sun, so I got a few good shots of the fort.
June 26, 2021-dive 1: '“White Shoals” STR (temperature logger) swap-out spot.
June 26, 2021-dive 2: back at the Bird Key permanent transect site. Does anyone know what that white stuff on the Siderastrea siderea is? It doesn’t look like disease OR bleaching to me!
June 26, 2021-dive 3: final dive of the day at the permanent Bird Key site. Definitely higher cover and diversity than in the “mainland” Florida Keys.
