This document provides a summary of a snorkeling trip in Belize. It includes photos and descriptions of various coral reef and marine life observed, such as brain coral, feather duster worms, parrot fish, nurse sharks, sea turtles, and more. The document also discusses coral bleaching and its causes, as well as the importance of coral reefs for supporting biodiversity.

1. Belize
Forest and Marine Ecology
SNORKELING IN THE CARIBBEAN

2. On our way out of Belize City for
a full day of snorkeling.

3. Went past Frigret Island
Home of the frigret birds

4. Getting wet!
We were able to observe a huge variety of
species while away from the touristy spots.

5. Blue tang at a cleaning station

6. Black Grouper

7. Blue Stripe Grunt

8. Blue Tang Fish

9. Butterfly Fish

10. What is coral, a plant or an
animal?
 A coral is made of tiny little carnivorous
(meat eating) animals called polyps.
 These polyps live in colonies.
 Each polyp forms a little limestone case
around it.
 Coral reefs are made up of thousands of
limestone cases around it.

11. Coral Reef- The coral is made up of tiny stinging
cells. When an animal swims past this and brushes
up against it, it kills the animal.

12. Coral can be soft or hard.

13. Brain coral

14. Stag horn and brain coral

15. Brain coral
Some coral reefs can take hundreds of years to form.

16. Fan coral, brain coral

17. Elkhorn coral and yellow tail damsel fish
Reefs provide housing and protection for thousands of animals.

18. Elkhorn coral

19. Feather duster worm

20. Gorgonia Coral

21. Fan coral is a soft coral.

22. Coral reefs have different shapes, this is
determined by their environment and wave action.

23. As many as 200 kinds of fish can live in a coral reef. They
range in size from 10mm to 20 meters long. Food for little
fish is supplied there which attracts larger fish.

24. Coral reef provides nooks and crannies for fish to
hide in.

25. Nudibranch Clinic

26. So much life in the tropics depend on coral reefs.

27. It is related to the jelly fish. A coral polyp is the size
of a pearl. It is like a mouth with tentacles stuck to it.
These coral live in colonies.

28. The coral skeleton is made up of calcium
carbonate. It

29. Coral Bleaching
What is coral bleaching?
What causes coral bleaching?

33. Coral Bleaching
 Is caused from the water being too warm, too
low of tide, pH changes are a few reasons.
 Global Warming causes the reefs to bleach
and die out.
 It results in the coral turning white and is a
sign of the coral being stressed.
 This can result in the coral dying.

34. Variety of Fish
 Why is coral dying important?
 Nearly all life in shallow tropical beaches depend on
coral.
 If the reefs die out , the fish die out.
 Fish diversity dies out as well as the number of fish.

35. Here are some different kinds of fish
encountered while we were snorkeling.

37. Parrot fish are one of the few fish that
eat coral. What they excrete is partly
sand.

38. Stop light parrot fish

39. Parrot Fish

40. French grunt fish

41. Grey angel fish

42. Grey Angel Fish

43. Grouper

44. Hog fish

45. Jake the Barracuda

46. Lion Fish

47. Although lion fish have a unique appearance they
are a very invasive species.

48. Nassau fish

49. Queen Trigger Fish

50. Blue Tang Fish

51. Queen Trigger Fish

52. Queen Trigger Fish

53. School of jack fish

54. 4 Eyed Butterfly Fish

55. A close look at a ray

56. Sea biscuit

57. Seahorse

58. Spotted eagle ray

59. Spotted eagle ray

60. In Shark and Ray Alley
Not a lot of different varieties of species found here!
There are a lot of tourist !

61. Autumn gets a closer look.

62. Nurse sharks surround our boat. Our tour
guide was attracting them by feeding them.

63. Octopus

64. Sea Turtle

65. Starfish

66. Storms rolling in

67. A first hand look at the waters of the beautiful
Caribbean. (The waters are lacking plankton and
accounting for their blue color.)

68. Full day of snorkeling

69. Special Thanks
 A special thanks to my classmates in the
Miami Dragonfly Belize 2013 Class for sharing
their photographs.