by Katrina Lohan
Mark Torchin collects oysters off mangrove roots, while Greg Ruiz and Kristina Hill sort and count the different oyster species. (Katrina Lohan)
I spent some time on the boat, but I desperately wanted to get in the water. Thus, when we had trouble finding Ostrea sp., I eagerly offered to jump in and snorkel around in the mangrove roots to look for more individuals. While I wasn’t too successful finding that species in the areas I was looking, I greatly enjoyed getting into the mangrove trees to search for them! I saw xanthid crabs, sponges and lots and lots of barnacles! We did eventually find enough individuals from all three species, at which point we headed back to the lab to process all the oysters.
Being in the water was definitely the best part of the day!
