Friday, March 21, 2008

Final Days in the Keys

Tommorow TJ, Sara, and I head back to SC to return to our normal lives after 3 fantastic weeks in the Keys. We are all quite sore and tired from hauling concrete around for the last few days, but all is finished: 40 larval collectors are in the water off Lower Matecumbe Key and Long Key, all of the control blocks are nicely re-fitted with pieces of wood, octopuses are tattooed, and the entire census is completed. Plus we got a few days of fishing in and a trip to Key West as well. Not too bad for 3 weeks, considering the iffy weather we had most of the time down here. Long drive to Clemson tomorrow, but we leave tired and aching, but very happy and bit more tan (+ plus a few weird burns where we missed with the sunscreen).Glad we weren't in the water this day. When the wind blows hard from the south like it did on Monday and Tuesday, we start seeing Portugese Men-o-war showing up in near shore. The wind catches the sail on top and drags them off the open ocean. We saw close to 50 in the last few days.Ah, the very last of 40 collectors gets deployed. . .And the field crew rejoices! No more collectors (for a little while). As you can tell from the chalky-looking water, this was a pretty nasty day to be on the boat. It was beautiful on shore. Pretty typical in the Keys, the nicest days on shore are the lousiest on the water.With that finished in the morning, we were able to put in a few hours of fishing in the afternoon with Cindy's boyfriend Joe and his daughter Riona. We caught 2 of these sandbar sharks, one of which broke Joe's rod. This one fought TJ forever and was still pretty feisty when we brought it on the boat to remove TJ's precious hook. No pictures of that part since TJ and I were in hand-to-fin combat with the shark. Fortunately everyone is doing fine, shark included. After this, I even managed to land some ladyfish using a topwater plug. Not a bad day and not a bad trip in general. Back again in May!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

A Long and Winding River

The Ashepoo River is the longest black water river in the US. Over the past two weeks Kirk's team surveyed for blue crabs over more than 48 miles from St. Helena Sound to Horseshoe Creek. Neither wind, nor faulty wiring could prevent the team from completing the survey.

Building modified crab pots behind the McKinzie Field Station at Bennet's Point, SC.

Aligators appear on the banks of the Ashepoo at a salinity where the blue crabs begin to disappear.

Looking forward to our next visit to the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Down in the Keys in March

After 2 weeks and a few days, Peter, TJ, and Sara are done with the community censuses! Good thing too, because the weather has just gone down the tubes. Wind just kicked up to 20 kts under a sunny sky. Our various itchy spots are thanking us for a day with out knees planted firmly in hydroids, cuts from lobsters, or bites from octopus (Sara got bitten by a little one). Just a few more blocks to replace and some collectors to put out and we are finished for this trip. Tonight we celebrate St. Patrick's day here in the Keys with some green beer at the Dead Animal Bar. In the meantime, here are some photos of the expedition. Back to SC next Saturday!
Here is a nice block, just waiting to have some wooden pegs driven into it. It will most likely just break my heart when it decides to split in half on the very last peg. Why wait until all the rest are in? Why!?Sara shows off her newly acquired octopus bling bling. Although you can't see it, the arm the octopus autotomized (dropped) is still wiggling and sucking on to things. I'm sure this will be all the rave next fall.This is a spotted cleaner shrimp in a sun anemone. It didn't seem real pleased by the interruption, but we ended up getting along just fine. Nice to see a few sun anemones on our sites this time down.This is the way that inshore hardbottom is supposed to look back in Florida Bay rather than the wasteland left at our sites that were impacted by the sponge kill/die off. Beautiful vase sponge and soft corals.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Catching Crabs in the Ashepoo


After much work preparing the boat and pots, Kirk gets started with his project to census the blue crabs of the ACE Basin National Esturine Research Reserve. This research will track the distribution of juvenile and adult crabs along the Ashepoo and Edisto rivers from St. Helena Sound to the freshwater boundary. Joe Bisesi shows his tiger pride while helping to measure the catch.