Acropora spawning in Rincon, Puerto Rico

On August 31st, 2007, Dr. Nick Schizas Invertebrate Class laboratory went to the Marine Reserve Tres Palmas in Rincon, Puerto Rico to hopefully witness the Acropora palmata mass spawning event. We entered the water around 7:30 and started seeing bundles on some colonies around 8:30 to 9pm. The spawning event started roughly around 9:30pm. I honestly do not remember how long the event lasted because I was too focused on acquiring samples. I have posted some pictures of colonies partially full of bundles as well as videos of the colonies releasing bundles and bundles at the surface. The videos are me snorkelling while holding my camera on one hand and the flashlight on the other so it's kinda shaky. But it was very exciting to see the spawning again this year at Tres Palmas Marine Reserve!! Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos!

SOL

Same EXACT Obs as last night... At Elbow the same colony spit out a decent number of bundles and another colony had a tiny patch of tissue that released bundles but that is it. We got every bundle we could get by putting 2 collectors (pic) on one colony (that is desperate!). Sand Island still saw NOTHING! Not what we expected and very disappointing! On to Montastraea and Diploria now 8-(

Something! 9-1-2007

Last night we were at Elbow Reef and Sand Island (see Aug post below). One colony spawned about 50% (sometimes that is all we see from a colony) and another colony released a few bundles (we caught 5 bundles from that colony but I did not see it so there may have been a few more that did not make it into the net). Hopefully this means tonight is the night! More random pics can be seen in our Spawning 2007 Album)

Nada Encore

Same time same place same sights as last month's post... NOTHING at either place 8-( Fun w/ Squid though!