Did you know that Anthozoa means "flower animal" or that corals have symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae inside of them that give them much of their color? Dr. Randi Rotjan knows this and so much more about corals. She is a coral reef research scientist/Principal Investigator at the New England Aquarium. She was SEA TURTLE's first guest speaker at Wednesday's night class.

Dr. Rotjan describing the structure of corals.

Dr. Rotjan's journey on her quest to become a marine biologist/evolutionary ecologist took 15 years of post high school education. She explained that the reward for all this time and effort is being able to ask her own scientific questions and then use her knowledge, creative thinking and experiments to find the answers. She described the process as "CSI: Marine Biology".

I really enjoyed Dr. Rotjan's description of coral reefs...they are like underwater cities, with each coral analogous to an apartment building. The corals are the engineers, the architects, and the workers. No corals, no reefs, no reef creatures.

Reefs with and without corals

To measure the health of a coral reef, she will gather information by measuring things. Dr. Rotjan will set up a transect, a system for measuring a specific area and recording the animals living in that area. She will also photo document the site using underwater video equipment.

Randi using a transect

By doing this, she is measuring diversity, abundance, biomass and the general condition of the reef. The health of the reef can be measured by revisiting the site to see how the corals have changed over time. Dr. Rotjan traveled to the Phoenix Islands in 2009, and the good news there is that the health of the coral reefs is improving.

New coral growth

She says being a good diver, a good citizen, staying curious, challenging yourselves and others to find solutions and living blue are all ways to help the coral reefs. And, she cautions not to fall prey to shifting baselines, which means a failure to notice slow, chronic change around you.

For more information on Dr. Rotjan and her research, please visit the Phoenix Islands Expedition Blog and the Global Explorers Blog on the Aquarium's website.

I know one difference between Dr. Rotjan's research expeditions and SEA TURTLE's expedition - our mantra will be "eat-dive-eat-dive..." not "dive-eat-dive-eat"! I can't wait to get under water and visit the coral reefs of the Bahamas!

- Barbara

Labels: 2010 SEA TURTLE Program, Barbara, corals, Randi Rotjan

You've got to give it to this group of SEA TURTLErs. Every Wednesday from now until April, they'll wake up before 5am, commute to ten different schools in MA and NH, take tests, go to sports practice and then, before even eating dinner, they are out the door again to come to the Aquarium for SEA TURTLE classroom sessions.

Barbara keeping a watchful eye over her dive gear.

For two and a half hours, the SEA TURTLErs are quizzed on weekly readings, watch movies as part of the PADI dive training program and explore group dynamics. After all, they will be living on a boat together for nine days over April school break.

We started our first Wednesday night class on January 27th. After chowing down on the exotic dinner of Oreos, microwave popcorn, some scavenged fruit salad and a few grapes, the teens learned about the basics of dive gear and had the chance to model some of their favorite buoyancy control fashions under the eyes of Barbara (since it was her equipment, Barbara's eyes were very watchful).

Evan modeling buoyancy control fashion.

Alex demonstrating how to descend under water.

The teens also learned about how to identify fish from our GOT that they will see in the Bahamas, like butterflyfish and barracuda (see other Aquarium blog entries about these fishes here and here). At the end of the night, everyone departed to their other life, one filled with homework and dreams of secret underwater communication.