Algae in the water

Just a quick post to keep you all updated on the algae happenings on the reef- specifically, all the algae on the reef that's attached to ropes and floats. We're working on a big grazing experiment on the reef this week. The algae in the floats is in little cages ("tootsie rolls") that protect them from being grazing by urchins and fishes- hence, we can get growth rates for these species over the course of the week. The algae in clothespins on the ropes is open to grazing by fishes and hence we can get a grazing rate of the fish community on these species of algae over the course of the week. You'll notice these ropes and floats are in front of Condos 1 and 2 at three different depths. We'll pull this experiment out on Sunday so if you're down on the beach for Darla's fish survey from 9-12, we'll see you there!