After my three days in Punta Rusia, it was time for me to head to Puntacana where a small coral nursery was established 5 years ago. While the rest of the gang (Diego, Brittany and Travis) went a little further west to the town of Monte Cristi to work with a local NGO to survey some other reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds near the Haiti border, I traveled with Austin and our new friends, Yda and Tasha (who we could not have completed our megapopulation surveys without- much thanks to them for handling all of the logistics and for the excellent dive support!) to Puerta Plata......
.......where Austin and I picked up the bus and rode for 4 hours to Santa Domingo (the lovely capital of the Dominican Republic). We were then picked up from the bus station by Austin's friend, Jaime and his son Alfonso who drove us 45 minutes to the beach town of Boca Chica.
We grabbed a late dinner and then spent the night in Boca Chica which used to the top tourist beach destination in the DR. Now, larger resorts around the island have made Boca Chica less desirable, but there was a certain local beach charm to the town. This is a photo of the art lined alley to our hotel.
We finally made it to our destination: the Foundacion Ecologica Puntacana. The PUNTACANA Ecological Foundation is a "not-for-profit foundation established in 1994 to protect and preserve the natural resources of the Punta Cana region, while contributing to the sustainable development of the Dominican Republic". The foundation was established in collaboration with the Puntacana resort where we were lucky enough to stay during our work at the nursery.
The resort was beautiful with a spa, gym, pool, beaches manicured every morning, a golf course (which is part of the problem plaguing offshore reefs- nutrient runoff from fertilizer), kayaking, diving, sailing, etc. Not that I had the time to enjoy these ammenities, but let's just say the lodging was quite nice.
Here's where we had our morning breakfast buffet with ocean view.
My room.
We had lunch and dinner at Franco's Cafe facing the pool. Great pizza and cold Presidentes!
Dr. Austin Bowden-Kerby is considered the father of coral gardening and has been growing coral around the world for almost 20 years and educating the rest of us on what works and what doesn't. He also plays an active role in his community in Fiji teaching the locals on how to sustainably live off the ocean. It was great getting to learn little tricks that he's learned over the years and then apply them to set up new experiments at the DR nursery. This nursery was designed to increase the amount of A. cervicornis so that it could be transplanted out to surrounding reefs where this species has been historically found.
We used the dive center at the resort as our base camp.
Not a bad place to work!
Our panga and boat driver Danny picked us up at the beach every day.
The Puntacana team: Jake, Edwin, Christine, Sophie, Danny, Me, Sammy and Austin
Christine and Sophie: the coral avengers!
Sammy
Jake and Sophie
Yours truly: this photo was taken right after I went to Julio Iglesias' house (no, I'm not kidding) to survey his beach to determine what might be causing a bad sea lice problem. Wasn't thrilled about hopping in the water with a bunch of stingy juvenile jellyfish, but I only got a few stings!
Sophie measures the overgrown A-frames.
Back at the nursery, there isn't enough money or manpower to keep this nursery in pristine condition, so there is a lot of work to be done. The wire racks are often damaged due to boats anchoring and are home to some of the most vicious damselfish in the world!
So, the Foundacion joined forces with Counterpart International to fund some projects to increase the productivity of the nursery and provide some data to demonstrate the usefulness of the coral gardening techniques.
A-frame in the Puntacana nursery.
We trimmed most of the branches off so that the colonies can grow back and we could use the tissue to populate a new frame.
Pile of branches waiting to fill a new frame or be outplanted out on the reef.
Here's the A-frame after trimming and repopulating with fresh tissue. Look at all the beautiful colored cable ties attaching the branches to the frame!
So, I've mentioned the damselfish and their agressiveness towards you bothering their algal lawns. Here's a dusky damselfish checking me out as I started measuring a colony.....
Here he is again.....getting a little closer.......
And here he is......attacking me! They would find any bit of exposed skin and peck at you. They had a field day with my hair. A colleague of mine took video of the process and it looks like I'm totally spazzing out underwater! For such a little fish, they are so intimidating!
I felt a little bad about taking away their hard earned algal lawns, but without maintenance, the bases of the corals become overgrown with algae and it eventually kills off the coral.
Jake and Sam tote some coral fragments to a new A-frame.
At the dive site, there are the remnants of a ship wreck. The ship split in two when it hit the reef and the two pieces have been slowly migrating away from each other.
My main objective was to measure some colonies for growth rates, monitor some pilot outplanting fragments for success of attachment methodology and then set up some new outplanting experiments to determine if fragments planted closer together will form thickets better than fragments placed further apart (the typical technique used by coral gardeners). A large task for only three days of diving.
Fortunately, I had some help. Edwin and Sam came from Puerto Rico to help out. They have been running a coral nursery there since 1999 and were full of useful ideas and tricks to improve the productivity of the nursery. Christine is a project manager at Counterpart and was eager to learn the techniques we use to set up experiments and monitor the success of the project. Sophie and Jake both work for the Foundacion and will begin to help take care of the nursery inbetween our quarterly trips.
I set up some experimental plots to determine how closely fragments need to be placed on the reef so that they grow and develop into successful coral thickets. I made two plots, one with fragments 20 cm apart......
.....And one with fragments 50 cm apart. We will be able to monitor the growth and success of these fragments over time to determine the best way to successfully restore the reef.
Unfortunately, the restoration site is also frequented by tourists with little snorkeling experience. Educational programs need to stress to snorkelers and divers who utilize the reef that it is important not to touch or stand on the reef! Check out the guy standing right next to my plot! It took me 3 hours to set it up and only 2 minutes for him to wipe out 5 of my fragments!
In 2009, my lab set up some other outplanting experiments testing different attachment techniques. I came back 7 months later to take measurements- this photo is of the fragments last year.
And this photo is from this year. Look how much they can grow in 7 months!
Again, there are lots of cool things on the reef other than the corals. This little razorfish kept me company as I set up the outplant experiment.
Lots of grunts and snappers use the rocky ledges as hiding places, but help keep other fish, such as the damselfish, away from the corals.
Here's a camouflaged flounder.
A smooth trunkfish- one of my favorite odd-shaped swimmers!
This porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix) made a new home in one of the newly trimmed A-frames.
Resort-style research was a little frustrating though. Days started later and ended earlier than I'm used to so there was less time to get things done. We would typically meet for breakfast at 7:30, got to the dive center at 9, get our gear together and leave the dock around 10, do one dive for about an hour, come back to the resort for lunch, meet again at 3, leave the dock around 3:30, do one dive for about an hour, come back to the resort around 5:30, meet for dinner around 7, discuss plans for the following day and then go to bed. I'm use to a little more rigorous work schedule, but I should take some pointers from the island way of life too!
Who wouldn't enjoy relaxing a little in a hammock on the beach?
Or soaking in the beauty of the island?
At the end of our trip, Jake invited us over to his treehouse (yes, he literally lives in a treehouse) for some drinks and Austin even busted out the guitar for some songs! I had a great trip filled with lots of stories and I look forward to going back to the DR in June!
