Spotted Eagle Rays visit KML

Two juvenile spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) spent the afternoon cruising around the KML Lagoon last week. The little guys seemed intent on corralling a small school of mullet and took turns darting through the middle of them. One poor mullet had a hole in his side to document the strike!

Clemson students field-test KML Living Laboratory Project

Clemson University and the KML Living Laboratory.

The Clemson University Conservation of Marine Resources creative inquiry team participated in the first biodiversity census of the KML Living Laboratory.

Learning the Biodiversity of the Keys.

The CMR team, under the direction of Dr. Michael Childress, helped set-up and census four biodiversity plots including one in the hardbottom habitat adjacent to the Keys Marine Laboratory.

Learning to Measure Biodiversity.

Graduate student teaching assistant TJ Jordan leads the students through a dry-run of the data collection methods that use line, belt and whole plot census methods to enumerate the density of benthic invertebrates and fishes.

Laying Out a Census Plot

Dr. Michael Childress directed CMR students in the all-important placement of grid lines prior to data collection. He then snorkeled amongst them to answer questions and assist in correctly identifying organisms.

Taking Data While on Snorkel

The CMR students collected data on the type of benthic substrate and the density of sponges, corals, octocorals, anemones, echinoderms, mollusks, crustacaeans, and benthic fishes.

Assessing the Impact of Mass Sponge Mortality

In the fall of 2007, a mass sponge mortality occurred on Florida Bay side of Long Key killing a majority of large sponges such as this ancient loggerhead sponge. The KML Living laboratory project will monitor and document the changes in biodiversity on both impacted and non-impacted sites to assess the impact of this most recent disturbance.

KML Living Laboratory Seeks Volunteers

Classes visiting KML are invited to participate in the KML Living Laboratory project. For more information regarding how to get involved please contact KML staff biologist Cindy Lewis

Do rays modulate their feeding behavior with different prey types?

Samantha Mulvany

University of South Florida
Department of Biology
Tampa, FL

Samantha Mulvany, graduate student under Dr. Philip Motta at USF, spent several days at KML while capturing yellow stingrays (Urolophus jamaicensis) for her research project. Sam is studying the feeding kinematics in a variety of batoid species and is hoping to relate any kinematic findings to their morphology. Some derived batoids have cephalic lobes (lobes on the head) which aid in feeding. It will be interesting to see if having these cephalic lobes increases their ability to modulate feeding behavior or capture more elusive prey. Sam will be running phylogenetic comparisons to explore differences among species and determine any evolutionary correlations.

Bay side of Long Key: seawall overlooking a prime seagrass and hardbottom habitats where rays are typically spotted

A visit from curious local law enforcement while collecting rays

Captured rays were transported back to USF for further behavioral studies.

New dock lights and fresh pearock

Installation of 23 new dock bollards has recently been completed along KML's brand new concrete seawall. Each bollard has a low-voltage top light controlled by a photo-cell, providing ample lighting along the docks throughout the night. Spaced conveniently along the seawall, several of the bollards also have running fresh water for rinsing boats and power outlets (20 amp and 30 amp).View of bollards along the dock in the marina

View from the boat ramp along the north wall of the marina

Dock bollards looking north along the lagoon seawall

New dock bollards along the Lagoon seawall

Another important project at the Lab this Fall was finally grading off and spreading truckloads of fill and gravel to dress up the areas along the seawall and around the wet lab and Shallows. With the area freshly graded and new pea rock spread around the new Lagoon Gear Wash-down gazebo, looking towards the Wet Lab Pavilion

Freshly spread pearock along The Shallows

New KML sign

The Keys Marine Lab has a new look by the office entrance show-casing the new KML logo

Governor Crist at KML

Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, paid a brief vist to KML this week. The Governor and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman, Rodney Barreto, were on their way to Marathon to assist with the release of a rehabilitated seaturtle. The Lab was a convenient stopping point for Governor Crist to change into more Keys-friendly attire. The Governor took a few moments to chat with staff before continuing on to the Turtle Hospital.

Cindy, Heddy, Lisa, Governor Crist, Dave, Bill, Commissioner Barreto

Long Key Sea Turtle Nesting Season

As the sea turtle nesting season begins to wind down, it is time to look back to see how this season compared to last year.

The Keys Marine Lab's Biologist Andrew Crowder and his wife, Whitney, a ranger at Long Key State Park have monitored the beaches of Long Key again this year from April 15th until the end of October. This year they even added the Keys youngest sea turtle surveyor to the team, their son Finlee who will be 6 months old in a few days.

The first nest was laid right before the end of April, which was earlier than either of the last two previous years of monitoring, and there have even been crawls as late as the middle of this month. Last year the last crawl occurred at the beginning of July.

There haven't been any tropical storms or hurricanes that have seriously affected the Keys to date, knock on wood, but the raccoons have been busy again destroying all the eggs in 3 nests out at the point in the park. There have also been challenges for the sea turtle hatchlings with disorientations due to lighting, but all in all the nesting has been successful.

Manatee family visits KML

While preparing for a morning boat trip last week, we noticed a disturbance along the seawall in the lagoon in front of the wet lab. A pod of 6 manatees had cruised in to check out our seawater intake pipes and show off their new baby. They nibbled the algae on the PVC pipes and tickled their bellies with the seawater bubbler. Baby was very curious about our marker buoy. All 5 adults had terrible prop scars on their heads and backs from past encounters with boat motors. One manatee was actually missing almost half of its tail fluke. In spite of the temptation, we did not offer them drinks from our fresh water hose as this would only encourage them to return to dock areas and marinas, putting them in danger of further run-ins with boaters. We enjoyed their visit for over a half hour and then they moved on.

How well do sharks smell?

Tricia Meredith
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL

FAU PhD student, Tricia Meredith, recently conducted experiments at Keys Marine Lab to determine how well sharks can smell odors. There are many myths about the extreme olfactory sensitivity of these animals with very little scientific evidence to support these claims.















For this research Dr. Stephen Kajiura, Tricia, and a few volunteers long-lined for Bonnethead Sharks (Sphyma tiburo) in shallow seagrass meadows and mangrove habitats near Long Key. The sharks were quickly transported back to KML and kept in flow-through seawater tanks until used in the experiments. One female shark gave birth to 6 pups while in the holding tank over-night. All 6 pups can now be found swimming in KML's Shallows.
















To determine the olfactory sensitivity of Bonnethead Sharks, they used a technique called an electro-olfactogram (EOG). During an EOG, odors are delivered into the nose of an immobilized shark while an electrode positioned over the olfactory organ detects the shark's response to the odor.

So far, Tricia has found that while sharks are very sensitive to odors, they are no more sensitive than bony fishes - disproving many of those shark myths.

Coral Spawning Event in the Keys

Professor Mary Alice Coffroth, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a team of scientists, will be using KML as the base of operations in anticipation of the annual Montastrea faveolata (mountainous star coral) spawning event.
Each year these reef-building boulder coral sychronize their reproductive efforts, releasing gametes 4 to 7 days after the full moon in August and September. Follow the event at the Buffalo Underseas Reef Research (BURR) coral spawning blog.

The symbiosis between corals and photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts provides the foundation and structure of the coral reef ecosystem. Given the importance of this symbiosis to the coral-algal holobiont and the reef ecosystem, understanding the mechanism governing the establishment and long-term maintenance of this symbiosis is essential.
The over-all purpose of this project is to identify the mechanisms and selective processes that lead to the final assemblage of algal symbionts harbored by the adult coral.