A long road to the Keys from Idaho

Graduate and undergraduate geology students from the University of Idaho (Moscow, ID) came to the Keys in March to warm their bones while studying the Modern Carbonate Sediments of the Florida Keys. Led by their professor, Dr. Peter Isaacson, they explored some of the geological highlights of the Keys.

They had an opportunity sample the shoreline sediments and snorkel live coral reefs near KML. Then, in contrast, they visited Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park, where they saw 125,000 year old coral formations in the walls of the old quarry.

Once back in Idaho, the students signed their U. Idaho pennant, which now hangs in the Who's Who at KML display in our Classroom.

Duke Marine Geologists at KML

Professor Gary Dwyer, Duke University (Durham, NC), explored the Marine Geology of South Florida with his undergraduate students for a week in March.

Core sampling at Old Dan Bank

Using KML as home base, they experienced a variety of marine habitats from the Everglades to Key West.

In search of Marine Gastrotrichs

William D Hummon, Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences (Ohio University Athens, OH) spent the month of February at KML in search of marine gastrotrichia. Gastrotichs are microscopic animals, covered with cilia and found "running around" between sand particles.
Dr. Hummon and his able assistants, wife Meg and daughters Jules and Cheryl, gathered samples from 2 dozen intertidal and subtidal sandy banks throughout the Keys, from Harry Harris State Park to the beaches of Key West.

His seach turned up 33 different species of gastrotrichs for this trip, 8 of which are probably new to the scientific community.

MURI team model and measure underwater spectral-polarized light field

The MURI team of researchers joined forces at KML in January to study the dynamic spectral-polarized light field with hopes to identify mechanisms of adaptive camouflage in the near-shore littoral zone. Each team came with their own array of highly-specialized instruments, gathering data at several locations both on the ocean side and bay side of Long Key.

Dr. James Sullivan (U. Rhode Island) deploying their equipment overboard using their davit


KML Divers positioning equipment underwater in preparation for data readings

Dr. Alex Gillerson's team (City College of NY) positioning "the Octopus" at the surface for sunlight readings

Dr. Heidi Dierssen's (U. of Connecticut) and Dr. Molly Cummings dive team (U. Texas) worked underwater with instruments to quantify the spectral-polarized light field and the biological response to these dynamic optical environments. The team has plans to return to KML for summertime data collection.

Happy Holidays from KML

Heddy & Lisa are keeping track of everyone's wish-list

Bill & Dave have Santa's sleigh in fine working order

Andrew & Cindy are keeping an eye on the weather forecast and sharp look-out for any stray reindeer

The staff at KML wish you all a Happy Holiday Season and look forward to seeing y'all in the New Year!

Students from University of Mainz, Germany

Professors Bernhard Lieb, Frank Depoix, and Bettina Ebner, from the Department of Zoology at the University of Mainz, led a group of 20 students on an extended field trip to Keys Marine Lab. Using KML as their home base, they explored a variety of tropical habitats. The students enthusiastically snorkeled mangrove, reef, and near-shore hard-bottom habitats in spite of unseasonably cool temperatures.

Students embarked on the self-guided tour of the former settlement at Indian Key State Park

...and explored the rocky intertidal zone at Indian Key

They collected and identified various marine flora and fauna and tried their hand at several collection and sampling techniques. The group also took some time to venture up to the Everglades, and of course, to Key west. As they departed, they were already talking about bringing another group next year.

Lower Keys Lionfish Derby

This past weekend KML staff participated in the 1st Annual Lower Keys Lionfish Derby sponsored by REEF, and placed 2nd out of 18 teams for most lionfish collected with 21!!

Follow the link below to see the complete results...

http://www.reef.org/lionfish/derbies/keysresults

The team hit the water bright and early in Long Key and had to be in Key West to have their lionfish counted and measured by sundown.



You can see that Andrew, Bill, and Cindy were glad to do their part to remove the invasive fish from the Florida Keys waters and also enjoyed eating their catch at the banquet.

Mooching Manatee

We found this big ol' manatee slurping the trickle of fresh water as we flushed our engines today! He looked in great shape, with no visible prop scars but lots of barnacles on his back. We don't normally encourage them into such close association with boats by offering them fresh water from a dock hose.

2010 Long Key Sea Turtle Nesting Season

With the end of another sea turtle nesting season the volunteers of Save-A-Turtle look back at the long and busy summer on Long Key beach.



The crack team was made up of Cindy Lewis (KML staff scientist on for her 1st official season), Nancy Godshall (Long Key Condo resident and self-proclaimed "Turtle Nazi"), and The Crowders (KML staff scientist Andrew, FWRI's biologist Whitney, and their son Finlee back for his 2nd season).



As you can see below Finlee is well on his way to following in his parents footsteps of tracking the "turtles", which was one of his first words!



The group walked the beach every morning again from mid-April to the end of October and marked a record high 49 crawls with 13 of those being nests. The first nest was laid May 11th and the last couple of nests weren't laid until July 19th and 29th, which is much later than any other previous few years. This was possibly due to the cold weather event the Keys experienced this winter and the sea water temperatures taking longer to warm up.


The nesting to false crawl ratio of 26.5% was the lowest percentage that had been seen in the last 3 years and far behind last year where the ratio was over 40% (11 nests and 16 false crawls).



Of the 1420 eggs that were surveyed by the team 860 loggerhead sea turtles hatched, which is over a 60% success rate. However that was down over 17% from the year before mostly due to 2 nests being over-washed by extremely high tides and one nest being destroyed by raccoons. Above you can see the nests that were affected by the high tides and were inundated with saltwater.



The group was encouraged by such a high number of crawls (only 25 and 27 the two previous years), and looks forward to next season where hopefully there will be even more nests!

FGCU students experience KML's Living Lab

Marine Ecology students from Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Meyers, visited KML to get hands-on experience in a marine environment. Led by their professor, Dr. Micheal Parsons, they participated in KML's Living Laboratory Project (see KML website for more details). Students learned first-hand the challenges of laying out a site grid and doing belt transects and point counts while snorkeling, at 2 of the selected sites.

Actual data collected by the students will be added to the growing data base for the project and can be compared to previous assessments at each site.

Also down from FGCU was Dr. Robert Erdman's Invertebrates class. Students snorkeled various habitats, including seagrassbeds, mangroves, intertidal zones, and patch reefs, collecting and identifying animals for their studies. One of the days' highlights included the thrill of observing an 8' Hammerhead chasing fish near-by!