Crown of Thorns

Yesterday’s activities were dedicated to the Crown of Thorns (aka COTS). COTs are sea stars that are natural predators to coral and get their name for their spiky venomous spines that cover their surface. One of TRACC’s main focuses recently has been removing COTs from coral surfaces, as they eat and destroy most coral and slow down growth of new coral.

We were put into groups of three and taken to an island about 10 minutes away by boat to search for and collect the COTs. I was assigned the role of basket holder, probably because I suck at finding things underwater, so my duties consisted of holding a plastic wicker basket and swimming over to people who found a COT To collect it.

At the end of our hour dive, between three groups we had collected 48 COTs. We took these back to camp where they were analyzed for size and maturity. One of our science experts on the island performs a COT dissection once a month, where he records data about size and reproductive ability of each COT. We took part in this yesterday, and I have to say I haven’t dissected anything since middle school. With almost everyone in my group being vegetarian, they appeared to be pretty apprehensive, leading to someone calling me a savage after dissecting my seventh COT while everyone else had done two. I won’t apologize, I’m here to save the coral.

I was way more interested in this than I thought I would be, as I wouldn’t typically classify myself as a science person. For each COT, we would weigh it, measure the diameter, count the arms, and then dissect two arms and extract the eggs to decipher whether it was male or female, and then weigh the eggs to calculate what percentage of the COT was made up of eggs. This helps us to know how reproductive these sea stars are and whether they are reproducing at a rate that will overpower the rate at which coral is growing. Pretty interesting stuff.

After this I honed another skill that will help me when I am eventually on Survivor, palm weaving. I made a floor mat to put outside of my tent and hopefully cut the amount of sand I track into my tent by at least half. With some cold beers and Jack Johnson playing, I couldn’t have felt more like an island cliché.

Today is Sunday Funday, where we have just one fun dive scheduled and the rest of the day is free time. It’s always funny to me when Sunday rolls around and people are so happy to have free time, yet our “work days” consist of scuba diving, volleyball, beach walks, beers and hanging out. I guess whatever environment you’re in, even if your schedule consists of some great activities, everyone wants a break from being told where to be and when. Happy Sunday 🍻