Exploring Marine Ecosystems and Native Plants: Insights from Coral Reefs to Backyard Gardens
I started watching this little juvenile burrfish in an enclosure off to the side a bit and found that I just couldn't stop- its magnetic! This recording I made was especially good - I caught the burrfish sampling some gravel bits almost as big as its face and nipping at the fins of the much larger squirrelfish which made me laugh out loud.
I recently completed my volunteer training to be an aquarium guide at MOTE Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. The training section about mangroves reminded me of this kayaking trip I took last November. I got to kayak through the mangrove tunnels near beautiful shell key preserve. It was an absolutely amazing area that seems even more fantastic now that I know so much more about mangroves!
The Florida keys Aquarium offers a great selection of truly amazing and unique hands-on experiences for families to learn about and interact with marine life. We signed up for the Coral Reef Snorkel Encounter where we got to get into the huge saltwater aquarium with all kinds of reef fish to snorkel and feed the animals. In preparation for this encounter, we had gone to the beach the day before to test out and practice with our snorkel gear. I'm glad we did this because it made this day much smoother and our snorkel experience was more focused on the animals we got to see rather than the functional aspects of snorkeling.
I finally finished a working-draft of the fish coloring book! What began as a simple idea to make a kid-friendly version of my fish journal has morphed into a massive - and ongoing - project that I hope to improve upon over time. At the end of this post, you'll find two downloadable versions of the most recent edition of the coloring book: a printable version and one for digital use.
I think the first time I saw a wild scrawled filefish was at Molasses Reef near Key Largo. Before then I had only seen White Spotted Filefish and Orange Spot Filefish. Now that I am diving and snorkeling mostly in the Keys, I see these beautiful fish almost every single time. So it just makes sense to include this fish in the fish coloring book.
Erica Lauer Vose 