What An Eventful Day

Thursday was one of my favorite days!  We started off the day surveying the rocky intertidal at Playa. We spotted 2 different types of starfish, the Brittle Star, and Sun Star. Unfortunately, I scared a poor brittle star enough to make it self-amputate one of its arms! According to Dr.Cheroske, the brittle star will “give up” one of its arms in hopes that it will suffice the appetite of the predator preying on it, that way the predator will take/eat its arm instead of eating the star itself. It did make me sad to think that I stressed the star enough to feel threatened. Interestingly enough, the arm that the star had given up continued moving, even after haven been detached. How crazy is that! I’ve attached a picture of myself holding a sun star.

Our next activity was attending an informative presentation at CEDO that covered marine mammals that inhabited the area,  including the Vaquita. The Vaquita is a whale endemic to Mexico. It has been overexploited near the coast and has been categorized as an endangered species. Researchers believe that less than 25 remains. Attempts were made to conserve the population but have ended with no results. In fact, CEDO had two vaquitas in captivity for reproduction purposes but later discovered that vaquitas cannot survive in captivity, much less reproduce. Both Vaquitas died, so attempts to conserve Vaquitas by means of captivity quickly came to a halt. This species of whales seems to be doomed.
We ended the day kayaking at the Morua Estuary. It was at this time that it hit me, how fortunate I was to be kayaking in a foreign country with people who are as passionate as I was about field experiences. I’ve attached a video below so that you can get a feel for how beautiful it was.