Turks and Caicos Day 3- Reef Day

Today was reef day (yay!) First we went out over the barrier (N of Provo) to see some spur and groove structures.

Watch out for fire coral

checking out the grooves

There were lots of soft corals and sea fans

And some sponges!

And some coral

plus a lot of reef rubble!

 Our intrepid leader!

 Sand bypass gullies

Then we took the boat to the back reef area to see the reef flat and some rubble.... plus a few nice corals and some great sands!

Sand dollar (skeleton of a burrowing sea urchin)

Rubble!

 Agaricia (lettuce coral)

Montastrea annularis

Textbook shot!

Mustard Hill Porites

 Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral)

Dichocoenia stokesi (Meandrinidae)

A wee reef knob

Sea anemone!

Diploria (brain coral)

Back reef skeletal grains

Madracis auretenra (yellow pencil coral)

Soft corals (corky sea finger I think)

More soft corals

Sampling the sediment!

After our morning snorkels, we headed for the beach to see some fossils!

 Conch conglomerate

Conch cross section

Coral rubble on the beach

Pleistocene patch reef

A washed up sea fan, check out those encrusters on the bottom.

Back in the water..... with a wee nurse shark

Porites astreoides (yellow) and Porites branneri (purple)

This reef is pretty dead

Elkhorn coral ...

...Big guys...

Madracis (Pocilloporidae)

Lobster molt

 Ray!

And of course some beautiful ripples

The next reef was mostly dead, it was really sad!

Bad captain!!! (Anchor stuck on the coral)

A few things still alive

Seagrass roots are impressive!

Next stop, the beach again to check out the foreshore and some dunes!

Air escape bubbles!

Pleistocene beach

Giant boulders of beach rock

Paring lineations on the beach from the waves

Last stop, Donna Cut

Droning!

Iguanas!