Working at the beach, that is. We wanted to know more precisely what time the moon snail egg masses hatch. We figure they can only hatch when they are covered in water at high tide. So we weighted down ten egg masses and stuck them in the intertidal. Then every hour for six hours around the time of each diurnal high tide (twelve hours a day total) we went out in the canoe, pulled up the weighted eggs and checked to see if they hatched.
So, starting on Saturday at about 3 pm to Tuesday morning, we lived at the lab. During the high tide we'd ride our bikes over to the beach (5 min ride), check in with the guard who manned the gate at the marine museum and then jump in the boat. The high tides, luckily, were at about 6 am and 6 pm each day, so we didn't have to change our sleep pattern too much. We'd check roughly at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 am, then again at those hours in the pm. It was sort of annoying to go back to the lab for only 30-45 minutes before having to leave again, but we got used to it.
We had a couple interesting encounters with animals while doing this experiment. The first night when we went out after dark we almost ran into an armadillo.
Armadillo at Punta Culebra beach.
Then, when we went out on the sand, I noticed there were round stones all over the beach. Further inspection revealed that they were hermit crabs. There were hundreds of them running in all directions, chasing each other, fighting, feeding, and whatever else hermit crabs do. I thought it was absolutely adorable and I spent quite a bit of time photographing and filming them.
I love this picture. It's like it's dancing in the spotlight!
More hermit crabs, fighting for room in an empty coconut.
Then the next day we found an intruder by my bike! There was a large iguana hanging out around the back of the lab.
Now that we are done with this experiment we need to look at the times things hatched and try to figure out what it means!
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