Leg 3 in the Mexican Caribbean!

Welcome back to the blog! Today we are in the Mexican Caribbean! We started sampling late last Saturday along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (the 2^nd largest reef in the world!). We had some scientists return to their land-duties and some others joined us! These have been busy few days, but finally we return!  We are elated to return to this region and have had very successful days collecting plankton and learning more about the ecology and oceanography of this extremely diverse region. 

Leg 3 track in Mexican Caribbean

In this part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, a very strong current comes very close to shore (the Yucatan Current) and it literally rips by transporting larvae among other creatures! This is what it looks like (the arrows show you the strength of the current in m/s) today from the ship's Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler or ADCP 

Surface currents near Cozumel, Mexico

During leg 2 and 3, we have been focusing on larval lobster as well as larval tunas! I hope to have dedicated 'lobster post' soon, but until then, here is a very late stage larval lobster. We have a lobster expert on board and will have another one soon!

larval stage for Lobster (yes seriously, this is a baby lobster!

 And some of the tunas we have been finding as well...

Baby Tunas! (blackfin tuna)