Spawning in the Riviera Maya – WS Mexico 2013
[A]
On the night of August 26th, the UNAM team, under the supervision of Dr. Anastazia Banaszak (UNAM Marine Lab), along with Dr. Pedro Medina-Rosas (Universidad de Guadalajara), and Dr. Daniel Gleason (Georgia Southern University), Dr. Eugenio Carpizo (Universidad Autonoma Baja California) and our Photographer Paul Selvaggio, enjoyed calm flat seas as they took a short 10 minute boat ride to their reef site. The water was so crystal clear the night Orbicella spawned that it made for perfect conditions to capture the event. "Sometimes when the visibility is so clear, it allows me to capture not only the spawning event, but also the individual personality of each coral animal", says Paul.
They collected spawn from five Star coral colonies at the La Bocana Chica reef site. Fertilization was accomplished at the UNAM lab, as well as the rearing of the larvae, including hours of water cleansing in order to take care of the developing embryos. Fortunately, UNAM students assisted the team with every step of the spawning and the lab work.
[B]
The same night, the team from Xcaret consisting of Rodolfo Raigoza, Ana Isabel Ceron, Rafael Valdez (Parque de Xcaret), Bob Snowden, and the rest of the Xcaret team went to the Punta Venado reef site. The team collected spawn from three Elkhorn coral colonies, with approximately 60,000 eggs. The embryos were put into the prepared SECORE'S kreisels for development and monitoring.
On the night of August 27th, the Xcaret team witnessed Elkhorn coral in a massive spawn, an amazing show of Mother Nature's beauty. The coral colonies set at 9:10 pm and a vast number of egg-sperm bundles were released half an hour later. Fertilization was accomplished on the Xcaret's dive boat and later counts in the lab revealed that over 1,044,000 eggs were collected and fertilization was estimated at being over 90%.
[C]
The Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) and the Instituto Nacional de Pesca (INAPESCA) team has also been night diving on the same nights, but was not so lucky to observed spawning at the Limones or Picudas reef sites. On the 26th, they did also collect Star coral spawn at La Bocana Chica reef site.
All workshop participants will be caring for the coral larvae at each site and will be preparing for recruit settlement in the coming days.
