Saba Bank Expedition: A tale of many corals

Dahlia Hassell
Thursday 29 October 2015

Me studying coral diversity

Hi, I am Dahlia Hassell and currently I am working for the Saba Conservation Foundation as the Saba Bank Science Officer with the Saba Bank Management Unit. My work with the Saba Bank consists of the fisheries data monitoring and assisting the IMARES students with their research during their time on Saba along many other tasks.

As a native of Saba, it was a pleasure to experience the Saba Expedition 2015 with new faces and various goals for the week.

Me and the giant tarpon (photo: Erik Meesters)

In my perspective, many times the corals that are found on Saba tend to be overlooked and this week I was able to see the underwater world in a different perspective. Hard coral expert, Bert Hoeksema, was my buddy for the week and a blessing in disguise due to my lack of expertise in the subject. Our week consisted of searching within the crevices of the reef, under the ledges, in shallow/ deep waters for the various species found on the Saba Bank, and the dive site Ladder Labyrinth on Saba. Together, we were able to spot a total of 42 species of hard coral on Ladder Labyrinth and that's hitting a record! Can you imagine if we were able to visit the other dive sites on Saba?

On another note, this was not the only thing that kept us busy on the Caribbean Explorer II for the past week. One of the items on the Expedition list was to set up the incubation tent underwater and it was quite the task for the divers. Science was in the making, and I was astounded by how the researchers turned the vessel's boutique into the lab, or how they spent countless hours in a dinghy  to wait for the the water samples, or pumping the tent to ensure it would stand tall, and basically all that was part of the tedious process that involved in having valid data from this tent.

Science became alive in the eyes of this Saban during this past week, and it was an honor to witness it in my homeland's waters.