February 2017 Survey
Just finished a quick survey on Molasses Reef yesterday. The seaweed is coming in and carrying some surface trash through the area and also contains a lot of Portuguese Man-0-Wars! I found no debris below the water, but there was some trash on the surface, but the presence of all the tentacles made getting the stuff off the reef a bit of a challenge. I removed two plastic bottles and one plastic bag from the edge of a huge area of seaweed, but that was all I could get without getting through the tentacles.
The last storm we had towards the end of January caused some high seas and damaged a lot of the reef structure. The sand channels are full of broken off pieces of coral. Sad to see the damage, but noticed a good bit of new growth and a lot of the transplanted staghorn has taken hold and seems to be doing okay.