Here we have an underwater creature from ancient times, just take a look at this Oreaster reticulatus, Bocas del Toro’s famous Red Cushion Sea Star, I’m always astounded any time I come across these fantastical creatures.
This chunky star of the sea reaches enormous sizes up to as much as 20 inches across. Adults of this species range anywhere from this beautiful shade of deep rusty orange, to shades across the spectrum from red to yellow. Some stars are even brown, so don’t mistake them for dead! Juveniles are all a combination of green and brown mottling.
While the sea stars are famous over at Starfish Beach, they can be easily seen elsewhere around the archipelago, I like to take guests to The Floating Bar for great views of these archaic sea creatures.
In fact the snorkeling at this family friendly spot is pretty fantastic, tucked as it is into the mangroves. Additionally, part of what makes the snorkeling experience extra lovely is Caribbean Coral Restoration‘s sunken mermaid, a structure on the sea floor designed to create habitat for our sessile organisms, those that require a substrate to stick upon.
The Caribbean is truly an invertebrate-rich sea thanks to plenty of “marine snow”– plankton–perfect for our filter feeding invertebrates (sponges, corals, feather duster worms, sea squirts and much, much more). Therefore, there’s great need for structures to grow upon and feed from using some form of filtration. In this foto you can see an array of sponges, tunicates, algas and anenomes vying for space on this post.
So, should you find yourself snorkeling at the Floating Bar, be sure to find the mermaid and count HOW MANY sessile (and non sessile!) species have already colonized this specially designed structure. Not to mention the healthy forest of mangroves nearby to help support our young reef and commercially important fish that grow up in the safety of the mangrove’s specially adapted “prop” roots.
If you provide the habitat, life will come. I’m excited to learn more about the special cement mixture that helps maintain the pH balance of these specially designed structures. I mean, who would guess that normal cement leaches into the water and raises the pH (we’ve all heard of ocean acidification) well this was so interesting and important to learn thanks to a recent visit with Doug Darcy and Anne-Michelle Wand at Caribbean Coral Restoration. If I had all the money in the world, I’d donate it to them and get these structures out to every corner of this archipelago! If you build it, they will come.
Want more fish? Plant mangroves too and protect our seagrass beds where fish lay their eggs.
I’ll be going much more into detail on a video I’m putting together about mangrove ecosystems (and their connection to reef and seagrass systems) because it’s one of the most important ecosystems in the world and it provides INVALUABLE ecosystem services humans could never re-create.
So I’m working hard on that for ya’ll so I’m better able to express just how incredibly vital these ecosystems are to not just nature but to humanity itself.
For some more Underwater Bocas, check out my video of underwater life I share with my guests to Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge!
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