Tropical Ospreys: Stop and Smell The Roses

Monday, June 10, 2019

Stop and Smell The Roses

Today, the Tropical Ospreys traveled to Bahia Honda State Park in Florida. Bahia Honda State Park has an award winning beach that features a historic bridge and can be located at mile marker 37 in the Florida Keys. The bridge, or railroad more like, was Henry Flagler's way of turning Bahia Honda into a tropical destination for tourists in the early 1900's. Known for it's clear water and wading birds and shorebirds, this park quickly became a tourist's paradise and still is. Bahia Honda State Park also offers a wide array of family-friendly activities such as snorkel boat tours, beach rentals, food service, a gift shop, marine slips, and kayaks. And, if this was a deal breaker before, they now offer free WI-FI 24/7 at their concession stand. As well as having small, beautiful beaches, they had a huge amount of coral fragments. While exploring the area in our free time we had before we did a beach clean-up, Mike (The Situation) stumbled across a perfect fragment of rose coral. Rose coral (Manicina areolata), when alive and attached to a reef, can be identified because of it's ridges and valleys that often appear in different shapes and colors. Although usually brown or yellow-brown, these corals can also appear to be grey or green. When dead and in fragments, the coral can become calcified or bleached, appearing to be a milky white color. These corals love to live within or around Turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum) and coral rubble, however, they are usually unattached. The species also occurs in two different growth forms. The most common of the two is when the coral has small elliptical colonies with a long, central valley with multiple smaller valleys. It's underside is then in the shape of a cone, connected to the reef or substrate. The second form is less common and consists of hemispherical heads with winding valleys and ridges, usually adorned with a flat underside. The hemispherical heads are what inhabit the reef slopes and attach to the substrate. The valleys are often very wide and the colonies are very small. These corals are found in Florida, the Bahamas, or in the Caribbean. If you get the chance to visit the Florida Keys, Bahia Honda State Park is a must-see attraction.