Ceiba Foundation’s annual course on Coral Reef Ecology is getting ready for Belize! 22 students have already taken coursework on fish biology, ocean dynamics, marine invertebrates, and the ecology and conservation of corals and their reef ecosystems. Along the way, they’ve designed research projects — ranging from parrotfish behavior to the impact of microplastics to the nutrient dynamics of ‘upside-down’ jellyfish — to be implemented in Belize. Research underwater!
The course will travel some forty miles offshore to the remote Glover’s Reef Atoll, home to hundreds of patch reefs that make a perfect marine research laboratory. We’ll be based at a Wildlife Conservation Society research station on a remote caye on the edge of the atoll, with coral patch reefs located just a stone’s throw from shore!
After ten days on the island we’ll wrap up the research projects, and return to the mainland to visit some of the sites that make Belize such a magical destination. Rainforests teeming with toucans and howler monkeys, caves with mysterious rivers running through them, and Mayan ruins that feature stone temples soaring above the jungle, we’ll tour these and more to soak up some of the rich culture of this unique Central American country. Two whirlwind weeks in Belize, and we’ll be on our way home, with some newly minted marine biologists probably itching for a return to the sea!