安良波(あらは)ビーチの海藻 Observing algae at Araha Beach, Okinawa, Japan

Sep 02, 2018 • 5:14 PM UTC

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Honomi

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Hi explorers!

Since I have come back to live in Japan, I’ve always wanted to visit Okinawa for many reasons. One major reason is to visit the beautiful ocean here and see what kind of creatures I’d encounter.Today, I am writing this at Araha Beach. I am excited to have so much access to marine environment in the next few days, and I will try my best to document my observations in real time as possible.Just a quick review of geography…

The first thing I noticed this morning was green algae floating at the edge of the water.

So I borrowed a piece of it…

And quickly prepared a slide with paper slides and the tape included in the Foldscope kit.

And here is what I saw…

(Image note: Foldscope 140x mag lens, iPhone 6S rear camera, natural ambient light facing West at 7-7:30am at Araha beach, used digital zoomSlide note: unknown algae found at Araha beach, paper slide with Foldscope kit tape)Sooooo many tiny round dots were moving around. Some would spin in place, while others would move around.Here is a Boomerang image to get an idea of such movements I observed. (I will upload videos, too, when I have a better internet access.) https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/739262ab-ff20-4ad0-a138-9b8690dfd0bc.mov In the 60min I spent observing, I noticed that the movement of these “dots” became slower with time. I also saw a slightly larger and brown round swimmer in this sample, and it appeared to be feeding on the smaller dots, but I could not be certain since it kept moving quickly. (Will have to watch the videos closely later)After my observation, I returned the algae piece back to the ocean and made sure I didn’t leave anything behind except for my footprints:)It’s always a good idea to bring a bag to keep all your trash during your Folscope session. Make sure you rinse your tools with water and dry them well so that they stay clean and ready for your next Foldscoping adventures!I can feel my skin sizzling a bit now, so that’s it for now! ~Honomi