By Philipp & Diana
After a busy week taking care of all the Acropora larvae and finalizing our experiments, we went on a final night snorkel with amazing bioluminescence on Saturday. On Sunday, we had our last day at Sesoko which was filled with filtering larvae and packing all of our equipment. We stayed up late to pack the larvae we wanted to bring to Germany as late as possible and finally went to bed after cleaning the lab at 1.30 a.m. On Monday, we got up at 5.30 to get to the airport for our flight back. After a 20 h journey, we got back to the lab in Heidelberg where Liz and Annika waited for us.Together, we unpacked the larvae and put them into new containers and gave them fresh sea water. Most larvae survived and seem to like it in our lab.
Our two weeks in Okinawa went by way too fast. We really enjoyed the field work together with our Japanese collaborators. One highlight was the amazing coral reef by the Sesoko Marine Station and at the South tip of Sesoko. Hopefully, we can come back next year and see some awesome creatures like the octopi, sea snakes, puffer fish and stone fish and cornetfish again. ARIGATO GOZEIMAS.
