A group of alumni and their parents got together while Chris Maxey was visiting Bay Head, NJ last week. Rick and Kay Tell (parents of Elizabeth Tell, SP’11) took the crew out on their boat to cruise from Mantoloking to Bay Head. Looks like a boat-load of fun!
From left to right: Kris Lucas (mother of Grace Lucas, SP’08), Elizabeth Tell (SP’11), Julia Rew (F’10), Jane Rew (F’08), Maddie Lucas, Russ Lucas (father of Grace Lucas, SP’08), Chris Maxey, Pam Rew, Dan Rew
I’m Grace Dennis, one of the shark interns for the summer. I’m from Houston, TX and study Environmental Biology and Economics at Colgate University. This is my third summer on Eleuthera and I love it here. I first came to the Island School as a student for Summer Term 2010, then again last summer as a shark intern to work on the nurse shark mating project. This summer I’m lucky to be working on all three shark projects, the nurse shark mating project, Ian’s lemon shark predator and prey project, and Edd’s stress physiology project.
Currently shark team is very excited about retrieving a satellite tag, which just spent 8 months on a reef shark. Continue reading
Believe it or not, the third and final academic rotation is nearly complete. Just like the weeks before them, the final food group spent the afternoon on Thursday in the kitchen helping to prepare and cook an entirely local meal. As part of their presentation to the dining hall, Tommy Robertshaw read an original poem he had composed earlier in the day. This final food presentation truly exemplified the goals of this theme, while connecting back to the overarching Summer Term question of “How can we live well in a place?”
If anyone has been in The Island School boathouse within the last 2 months, then you have most definitely met our new pet pigeon, Henry. Henry came to us one day in June, with a tag on his foot and decided to hang out for a while. Little did we know, Henry was part of a group of pigeons racing from Lille, France to Leeds in the UK. For some reason Henry got a bit off track, a couple thousand miles off track, and ended up here! Henry’s amazing journey has already made into some local news stories in the UK and his fame is only continuing to grow. You can watch this video clip about Henry and read more about him here.
Whitney Knowles joins Cape Eleuthera Institute as the Small Island Sustainability Aquaculture apprentice from the College of the Bahamas and the UBS scholarship award recipient. Though she resides in Nassau she considers Eleuthera home, as she grew up in North Eleuthera and attended Bluff All Age primary school. Whitney was on the JUMPSTART Programme at Anatol Rodgers High School, an academic program designed to challenge highly motivated high school students to obtain college credit and to explore career interests before entering college. It was during this time that she became increasingly interested in the study of sea life and first heard of The Island School. After viewing an inside feature on the Island School on channel 13 – BLC, she learned of its alternative food production systems through their aquaculture and aquaponics programs and from there became inspired to go into conservation and marine biology.
She joins the aquaculture research team at CEI until August 17th and is excited about Continue reading
By Shu Hee (Sophie) Kim
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As I arrived in Nassau Airport on July 6th, I remember finding refuge among the small group of other teens wearing olive green Earthwatch shirts. We were all a bit awkward at first – waiting quietly for the last few people to arrive and to fly to Rock Sound Airport. None of us really knew what to expect: all we knew was that the water was a special cerulean blue that can be found nowhere back home, and we were all just waiting for the chance to jump into the ocean sporting our newly bought snorkel, mask, and fins.
What we found at the Island School was something none of us expected. The sustainability of the Cape Eleuthera Island Research Institute seemed more efficient than the “top-notch green” movements that sweep through our hometowns Continue reading
As another piece of the Food week curriculum, students dive the offshore aquaculture cage. The SeaStation is a 3000 cubic meter cage, presently housing roughly 1000 cobia. The following photos were taken last week when the students visited the cage and spent the afternoon cleaning the netting and learning about aquaculture in The Bahamas. Check them out!
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There are very few people (or animals) who have been at The Island School as long as its founders, Chris and Pam Maxey, and Fritter is one of them. Love him or hate him–either way you probably have some memorable experiences with this fickle feline. The other day, Fritter ran out of food (again) so we caught him first writing an angry email to all staff members, demanding they go out and buy him more Meow Mix. When that didn’t work, he got on the phone to call the marina store to see if they had any Meow Mix lying around and was very upset to find out that they did not…
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Eventually Fritter got over it and went back to doing what he does best.
Chris Daniell
Hello! My name is Chris Daniell, Shark Intern and IS alum, and thank you for reading my blog post!
Being a student at the Island School was the most amazing experience of my life. I was here in the fall of 2010, and I spent the majority of 2011 trying to return. And here I am, living on Eleuthera, and living the dream.
The three months I spent as an Island School student were the best of my life. I loved every aspect of life here, from the more environmentally conscious nature of life, learning new things and meeting new people, and exploring the island of Eleuthera. However, my favorite part of The Island School experience was the connection to the ocean. My life has been dominated by a love for two things: science and the creatures that inhabit the world’s oceans. The Island School gave me my first hands-on experience with marine science, and gave me the opportunity to work with marine biologists. I was placed Continue reading
As the culminating event of the Food theme week, each group of students spends the afternoon in the kitchen cooking an entirely local meal. Just before dinner is served, the students introduce their meal in a presentation to all of the diners. The following video is from the Week 1 food group. Enjoy!