Today started off with much anticipation for our K1 kayak group returning. We had classes all morning and a two-hour block for our human ecology presentations. We all enjoyed learning about bio-diesel, compost, bees and conscious consumerism, as the presentations were very interesting and informative. We had art all afternoon to finish our Unit 3 projects, which we will put in the parents weekend art gallery. Those who finished early had an optional Querencia time, to prepare us for the 48-hours of solo ahead. At circle Clay Bales, Will Overman and Augie Cummings performed the song “I and Love and You” by the Avett Brothers. Continue reading →
This morning’s exercise was a salsa class on top of the dining hall deck. Do not be mistaken—it was exercise. The rising sun’s rays illuminated the clouds lining them with a soft pink, as twenty-four awkward students, plus faculty, shook their hips and stumbled upon their feet. Perhaps a few exceptions were the dance instructors Aubrey and Matt, along with some other students and faculty who are blessed with rhythm, unlike me.
Shortly afterwards, we departed on the bus for Princess Cays. Our objective for today: to observe tourism and to determine whether or not we consider ourselves tourists. As we drove up a hill we could see over the trees and caught a glimpse of the ocean with a massive ship sitting on its horizon. It seemed out of place. Here, the tourists relax for a day before returning to sea. Abruptly, I realized just how removed from American society I have been for nearly two months, but what shocked me more was realizing just how removed from Bahamian society the tourists were, despite being in The Bahamas. Continue reading →
The Bluntnose sixgill about to have a satellite tag attached to it (photo- Lance Jordan)
The deep water shark team is excited to announce that the first of 3 satellite tags has popped off a Bluntnose sixgill shark! The shark was tagged with an X-tag supplied by Lucy Howie-Jordan of Microwave Telemetry Inc. on September 13th 2010 and set to record the shark’s movements for 30 days. The tag popped off, as programmed, on October 14th 2010. Once reaching the surface the tag began to slowly transmit the stored location, depth and temperature data and we are anticipating full recovery of the data. It’s exciting to see that the shark was tagged just off Cape Eleuthera and popped off at the Southern tip of Eleuthera just offshore from Lighthouse beach! On the image below you can see the track that the floating satellite tag took via surface currents. We hope it continues to Continue reading →
This week has been an eventful week for the Deep Water Sharks team. We said goodbye to three members of our team while they went off on their kayak trip. However we still have been working hard, out surveying two times this week, one of which was late Friday night. We stayed up as late as we ever have this semester and, as teenagers who are busy and need our sleep, there were some yawns.
Even so we had an awesome time. Aly went to set the survey with Annabelle and Sean, then Sean and Aubrey joined to retrieve the survey at 11pm. Though we have only caught two sharks this week, they are two types of sharks that we are looking for to conduct further research.
Aubrey recording data and getting tagging and DNA tools ready
We are focusing on the Gulper and the Taiwan Gulper. Friday afternoon we caught a Gulper, but unfortunately we were not able to put a satellite tag on it to track its movements. Friday night, however, we caught the Taiwan Gulper, which is the larger of the two sharks and this one was 152 centimeters long. We took blood, a DNA sample, and placed a satellite tag on the shark.
Aubrey recording data and Aly stuffing 1100m of line without tangling it!
The tag will track the shark for 30 days then pop off and transmit all the data it has stored on the sharks movements to a satellite. Currently we are working on our final presentations/scientific papers. Individually we wrote our introductions, but now in our academic rotations for kayak, the three of us are working as a team on our methods section here on campus.
As the water dropped to a frigid 25° Celsius (77° Farhenheit), we ripped the wet suits out of the closets. No more monkey business, it’s gettin’ cold. Feel warm and buoyant, the accuracy of our abundance surveys greatly increased. At our second site, we were meet with a staggering amount of our key species; 11 Nassau grouper, 8 Spiny lobster, 5 Red lionship, and 1 Queen triggerfish who was playing dead. After some lengthy calculations, we determined that the population of marine species at this patch reef was greater than that of the entire Cape Eleuthera marina. Too bad we didn’t have enough time to check it out.
After an extensive photo shoot modeling our wet suits, we concluded we were eternally acclimatized to the Bahamian waters. BEST DAY EVER!
Well, If you’re going to wake up and go someplace right away, it might as well be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world: lighthouse Beach. After an abbreviated circle, we both ate very quick breakfasts and ran to the van with all of our archaeology gear. Since we were both Caciques and dish crew, we had to find people to sub for us on both while we were gone, which was not easy, especially in that short time. It was a weird coincidence that we both happened to be on the archaeology team. Anyway, after an hour long van ride over backroads, which shouldn’t even be considered roads at all, we went to work and started digging holes for the day. Digging for 2 hours wiped us out, so on the way back, Justin S. picked us up some jerk chicken and ribs… it woke us right up. Continue reading →
This morning we prepared for a long morning run or swim. The runners did a timed run where we ran for a certain amount of time out towards Deep Creek and then ran back. It’s called an “out and back” run. Everyone ran between 6-10 miles! We were all being supported by one another and we pushed ourselves as hard as we could. Swim track also did a long swim. Everyone swam 1.5 miles against a strong current. Then we had a full day of classes ahead of us. Continue reading →
Through reflection and just everyday life here, I’m learning so many valuable things about myself. I’m a “spontaneous motivator.” I work well after a good cry. I love conch. I am a good dorm mama. But also, I’ve been learning that I’m exponentially stronger than I thought I was.
At the beginning of the semester we had our first run-swim. We ran a maximum of 200 meters, then swam for a maximum of 30 over and over again. It’s one of the nicest exercises here because once your legs get tired from swimming, it’s right about time to jump back in the water. And, when your arms get tired of swimming, you’re almost about to transition back to land. As soon as I started out on the swim, I felt strong. I quickly and easily got into a rhythm. While one arm swings over my head, reaching as far as possible, the other arm is stretched out into the water, trying to pull at as much water towards me as possible. I quickly passed the people swimming around me.
But then, my juggernaut-like momentum came suddenly to a halt Continue reading →
This morning we woke up to a dark morning, and gathered in the boathouse to go FREE DIVING for morning exercise. After a rainy boat ride, we flipped back into the water at Chub point. All of a sudden, we heard Meaghan shouting excitedly about a double rainbow emerging from the cloudy sky. It was an incredible sight. After scrumptious breakfast, we embarked on out journey to the Schooner Cays for a day of math under the sun. As it turned out it, it was extremely cloudy all day and the sand flies were horrendous, but we escaped their itching by fleeing into the water with our sextants. We use sextants to measure the angle between the horizon line and the sun. Our goal for the day was to have 150 readings for each pair of students, but because of the uncooperative weather, most only came out with 50. Even though we couldn’t see the sun, it turned out to be a day full of shining experiences.
