In order to demonstrate their newly discovered knowledge of marine species (the good, the bad, and the attractive…) Marine Ecology students have been creating original “Match.com” profiles for local marine life.  Check out these hot new profiles and ask yourself: who would you rather spend an evening with? The generous and independent Encrusting Fan Leaf Algea, the fancy dancing Pederson Cleaner Shrimp, or the overbearing Lionfish?

Encrusting Fan Leaf Algae Profile by Hope Logan:

Don’t be deceived by my phylum, a very attractive algae. I have large, round leaves a little  smaller than your hand. My pad is awesome, I live on coral reefs so there’s a ton of sunlight because I need it to live. But thats just about the only thing I need, I’m not a needy organism at all. In fact, I’m very self sufficient. So I don’t need to rely on anyone to bring home the bacon, I got it. Just gimme some some sunlight to photosynthesize with and I’m good, because I’m an autotroph. I provide well for myself, but, I’m a sensitive guy and I also like to give back to the whole community around me.  By fixing carbon into oxygen, I produce not only enough food for me, but also oxygen and nutrients for all the organisms on the reef around me. Because of this, they call me a Primary Producer, you see, I’m an important guy on the reef. I feed a lot of juveniles, beautiful fish, and everyone else who needs to be fed. I’m so generous I even feed those ugly Fuzzy Chitons. I make the reef a better place, and without me, the reef would not have the biodiversity that it has. I know my place and have found my niche. I fulfill my role on the reef and am confident in it. Continue reading →

Hello friends, family, alumni, scientists and everyone else who has been clicking, reading, commenting and following on this blog. This is our 1,000th blog post! Without you all out there, we’d never have made it this far! THANKS & KEEP ON READING!

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In a recent Marine Ecology class, students were asked to stay still, underwater, on SCUBA, for half an hour, focusing their observations on one specific area of reef. They then wrote underwater essays on their dive slates, addressing the prompt: Why (or why not) is there so much life on this area of reef. Enjoy these examples: deeply thoughtful analyses written deep under water…

by Chapin Atwood:

I arrived at my patch of coral reef and sank to my knees as I began to watch all the components of this ecosystem react. Watching the fish, busily flipping their tales around pieces of coral reef and sponges, I was amazed at the beauty of this small piece of reef. This reef looked very healthy with life bursting out of it.

After a few moments of enjoying its beauty, I began to study the components of the coral reef in depth. I began by looking at the biotic factors of the reef, such as the different types of sponges and algae and fish species. I noticed large patches of Encrusting sponges as well as the Rope sponges and Tube sponges. All of these species of sponges have a similar niche in the ecosystem, to filter the water and take out nutrients and oxygen from the water. They get their food by filtering the water, which means that they are heterotrophs because they amass organic matter from other sources. I noticed the small holes on each of these sponges, placed in different places for the different species. These holes were the oscula, in which the filtered water came out of. When looking closely at some of the Encrusting sponges, I noticed this layer of green algae that covered the sponge. I wondered what its name was? I also wondered if it has a severe effect on the health of the coral reef? Continue reading →

Lexi Welch

I still wake up and can’t believe I am here. Every morning I wake up and see the ocean outside of my window and it doesn’t seem real. I have been here at The Island School on Cape Eleuthera in the Bahamas for a whole week and I have learned more than I ever could have imagined. In the past week, I have met new people and made new friends, explored the island of Eleuthera, went night snorkeling, watched the sunrise over the ocean, took a three day kayak trip, listened to local people tell their stories, taken risks, challenged myself, and looked at the moon and the stars in a night sky that wasn’t disturbed by city lights. On our three day kayak trip, which we just returned from today, a black tipped shark swam under my kayak, we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the rain, we snorkeled and explored blue holes, I tried lionfish for the first time, and for the first time in my life I laid on my back in the cool sand and looked up at the clearest night sky I had ever seen. It took my breath away and I found it was hard to pull myself away from looking up at the sky. All the stars looked like perfect little twinkling diamonds in the black sky. It made me feel so small, so little in the world we live in. All of the sudden, everything seemed so much bigger, like the possibilities in this life were completely endless, like some of the blue holes that we explored on our kayak trip. It seemed as if life’s opportunities spun deeper and deeper every time I looked up at the sky. Continue reading →

For Kayak groups 1 and 2, now on campus and working on their SCUBA certification, we challenged them with a different prompt from Orientation, asking them to consider which moments have been the most vivid and meaningful from their short time here. Enjoy these personal insights with more to come tomorrow.

Kelly McCarthy 

It’s raining. And I mean REALLY raining. It’s raining the kind of rain that chills you to the very core, even though only moments before I was sweating buckets paddling under the hot sun. We’ve only just brought our kayaks on shore, only just pulled out the tarp for us all to sit under, and here I am crouching in my soaking wet rash guard, my drenched soccer shorts and my sand-filled water shoes. Here I am with eleven other students balancing precariously on our life-jackets, or Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs) as we call them here, to serve as a barrier between us and the ground should the lightening overhead actually hit our little place of refuge. We’re soaked, in case I haven’t made that clear yet. We’re packed tightly under the make-shift tent that our trip leaders made for us out of a tarp and some kayak paddles, shivering and getting as close as possible to stay warm and out of the rain (shivering? In the Bahamas? Is there something wrong with this picture or is it just me?) Rachel has been having us count the seconds between the thunder and the lightening to figure out how close to us the storm really is. All of a sudden, the thunder cracks. The loudest thunder I have EVER heard.  It sounds like it is coming from all sides, just filling my ears with that incomparable thunderous noise. Without even thinking, I shoot my hand out and grab hold of the hand of the person next to me. She looks at me and smiles; asks if I’m ok. I just nod. Continue reading →