With the 15 pounds of fillets that were a result of the first ever Lionfish Reef Cleanup, the Lionfish Team hosted a Lionfish Cook-off at the DCMS 10 Year Anniversary Celebration. With three different dishes cooked up by local chefs we exposed many new people to the deliciously sweet meat of lionfish. Continue reading
Sending packages to The Island School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S3ctiSwSqs
The Miracle of Goby Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxsgSN3nakU
The aquaculture team isolated this egg from our third brood of the month from the same pair of sharknose gobies. The two black lumps are the eyes, and the dark spot is the yolk sac. With a little agitation, we watched a goby hatch under a microscope in the CEI lab for the first time.
Shark research
In the new year of 2011 the Shark Research and Conservation program at the Cape Eleuthera Institute has observed changes in juvenile lemon shark capture rates during tidal creek sampling surveys. Since the month of November, there has been a marked decrease in the number of sharks caught in creeks around South Eleuthera. We hypothesize that due to cooler water temperatures during the winter months, the shark’s metabolic rates have decreased requiring them to feed less frequently and therefore, take the bait on our survey line less. The lemon sharks may also be using a smaller amount of habitat and traveling in and out of creek mouths less, where survey lines are set, in effort to conserve energy. This additionally would cause them to be less prone to come into contact with the baited survey line, and be caught. Continue reading
Bahamas Waste Makes Promise to BESS Program and DCMS
[slideshow]
In 2002, Island School students pioneered a program for their research project creating biodiesel out of waste cooking oil. Since then, our on campus plant has grown to not only feed our campus vehicles with biodiesel, but has become a model for The Bahamas. On Monday, Bahamas Waste opened up its own biodiesel facility, which will convert up to one million gallon of waste cooking oil to biodiesel each year. Geoff Walton, Jack Kenworthy, and Graham Siener of Cape Systems, a for-profit subsidiary of the Cape Eleuthera Island School, served as consultants during the planning and implementation of the plant. At the ribbon cutting ceremony Peter Andrews, chairman of Bahamas Waste, handed over a check for $0.25 to Chris Maxey, Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholar Garneisha Pinder and Deep Creek Middle School student Moesha Leary. This check serves as a promise that for every gallon of biodiesel produced, Bahamas Waste will donate 25 cents toward the BESS program and scholarships at DCMS.
Congratulations and THANK YOU to Bahamas Waste!
Geoffrey Canada Visits The Bahamas
This past weekend Kalin Griffin, Cape Eleuthera Institute’s Human Resources Manager, and Cape Eleuthera Foundation board member Stephen Holowesko had the pleasure of greeting education reformer Geoffrey Canada at a US Embassy event in Nassau. Canada, who has been recognized by President Obama for his work in education reform, met with Bahamian leaders to shared insights from his work on closing the achievement gap in Harlem, New York through his organization Harlem Children’s Zone. The Island School and CEI have a strong relationship with Harlem Children Zone’s Promise Academy; for the past several summers, students from HCZ Promise Academy have visited our campus for educational programming. We are looking forward to continuing this relationship and hope that Mr. Canada will be able to make it to Cape Eleuthera to visit soon.
To read more about Geoffrey Canada’s visit to Nassau, you can find the US Embassy’s press release here.
Jujube Jammin’
With hundreds of ripe red fruits decorating the jujube trees and the orchard floor below, the Permaculture team has embarked on a mission to produce a year’s supply of jujube jam for The Island School kitchen. Making the jam in such large quantities involves a daylong invasion of the kitchen, which Tiff, Mooch, Sheryl and Rebecca just love! They do seem amused by the vast quantities of jujubes we haul in throughout the week, and offer helpful tips to perfect our jam-making skills.
So as we are sure is the case with most of you, you likely have jujubes lying around your house that you just don’t have a clue what to do with. Well, worry no more! Here you can find a recipe with pictures breaking down just how to make your very own jujube jam, also known as Jujube Butter. With the autumnal flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, the jam closely resembles apple butter and acts as a wonderful addition to breakfast in the morning. Continue reading
Island School welcomes new Faculty and Fellows!
Island School was pleased to welcome several new faculty members over the past week. Read faculty bios here and make sure to visit the blog regularly to catch new episodes of “Meet the Faculty/Staff,” which is scheduled to premiere next week.
Duck and Cover!
Not wanting to be overshadowed by the goats and gobies, The Island School’s resident ducks have added a dozen new faces to the farm this morning. The ducklings are enjoying their new home between the badelynge of females and the flock of chickens. At the moment of writing an ugly duckling has not been discovered in the brood.
Did anyone else learn a new word from this post?
Alumni Survey– Please complete!
Hey Alums! We are looking for education and professional information about our alumni. A lot of the information we have is out of date or inaccurate, so if you are in or have graduated from college, please complete this form. It should only take you a minute or two.
Thanks!



