Last week, in collaboration with CEI, the Eleuthera Arts and Cultural Center hosted a Lionfish Jewelry Making and Awareness Workshop, the first of its kind in The Bahamas. Local artists Shorlette Francis and Sterline Morley joined the Arts and Cultural Center’s Audrey Carey and CEI’s Dr. Jocelyn Curtis-Quick of the Lionfish Research and Education Program to put on the event.  The collected attendees, a mix of professional artists, handicraft enthusiasts, and interested community members, learned about the arrival of the fish in the Caribbean in the mid-1980’s and its subsequent spread.  After sampling fried lionfish and perusing lionfish crafts and jewelry by local artists for inspiration and construction techniques, the group tried their hand at creating wearable pieces from the fish’s unique fins.

Participants rolled up their sleeves and got creative, making beautiful necklace and earring pieces.  Fins were varnished in their natural state or painted for more varied coloration; they could be trimmed, layered, or beaded.  Enthusiasm about the finished products and the versatility of lionfish fins as a material led to many questions about where to get more of them, and will hopefully work to increase local demand for the fishing of these problematic fish.  Be on the lookout for more jewelry workshops around Eleuthera, and for beautiful lionfish pieces to purchase. Do your part against the invasion by eating and wearing lionfish!

]]> http://blog.islandschool.org/2014/07/22/island-school-tudents-invade-cei/feed/ 0 http://blog.islandschool.org/2014/03/10/mitigating-the-threats-of-invasive-alien-species-in-the-insular-caribbean-mtiasic-project-video-competition/ http://blog.islandschool.org/2014/03/10/mitigating-the-threats-of-invasive-alien-species-in-the-insular-caribbean-mtiasic-project-video-competition/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:26:03 +0000 http://islandschoolblog.capeeleuthera.org/?p=9998 Island School communications assistant and IS alumnus Will Strathmann (F’08) created this video on the invasive species of lionfish for the Mitigating the Threats of Invasive Alien Species in the Insular Caribbean (MTIASIC) Project video competition. Please enjoy the video while we await results from the competition!

The scope of her work is expanding into the future, with many exciting opportunities to forge new partnerships and extend lionfish programming throughout the Caribbean. “Lionfish invasion is a regional issue,” she described. “There are lots of countries similar to The Bahamas’ situation, politically, economically, socially. We need to consider how we can learn from one another. Looking at communication and how we can share ideas is going to be important as we move forward, as we figure out a solution to the lionfish problem.”

This fall, Miller will begin graduate work at the University of the West Indies, Barbados. She is proud to have also been awarded a Teaching Assistantship to support her through the program. She will spend this upcoming fall in Barbados, learning from professors and laying out her proposal for graduate work. Next spring, Miller will return to CEI to perform the field-work portion of her studies, collecting data on post-settlement dynamics. She will be investigating how time and habitat affect where post-larval lionfish settle. She is also eager to mentor and collaborate with UWI in conducting base-line studies under a government funded grant program to establish a local research initiative. Her next two years will be divided between Eleuthera and Barbados, as she pioneers regional lionfish research.

She is also eager for another upcoming educational opportunity. This summer, lionfish will take her southward through the Caribbean to attend the Sao Paulo School of Advanced Sciences-evolution Workshop (SPSAS-evo). She was recently invited to attend this prestigious and competitive education consortium that brings together experts in their fields with the goal of “exchanging and synthesizing knowledge” (http://www.ib.usp.br/zoologia/evolution/index.html). From August 19-31, 2012 on the island of Ilhabela, 200 km off of mainland Brazil, Miller will collaborate with 80 other top scientists, professors, and graduate students from around the world, sharing different perspectives on evolutionary biology. She will be using the perspective of Caribbean lionfish invasion to inform the discussion. “This is a pretty unique situation where we can look into evolution happening before our eyes. It’s predicted that lionfish will spread to Brazil within the next few years and this is an opportunity to connect with scientists there about how to cultivate interest and awareness,” said Miller.

She spoke with humble satisfaction as she described a recent moment of realization: “I was stretching in front of the fishbowl after morning exercise.” Miller, who still chooses to participate in Island School’s morning exercise program alongside students each semester, remembered also that “It was the same morning I got the acceptance from SPSAS-evo. It kind of hit me how lucky I am and how fortunate I felt to be here doing this work. It has all come around full-circle. Wow,” she added. “I was here almost 10 years ago as a student, and how I’ve gotten to come back and all of these things are falling into place for me.”

Look for more updates on Skylar Miller as she works to establish CEI as a hub for Caribbean lionfish research and education, and as she continues to make a name for her self as a leading scientist in the field. Good luck Skye!

Since its creation just over one year ago, the Lionfish Research and Education Program (LREP) at CEI has strived to become a hub for lionfish work in the Caribbean. Recently, LREP has taken some exciting steps toward reaching this status! Just last week, CEI hosted three producers and videographers from ZED (www.zed.fr), a major French documentary company that is working on gathering footage for an upcoming TV series featuring invasive lionfish. Specifically, the documentary team was interested in learning about Bahamian lionfish research and management initiatives. Luckily, visiting scientist, and partner of LREP, Nicola Smith was able to come over from Nassau to support the week’s activities and be featured in the film! Nicola is the lead coordinator for the Bahamian-wide lionfish research project that operates under the Bahamian Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and partners with CEI.

ZED producer, Jerome Segur, sound engineer, Olivier Pioda, and underwater videographer (and former member of Jacque Cousteau’s prestigious dive team!) Didier Noirot, joined Nicola and LREP researchers in the field to get a closer look at lionfish and to better understand the project’s research objectives.

The week proved to be a big success for ZED, DMR, and CEI! The documentary will provide a valuable avenue for scientific communication and represents a great opportunity for Bahamian scientist’s work to be recognized by wider audiences. It is very exciting that the initiatives taking place on Eleuthera will now be shared with people all over the world! The documentary is scheduled to air by the end of the year in both France and Germany… keep your eye out!

-Skylar Miller (S’03), LREP Manager

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In order to prepare for this final event, the students heard a presentation by Nicola Smith from The Bahamas Department of Marine Resources. She shared some of the latest research on the species. The students are also learning all about safe handling of the lionfish, since their spine rays are venomous, from lionfish researcher at CEI and alumna, Skylar Miller (S’03), as well as delicious preparation of the fish from Island School sustainable chef and alumnus Emery Long (F’04), shown in the photos below. During this Community Outreach class, the students were being filmed by ZED, a French documentary film company who are currently on campus. ZED specializes in natural history, science and adventure and has been working on an invasive species documentary featuring lionfish and will be shooting lots of underwater footage with the lionfish research team at CEI.

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After my internship I decided to take the opportunity to come back to CEI as a research assistant. I still do some of the same things (data collection in the field), but I also gained many new responsibilities. I moved from a teaching assistant to a full-blown co-teacher for the lionfish research class. I am also conducting an independent project on the topic of my choosing to investigate something about the marine world that surrounds us here at CEI.

My name is Mike Piersiak and I came to CEI last semester as an intern with the Shark Research and Conservation Program. My main focus was to gain as much knowledge as I could regarding not only my specific area of interest (sharks), but also knowledge about the other research projects taking place here. Perhaps the biggest benefit of being an intern was learning about life as a field biologist outside the confines of a classroom and benefiting from the experienced staff members.

After my internship expired, I chose to stay on as a research assistant and assume more responsibilities than the more transient, short term ones I had as an intern. As I am hoping to perform a master’s thesis in the next year or so, I found that the role of a research assistant here is much more similar to that of a masters student in the responsibilities as well as the experience gained. I am no longer associated only with the shark program, but rather, I will be performing my own project as well as mentoring interns through their time here. Assuming more long-term responsibility as well as managing my own personal project are things that I know will benefit me when I begin applying to a masters program and writing my research proposal.

Aside from the academic benefits of my role as a research assistant, I also teach at The Island School as well as mentor interns throughout their time here. I am the co-advisor of the lemon shark research project and I teach a research class twice a week that includes field sampling, data analysis, and presentation of findings at the end of the semester. Mentoring interns involves helping develop a group project (which will be undertaken over the course of their time here), running weekly intern meetings, helping to acclimate them to the institute upon arrival, and overall well-being over the course of their stay here.

The Lionfish Research and Education Program (LREP) at CEI has already had an exciting start to 2012! Last year, research efforts were focused on a lionfish removal study to document changes in native species at reefs where lionfish densities were regularly controlled. This year officially marks the end of that study…now it’s time to answer new questions! LREP research will focus on addressing questions associated with lionfish recolonization. Understanding rates as well as biological and physical factors that influence where lionfish recolonize can help support best management strategies for the Bahamas and the surround invaded region.

This month, LREP also got an opportunity to work with CEI’s Educational Programs. As part of a January term course, ten high school students from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) made their way to the Cape – a trip that marked the second annual visit for MSSM! In just two weeks, the students helped design a mini research project, collect data and present their results. Jumping into the project (and quite literally!) feet first – students snorkeled local reefs to observe just how invasive the lionfish are and got a real hands-on experience performing dissections on lionfish that had been removed from research sites. Not only did they leave with a newfound knowledge of invasive lionfish and appreciation for reef conservation, but they also left as expert lionfish dissectors! We hope to see another group back next year!