Holy cats! Its already been five weeks since I arrived on the island and the program is over a third of the way through.
This week has been busy with projects, dives, field exercises, and some wicked sunburns (sorry mom!)
Our classes have changed this week since we are done with all of the field identification tests, so we have had a few field exercises practicing taking data. On Monday, we did a conch exercise where we compared the abundance of conch in a marine protected area vs. a non protected area. At one site we collected, measured, and weighted over 100 conch... which took a long time! It was nice because with outings like this, we have to go in groups so I got most of the day off until 2PM when we went out in the field.
Tuesday, we were assigned a project to make a poster of a species of animal that lives in the TCI. My group chose a slate pencil urchin (Eucidaris tribuloides), so we basically do research on the urchin and go to where it lives and observe its natural habitat... then make it into a pretty poster! We worked on this all day, and part of my group went to a mangrove to take pictures of the urchin. Later that night was our night dive component of the AOW class, so we geared up at 7:30 and headed out on the boat under the stars. Quite frankly (if it wasn’t apparent from the sharking story) I was pretty terrified, and even though my dive buddy and my instructor assured me it would be awesome... I was not buying into them telling me that this dive wouldn’t be scary. On our way out to the dive site, I couldn’t help but stare at the moon’s reflection on the ocean and smile because while all of my friends are shivering and studying inside (sorry guys) I am about to go on a dive in the Caribbean on a Tuesday night. On the sides of the boat in the waves, the water was sparkling with bioluminescence... honestly probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen, it looks like a bunch of camera flashes going off! Once we got to the dive site and stationed our boat to the line, we geared up with our buddies and back rolled in off of the boat, again... another test to your psyche to flip backwards into pitch black water and not see anything beneath you. We made our descent and kneeled on the bottom while we practiced doing our signals in the dark with our flashlight and each of us was required to take a compass heading and practice using our compass at night. While waiting for my turn I was trying to take in the eery scenery, and when I shined my light behind me, I saw a crab (about a foot in diameter). So just like anytime I see something cool- I grabbed my buddy’s (Eric), arm and pointed at the crab. Then all of the sudden it started walking up to us but I figured it was just curious, so I was excited to see it up close. It continued moving towards me and I think it was mad at me for shining my light at it, so my first instinct was to throw Eric in front of it... that’s what dive buddies are for... to sacrifice them when a crab is chasing you! Unfortunately that didn’t work and it just followed me around him, so I can only imagine the jigs I was doing to try and get away from it... Finally it left me alone... so from this point on, it will be my mission not to piss off crustaceans! So now, along with Flacca and yellow eyebrows... my third nickname is crab bait, and proud of it!
Wednesday was “Sea Day” at the center, so I signed up to give SCUBA demonstrations to the kids and let me tell ya, equipment that took me a week to understand is pretty hard to explain to elementary schoolers. It was fun though, and they all really enjoyed learning about how we breath underwater! Later that day was our first deep water dive, where we descended to 100 feet and scaled the “wall” that I mentioned in an earlier post. It was an incredible dive and seeing all the “charismatic megafauna” (as my instructor calls it) was awesome... a three foot sea turtle swam right in front of us, and we got to see up close how gracefully they move through the water. Our dive lasted a little over thirty minutes, and its crazy how exhausted I get after diving deeper!
On Thursday we had a guest speaker who talked about the interesting South Caicos culture, and then we had time the rest of the day to work on the projects that we have soon. Around 4PM our bell was rung 5 times (this is the signal to everyone that there was a whale sighting) so we all gathered around the sea wall and looked out into the open ocean. All of the sudden a humpback whale breached right in front of the island and it was so close, we could see all of the grooves of its belly. I immediately got tears in my eyes, and every single person was squealing with excitement. I have never seen something so incredible, and it is such a treat when we get to see the whales play near the island.
On Friday, we had two conservation officers talk to us about the fishing policies of the island which was pretty interesting to hear about. We also gave our poster presentations about the species that we chose to study, which was pretty intense when my professors were firing questions at us (most of which we didn't actually know the answer to). It was good to get practice though because next year at Purdue, I will have to present my poster for my senior thesis. The rest of the day was devoted to studying and working on remaining projects.
Saturday, we went on our last dive of the advanced open water course called the "underwater naturalist" dive. We were required to name 5 vertebrates, 5 invertebrates, and 2 species of plants... this was kind of a joke to all of us considering we know at least 150 organisms on the reefs... so it turned out to be more of a fun dive. I'm happy to report that I was not chased by any marine fauna on this dive. Later that day we had outreach again where I played basketball with a bunch of little kids in the pouring rain. It rained a ton on Saturday, which can only mean one thing... more showers for us this week!!!
Sunday is a day of studying and relaxation before our week of midterms, but a week from today we will be heading to Providenciales for spring break! Almost all of us students rented three villas with private beaches for the week. I cannot wait to further bond with everyone and not have to worry about school work... also taking a warm shower will be nice too :)
This week has been busy with projects, dives, field exercises, and some wicked sunburns (sorry mom!)
Our classes have changed this week since we are done with all of the field identification tests, so we have had a few field exercises practicing taking data. On Monday, we did a conch exercise where we compared the abundance of conch in a marine protected area vs. a non protected area. At one site we collected, measured, and weighted over 100 conch... which took a long time! It was nice because with outings like this, we have to go in groups so I got most of the day off until 2PM when we went out in the field.
Tuesday, we were assigned a project to make a poster of a species of animal that lives in the TCI. My group chose a slate pencil urchin (Eucidaris tribuloides), so we basically do research on the urchin and go to where it lives and observe its natural habitat... then make it into a pretty poster! We worked on this all day, and part of my group went to a mangrove to take pictures of the urchin. Later that night was our night dive component of the AOW class, so we geared up at 7:30 and headed out on the boat under the stars. Quite frankly (if it wasn’t apparent from the sharking story) I was pretty terrified, and even though my dive buddy and my instructor assured me it would be awesome... I was not buying into them telling me that this dive wouldn’t be scary. On our way out to the dive site, I couldn’t help but stare at the moon’s reflection on the ocean and smile because while all of my friends are shivering and studying inside (sorry guys) I am about to go on a dive in the Caribbean on a Tuesday night. On the sides of the boat in the waves, the water was sparkling with bioluminescence... honestly probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen, it looks like a bunch of camera flashes going off! Once we got to the dive site and stationed our boat to the line, we geared up with our buddies and back rolled in off of the boat, again... another test to your psyche to flip backwards into pitch black water and not see anything beneath you. We made our descent and kneeled on the bottom while we practiced doing our signals in the dark with our flashlight and each of us was required to take a compass heading and practice using our compass at night. While waiting for my turn I was trying to take in the eery scenery, and when I shined my light behind me, I saw a crab (about a foot in diameter). So just like anytime I see something cool- I grabbed my buddy’s (Eric), arm and pointed at the crab. Then all of the sudden it started walking up to us but I figured it was just curious, so I was excited to see it up close. It continued moving towards me and I think it was mad at me for shining my light at it, so my first instinct was to throw Eric in front of it... that’s what dive buddies are for... to sacrifice them when a crab is chasing you! Unfortunately that didn’t work and it just followed me around him, so I can only imagine the jigs I was doing to try and get away from it... Finally it left me alone... so from this point on, it will be my mission not to piss off crustaceans! So now, along with Flacca and yellow eyebrows... my third nickname is crab bait, and proud of it!
Wednesday was “Sea Day” at the center, so I signed up to give SCUBA demonstrations to the kids and let me tell ya, equipment that took me a week to understand is pretty hard to explain to elementary schoolers. It was fun though, and they all really enjoyed learning about how we breath underwater! Later that day was our first deep water dive, where we descended to 100 feet and scaled the “wall” that I mentioned in an earlier post. It was an incredible dive and seeing all the “charismatic megafauna” (as my instructor calls it) was awesome... a three foot sea turtle swam right in front of us, and we got to see up close how gracefully they move through the water. Our dive lasted a little over thirty minutes, and its crazy how exhausted I get after diving deeper!
On Thursday we had a guest speaker who talked about the interesting South Caicos culture, and then we had time the rest of the day to work on the projects that we have soon. Around 4PM our bell was rung 5 times (this is the signal to everyone that there was a whale sighting) so we all gathered around the sea wall and looked out into the open ocean. All of the sudden a humpback whale breached right in front of the island and it was so close, we could see all of the grooves of its belly. I immediately got tears in my eyes, and every single person was squealing with excitement. I have never seen something so incredible, and it is such a treat when we get to see the whales play near the island.
On Friday, we had two conservation officers talk to us about the fishing policies of the island which was pretty interesting to hear about. We also gave our poster presentations about the species that we chose to study, which was pretty intense when my professors were firing questions at us (most of which we didn't actually know the answer to). It was good to get practice though because next year at Purdue, I will have to present my poster for my senior thesis. The rest of the day was devoted to studying and working on remaining projects.
Saturday, we went on our last dive of the advanced open water course called the "underwater naturalist" dive. We were required to name 5 vertebrates, 5 invertebrates, and 2 species of plants... this was kind of a joke to all of us considering we know at least 150 organisms on the reefs... so it turned out to be more of a fun dive. I'm happy to report that I was not chased by any marine fauna on this dive. Later that day we had outreach again where I played basketball with a bunch of little kids in the pouring rain. It rained a ton on Saturday, which can only mean one thing... more showers for us this week!!!
Sunday is a day of studying and relaxation before our week of midterms, but a week from today we will be heading to Providenciales for spring break! Almost all of us students rented three villas with private beaches for the week. I cannot wait to further bond with everyone and not have to worry about school work... also taking a warm shower will be nice too :)
This beautiful island & all of these amazing experiences make me as happy as a clam... or as we call it, a bivalve!
Teaching the little kiddies about SCUBA gear!
Sea stars are still one of my favorite animals!
Finally got a picture diving... here I am over the wall with the big blue behind me! Seriously, scuba diving is the coolest feeling ever, everyone should consider getting certified! :)