Towing and the Deep Sea!

Hello,

We started our day today with a very intense morning exercise- one in which we had been nervously and excitedly dreading since we first heard about it during the rotation- the run-swim! To start off, we all met at the flagpole and stretched with some of the other Island School staff who would be joining us for the big event. Chris Maxey, the founder of the Island School, was especially excited to see us all ready to go and lead us on this exciting tradition. The run-swim alternates between short periods of running and swimming (which is a little bit more difficult than it may seem). Aside from the running and swimming, we also rolled through mud puddles and hiked up sandy hills; we even picked up litter from the beach! At the end, when were finally able to catch our breath, we realized it wasn’t truly as bad as we thought it would be, and it was actually kind of fun!

Our morning exercise left us all exhausted and hungry, so we were eager to get to the dining hall and eat the delicious breakfast of eggs, grits, and fruit, which we all immediately gobbled down.

After breakfast, we all headed to the boat house and split into two groups: the Conch Research Group and the Ocean Adventure Group. In the Conch Research Group, we were helping the Research Coordinator of CEI, Candice, decide where to place a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Bahamas based off of Conch population data. The research we were helping with was based off of a study conducted in the 1990s in which we were comparing Conch populations between then and now (in conjunction with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago). To collect data, we held on to a wooden board attached to the boat by a rope, in a process called a manta tow, and looked underwater to count the number of conch we saw and identify which life stage the conch were in. To eliminate human error, a Go Pro was attached to the bottom of the board, so that she could later go back and watch the film to see if our data was collected accurately- allowing her to see not only the number of conch in the area but also see how precise humans are at collecting data. The experience was definitely a little nerve wracking at first, but by the end, we were all having a great time!

Heading out on the boat this morning

Getting ready for our first manta tows!

Andrew is a great spotter for Dal and Emily out on the manta board

The Ocean Adventure group went out into the deep sea through our first real bout of wavy seas to snorkel. The first stop was at an aquaculture cage located in the middle of the ocean once used to farm Cobia fish. The cage was almost destroyed during Hurricane Sandy as the storm almost dragged it over the continental slope. The cage was recovered but is no longer functional. When looking down from over the cage, all you see is blue beneath you, because the ocean is over 100 feet deep at this point! Snorkeling here was really fun because we got to see bigger fish than normal and one group even saw a hammerhead shark! The next location was “the wall”, which goes down 1,000 meters. To show its tremendous depth, Liz has us all form a circle and drop a conch shell into the middle of us so we could all see how long it took to fall (it was a pretty long time). The third and final stop was at Tunnel Rock, which is a large reef with a natural tunnel through the middle of it. In the sand nearby, an Island School researcher is growing staghorn coral in a 'coral nursery.' The baby coral is being grown on PVC pipe with coral attached via zip ties. This was also another good snorkel spot, as there were a ton of fish that we were able to identify and dive down to swim beside! We have really improved our snorkeling in the short time we've been here!

In the deep blue sea at the aquaculture cage

Abby dives down to the top of the enormous cage

After our adventures, we ate an amazing dinner of hamburgers and mac and cheese. After dinner, we went to a lecture on Sharks in the Bahamas by Ollie, a PhD student at CEI. We learned a lot more information about sharks, from how they breed to their value (did you know live sharks are worth about $100,000 due to tourism while dead sharks are only worth $50?). Some more interesting facts include that sharks cannot smell human blood, that sharks do not have a swim bladder (they are buoyant because of their oily liver), and that sharks, like stingrays, go to sleep when flipped upside down, which is called tonic immobility.

Overall, it was a successful and tiring day down here in the Bahamas full of sun and surprises! Our time is coming to an end, and we are all excited to make the most of our last few days in the warm weather and learn more about marine life!

See you in 4 days!

Dana and Emily