Team Coral Reef and Team Stingray!

Hello everyone,

While few members of the Marine class awoke at 5:20am to go for a morning run, the rest of us stayed fast asleep until 6:00am. As 6:00am struck, the alarms went off and the actual day began. We started off with a fun, united game of beach volleyball and newcomb until 8:00am. During the span of intense beach competition, Seysha even saw an actual “cat-dog thingy” rarely seen in The Bahamas (not actually; it was just a small dog). Afterwards, everyone pitched in to do chores and got ready for the first day the group would be split in half. One group would explore and capture sting rays, while the other group would snorkel and learn all about coral and aquaponics as well.

The boys in action on the volleyball court!

The cafeteria was quiet as the Island School semester students left for home this morning as their adventure here came to an end. We enjoyed buttered grits, fruit, cereal, and sloppy joes. This would fuel our bodies for the adventures to come.

While preparing for the day, Mr. Daly charged the dorm areas and shouted, “There’s a Manatee!”. We grabbed our snorkels and bathing suits early, so that we could all see and swim with the Manatee (this animal is a pretty rare sighting in The Bahamas). We were the first group from Hawken to see such an extraordinary animal in The Bahamas- and it was amazing! He (or she!) was just hanging out and eating grass by the docks. 

Isn't this amazing!?

After the Manatee sighting the Stingray group got a brief intro to the Southern Whip Tail Stingray by stingray specialist Ethan. They grabbed life vests and hopped onto a boat and went on a forty-minute boat ride to their first mangrove stop with the hopes of capturing their first ray. The last time the Cape Eleuthera Institute Ray team was out and about they caught five rays and saw ten in this location. The group jumped out of the boats and began to float into the mouth of the mangrove river armed with two giant nets and multiple other circular nets. They walked down the river to no avail. They ended up turning back around and returning back to the mouth of the river where they ate beautiful sandwiches on the beach. 

Although they were frustrated the group got back on the boat and traveled to another river. After walking back and forth in the second mangrove the group was disheartened and believed there was no stingray to be caught. The group began to leave when a giant stingray began moving around at the mouth of the river. They circled her strategically and after about ten minutes of prodding the ray was caught. This would be the largest Southern Whip Tail caught in this study! They took measurements as well as skin and blood samples. They tagged the ray and released her back into the wild. The group would travel to a third and final river but would not find another ray. They returned around 4:30pm.

Here she is! Our Caribbean Whiptail Stingray! (See our feet? This is when we released her!)

While the Stingray group went out exploring and catching stingrays, the coral group went out to an old, abandoned golf course that has a beautiful beach with a house reef just off shore. Instead of jumping straight into the ocean, we first learned about Coral even though our wonderful teachers Mrs. Becker and Mr. Daly had taught us the majority of facts that we needed to know. During the lecture, we stopped mid-sentence to watch a green sea turtle pop up to the surface to breathe! Afterwards, we were able snorkel and join the fish in the ocean. We saw many fish such as flounders, barracuda, squirrellfish, and many more. Overall, snorkeling in coral-filled water was a magical experience. 

 This peacock flounder has both eyes on the same side!

Dalia is holding a living sea biscuit, and it's tube feet are sticking to her hands!

After returning to the campus and eating a great rib and potato lunch we jumped into aquaponics and learned all about what it is and how the entire system works as a whole. We got to plant seeds, place plants into the grow beds, harvest mint, and even harvest tilapia! We each got to learn how to fillet a fresh fish after individually catching fish with a net.

 The boys harvesting mint!

Caroline filleting her first fish (this one's for you, dad!)

As aquaponics came to an end, we still had amazing explorations ahead of us. Some of us watched in awe (and a little terror) as a pig gave birth to piglets, other watched a snake slither across our paths, and Mrs. Becker saw the unbelievable, her most famous sea creature, an actual, living Aplysia! Aplysias are like sea slugs, or gastropods without shells. Many of us got to hold it's squishy body and it even spit out purple ink on Nick, which he thought was pretty cool. Today was an amazing day for both groups to embark on the extraordinary adventures that took place, with students seeing rare creatures and witnessing beautiful moments of new life.

Finally, after a delicious dinner of couscous, turkey, and broccoli, we came back to the Octagon room and began our one-match beach fire building contest. First we learned about some fire-building techniques, and then we set off in teams to attempt to successfully light a beach bonfire with only one match. Devlin’s team won as the only team out of 5 to get a fire going. We then got to enjoy the fruits of our labor, sitting around the fire and telling stories of the day and creepy ghost stories. We then returned to our quarters for shut eye. Wow, what a day!

Signing out

Koron & Devlin