The vegetation survey was a lot of work!

While taking a vegetation survey in East Wells we learned it takes a little sweat and hard work to get results. It was about 95 and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. We had to walk and make measurements while being consumed by mosquitoes for 3 hours. Experience in the field has completely changed my view on science and the actual findings real scientists have. Experience in the field has shown me that you can never execute a flawless experiment. There are always variables that can throw off your results and lead you to make wrong conclusions.

Everyone searched the reef for fish.

Although science can be frustrating it can also have huge rewards. Doing a fish census at Turtle Rocks was the coolest thing I've ever done. Turtle Rocks has both deep blue water with huge coral heads and big fish, as well as crystal clear shallows strewn with smaller corals and a wide variety of fish. Our job was to snorkel around with waterproof clipboards and record the number of fish that we encountered by species. When we return to Miami we will submit the data we collected to REEF. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation uses the data submitted by thousands of scientists and volunteers to study the health and biodiversity of the world's reefs. Overall this experience has excited me for my future and has inspired me to pursue science past HSMB.

Kyle Cook

Today we visited the island of Gun Cay to do a vegetation survey and a beach seine. While we were there we noticed a remarkable amount of garbage floating in the water and littered all over the shore. There were all sorts of trash and waste cluttering the shore and endangering many of the native animals. We discovered objects varying from pop bottles, to beer cans, random shoes, oil cans, chip bags, and even a hotel key card from 1957. We were shocked and a little bit disturbed by the carelessness of the people who had visited the island previously. Do you have any suggestions of ways visitors both to Gun Cay and the entire ocean could better manage their trash to prevent such high levels of pollution?

Kyle and Erin

After a quick overview we headed outside and met one slithery critter that is endemic to Bimini (only found in Bimini). The Bimini Boa's habitat is in danger of being destroyed because of human expansion throughout the island even though they are considered endangered. Our guide Kat, took out their temporary snake resident and let us take turns holding it. It was very smooth and shiny, reflecting the colors of the rainbow.

We then headed down to the shark pen full of about 40 juvenile lemon sharks and one nurse shark. Kat and a resident Diego, carefully and got into the pen and caught one lemon shark pup and the nurse shark pup. The Lemon Shark is the most commonly tagged shark by Shark Lab because Bimini has an abundance of mangroves and sea grass. Baby Lemon Sharks are born in the mangroves alive and swimming unlike most sharks that lay eggs.

Each night for six nights Shark Lab sets up a gill net and attempts to catch every baby shark in the area so they can tag them using PIT transmitters for years to come. The PIT tag is a little chip that goes in right below the dorsal fin and gives each shark an individual ID number. After catching all the sharks they can, every shark is released at the same time and it is a mad dash to freedom.

After the shark pen we loaded back into the boat and took off to the Coral Reef II. On the way back we saw 5 Green Sea Turtles just chillin by the mangroves! A perfect way to end an awesome trip.

Kyle and Conrad