Tropical Marine Ecology - San Salvador, Bahamas

 What is up lute fans! Today we had our last full day on the beautiful island of San Salvador! We started the day with a yummy breakfast of french toast, pancakes, sausage and bacon. Then we headed off to club med to hop on the dive boat. We all reminisced of our last time at club med wishing we could escape and run off. Simon took us to Captain Wes’s boat where he took us to the south side of the island. We started at a shallow reef, south of telephone pole. We saw many cool fish such as parrot fish, blue chromis, and black durgon. After that we went to the wall, which was where the ocean dropped into the deep blue. We saw massive barracuda, a caribbean reef shark, and a school of jacks. This was where we took the annual tropical marine ecology snorkeling picture. We also saw many coral “Christmas trees”. Which is PVC pipe where coral is allowed to grow without competition with algae so that it can hopefully relocate and be successful in dying reefs.  After some miscommunicat...

Faithful readers, We started our day with a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, blueberry muffins, and a choice of grits or oatmeal. During breakfast there was much debate about what our day would hold. We hoped to swim to Iguana Island, but Mike said the water might be too rough, so Snapshot Reef was our backup plan. As usual, we met at Truck Y at 8:30 ready for the day.  We headed out to the beach located across the high school. The beach was absolutely beautiful. We swam across to Iguana Island. We got there and tell me why we climbed a whole mountain???!! I was winded before I even got to the top. Mike said Iguana Island, so in my head I was gonna see 50 iguanas greeting us by the time we got to shore. In my head the iguanas would’ve been as long as me…I’m like 5’0…6’7 on a good day. When we got to the top of this…cliff basically, I saw midget iguanas. I was…disappointed, but they were cute, so I let it slide for the day. I also forgot to mention that I only saw 3.  Aft...

Good evening beautiful blog readers, commenters, and lurkers. Today started off bright and early for room K (and Logan) who arose at 5:45 AM and made the trek to Graham Harbor to see the sun rise. Even a couple of our resident sickos (Shannon and Madi) made the journey despite their sniffling and coughing. We made it out to one of the rocky cliffsides and sat amongst some snails and friendly hermit crabs for the viewing of the dazzling pink and yellow glow above the sea. We then, unfortunately, had to leave as our stomachs were rumbling in anticipation of our daily Gerace kitchen breakfast. We made it back to the research center with one minute to spare, soon appeasing our hunger with pancakes and bacon.  After breakfast, excitement began to build amongst us as we had a very exciting day ahead of us. We were going to Club Med! Somehow, the lovely people at the local all inclusive resort decided to allow us hooligans in for a day. As we got ready to depart, we put on our very nicest...

Hello readers,  We started our day with a delicioso breakfast of eggs, bagels, muffins, and our daily orange juice. We were immediately ushered into the library to work on our research projects for most of the morning. Some made more progress than others, who engaged in a game of Great Bahamian Basketball.  Francine’s POV: Breakfast was great. We had eggs…let’s skip to the good part. After breakfast my group (Shannon, Sophia and I) decided to take a good 10 minute break after working on our proposal for what seemed like years. We stumbled upon Kailee playing ball with Mike, Angie and a few of our other classmates. They needed to pick up the pace. I need action, I need agility, I need it all. This lead to me becoming side coach. Honestly Mike was looking like Jebron Lames. All jokes aside Mike still got it, but I must say Angie was towering over Mike like he was 5’2. That 10 minute break lasted until lunchtime. Mike’s team won. The final score was 20-22.  Kailee’s POV: Fir...

As the great philosopher Seneca once wrote, "If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable." Today was a choose-your-own-adventure day for the students of PLU. With the island experiencing day two of the wind's mighty roar (we couldn't decide who to sacrifice), our options were confined to the research station, where we were given time to work on our research projects and figure analysis. Some choose to attend church, while others decided to catch up on sleep. However, as any college student knows, unstructured time is a curse disguised as a blessing. Mike chose a port and informed us that data presentations would occur before dinner. At 4:30, all four groups gave a snapshot of their data and an overview of the research that had been collected over the last few days. “Meiomeisters“ started us off with their presentations with a comparison of the small creatures living between grains of sand. Following that was ”Flamin’ Hot Flamingo Tongues“ who studied ...

  Ahoy Mateys! Buckle up, today is a special day. It is Madi and Morgan blog takeover day! Today we will take you through an exciting 24 hours on San Salvador, checking in for live on the scene updates. There will be adventures, there will be drama, there will be tears! Hold on to your hats and loved ones, this might get intense.  8:17 AM: This is Madi and Morgan Reporting live from room K. We have just returned from breakfast, where we were pleasantly surprised with a new treat: blueberry muffins! This was first for us on the island, and we all savored our delicious pastries. Today also marks the first day that we are almost the only people on campus! It is slightly eerie, and we have moved to the big center table in the cafeteria to assert our dominance. Currently, we are scrambling to put on our perpetually damp swim suits, and lathering up with our various lotions and potions (in general, the magic formula is 1 layer of sun screen- reef safe, of course, 1 layer of your oil...

  What is up lute fans?!       Today started out with a great breakfast of pancakes and sausages. We loaded the truck and waited for what felt like years (30 minutes) for Cooper to get her toe bandaged. The no-see-ums were ruthless and tore the rest of the group up. Shoutout Mike for letting us take shelter in his air conditioned room. He gave Francine ozempic to help with the bites (it was actually Zyrtec she forgot the name…  a girl can only dream). This next part goes out to Matt Smith as we met your doppelgänger from USD (see picture below). We finally left and drove to the farthest side of the island to French Bay where 2 groups were able to finish their data collections with the help of others. Flamin’ Hot Flamingo Tongues counted sea fans but weren’t able to find flamingo tongues :( and Rich Fish finished counting the diversity and abundance of fish on the reef. We then headed to Monument for a delicious field lunch of sandwiches and PB & J’s. Once we...