Saltwater, Sand Dollars and Sunsets

Apparently, we Wittenberg students accidently brought the unpredictable Ohio weather to the island of San Salvador. Today we began our 3rd full day here with pouring rain. On the bright side, we may have ended the water shortage that we were having here at the Gerace Research Center! The sustainable water barrels should now have plenty of water to supply the center.

Today for breakfast we began what has now become our morning routine of dousing our bodies with sunscreen and bug spray before heading out. This morning’s breakfast consisted of a hardy plate full of pancakes with a side of crispy bacon, complete with oatmeal and cereal as alternatives. Following breakfast we headed to our classroom due to the presence of thunder and lightning, keeping us out of the water for the morning portion of our day. In lab, we began analyzing the algae sample data that we had collected at North Point the previous day. We talked about different methods of organizing, presenting and analyzing the data that every group had collected. We got into our groups and created different graphs such as pie charts, bar graphs, and dot plots. We then presented this data to the class and discussed better methods of collecting data in order to have unbiased data samples.

For lunch this afternoon, we refueled with a variety of foods. Some choices that we had today were tuna salad, egg salad, sandwiches and some peaches- that we were very excited about. After lunch we gathered out gear and loaded on the truck to set out for our afternoon destination. When we arrived at Rocky Point we were once again amazed at the beauty of our next destination. At Rocky Point we encountered our first sunny afternoon, which everyone was ecstatic about. We got into the water and began our snorkel through the crystal clear blue waters to the coral reefs. The objective for snorkel this afternoon was to explore the coral reef ecosystems here, and observe the interactions between the different organisms. It didn’t take long for something to catch our eyes like our personal favorite; the blue tang, which graced us with their presence in a group of fifteen or so this afternoon. We also were lucky enough to spot two peacock founders swiftly grazing the seafloor below us. On our swim to and from the reefs we were able to spot sand dollars and other echinoderms. This very well could be what gave rise to the nickname Sand Dollar Bay.  We also saw several species of coral including fire coral, brain coral and an abundance of fan coral. The currents here today were very strong and keeping track of our snorkel buddies proved to be a difficult task.

After a hard afternoon of snorkeling, we had all worked up an appetite. Dinner was a delicious serving of meatloaf with sides of both mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans. Thepineapple upside down  cake was also something that left people wanting seconds.

While today may have started off rainy and stormy, it surely turned around providing us with a sunny afternoon at an incredible reef ecosystem and gave us a breathtaking first sunset at the Gerace Research Center. Tomorrow, we look forward to another great day full of sunshine and great marine encounters.

Until next time,

Jamila Juzer ‘17 & Heddie Samuelson ‘18

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