Today is the 23rd of May. Prior to today we flew into San Salvador on the 21st of May. Upon arrival at the Gerace Research Center we began to familiarize ourselves with the facilities. Unfortunately we did not get to experience the beautiful water on the first day, but we did have our first class that night. In class we went over the history of the island of San Salvador. The following morning we went to Graham’s Harbor, a local beach, and explored the open waters, while making sure that everyone had adequate knowledge of their equipment. At our visit to Graham’s Harbor we found some interesting organisms like cushion sea stars, conchs, some fish, and a rather large southern stingray. After lunch we walked to Singer’s Point for our second snorkel. This was our first coral reef snorkel; we went out with the purpose to observe and identify as many organisms as possible. We spotted numerous types of fish, coral, and sponges. A few notable ones were the Banded Butterflyfish, Fire Coral, and the Batwing Coral Crab. That night we had our second class covering the groups of organisms that we will see here on our trip. This allowed to gain a stronger correlation to what we learn in class to what we see in the field.
Today is May 23, 2014. This morning we rode on a truck to our first snorkel location of the day which was North Point. Before every snorkel we take parameters of the environment, including GPS location and wind speed. We went into this snorkel with the objective of collecting, observing, and learning different types of algae. We identified them into twelve different genera and put them into a histogram based on abundance. After classifying these organisms we had an opportunity to go back into the ocean to observe and gain deeper knowledge of the organism we had collected. Some of these algae included Penicillus, Udodea, and Sargassum.
After lunch today we once again loaded on the truck, but this time we traveled to a site called Monument, this is the site that is dedicated to the landing of Christopher Columbus on San Salvador. We were all astonished at the absolute beauty of the location. On this snorkel we had a more definite objective of taking two directed observations. This us allows us to better understand the ecosystem as a whole by looking at an organism as well as the factors and stresses encompassing it. This was another reef dive, but it took place at a greater depth, at some points during the snorkel we were diving to depths of up to 25 feet. We saw some beautiful creatures including Red Banded Parrotfish, Bluehead, and the Fairy Basslet. This dive was around an hour and ten minutes. Later in the day, we had our third class of the week. Today we covered topics including ecology, ecosystems, communities, and niches. This tied together with what we were doing today in the water.
Throughout these first three days, our group has started to bond already. We learned a lot about ourselves and environment already. While the class stood on the beach looking out into the ocean, one student noted that the natives on the island probably think that we are spoiled beyond belief coming from America, another student stated that he thought, “We are all spoiled in our own ways,” as he gazed out into the beautiful scenery.
Brent Whitehead ’17 & Max Jump ‘17