Stand Made and Aquarium Ready to Go!!

Nicole Felix, Kevin Allen, and other welding students have created a stand to put the tank on. It is a very beautiful stand. I am excited to be able to finally start putting the aquarium together. I am looking at which fish to order. Some fish are very territorial, this means that they will attack other fish. I need to figure out which fish will do well together.

We May Now Begin

I have received all of the necessary equipment to begin to set up the salt-water aquarium at North Sanpete High School. The aquarium will be located in the main office at the high school.

More photos

More photos

Answering questions

When I returned from the Bahamas, I found that several students from our elementary schools had e-mailed me questions about the coral reefs and the work that we were doing there. I am going to answer some of those questions now and add the photos that I could not add while I was there.

Garrett asked me if I had snorkeled before my trip to the Bahamas. Yes, I have snorkeled in California, Hawaii and Samoa. I have included a picture of some of the coral fish that were swimming with us. They were beautiful, colorful and came in every size. I told the researchers that I would like to spend my time just looking at fish. It was like being in a very large aquarium.

Angela told me that she is going to Hawaii for Christmas. I hope that you get the chance to snorkel there, it is amazing!

Thanks for sharing your snorkeling experience, Tatiana. I did not see an eel, but I know how you feel when a creature scares you. I almost ran into a Lion fish. I included a picture of him for you. That would have been very painful to have bumped into him! You and I know that you must be careful when you are swimming in the ocean.

I am sorry that I did not get to take any pictures of the reef sharks that were swimming in the ocean with us, Sydney. I think that all of us were just trying to stay out of their way. I did include a picture of the Barracuda. From the picture, this fish looks small, but he was actually 5 to 6 feet long! We tried to stay out of his way, too. They are very fast and quick.

I hope that you will continue to look at the blog as we write about our new project. The high school students are going to start a salt water aquarium. We hope to grow coral and include a variety of fish. If you know anything about salt water aquariums, please feel free to post your advice to this blog. We will need all the help we can get.

Thanksgiving in the Bahamas

Happy Thanksgiving! How many people in the world can say that they spent this holiday snorkeling in the blue-green waters of the Bahamas? Although it was windy, we made it into the water first at Snapshot Reef in the morning and then at Rice Bay in the afternoon. Rice Bay actually has transect lines that John wanted to see and collect data. As we approached this area we could tell right away that it was going to be difficult to get much data as the wind and waves were strong. We made the decision to go out and do what we could. I took Jewels, another Earthwatch teacher, with me and a PI square and headed for the reef. Along the way we were able to spot several large lobster. These lobsters are much different looking than what you would see in a restaurant or even the ones I have seen at Catalina. The lobsters here are light in color and spotted somewhat with the colors of the reef wall. You had to look closely to even see them even though they were quite large. Jewels and I worked hard to collect data from the PI frames, but we found that the wave current was too strong to continue. We were being thrown against the reef and were afraid of damaging animals. The sad part for me is that we only observed algae, rocks, sand, and a few soft corals under our PI frames. I don’t have enough history to tell you whether this is normal or a change that has been occurring over time, but I am sure that our researchers would like to see more evidence of coral growth. I did, however, see a few very beautiful smooth brain corals that at least, at this point, look healthy. Unfortunately, I almost bumped into a Lion Fish, which is not a good sign for the environment as they are not native, and they are dangerous to humans. Everything considered, it was a fantastic day and it is always nice to crawl into bed each night knowing that you worked hard and tried to do some good in the world.

Rice Bay

Happy Thanksgiving! How many people in the world can say that they spent this holiday snorkeling in the blue-green waters of the Bahamas? Although it was windy, we made it into the water first at Snapshot Reef in the morning and then at Rice Bay in the afternoon. Rice Bay actually has transect lines that John wanted to see and collect data. As we approached this area we could tell right away that it was going to be difficult to get much data as the wind and waves were strong. We made the decision to go out and do what we could. I took Jewels, another Earthwatch teacher, with me and a PI square and headed for the reef. Along the way we were able to spot several large lobster. These lobsters are much different looking than what you would see in a restaurant or even the ones I have seen at Catalina. The lobsters here are light in color and spotted somewhat with the colors of the reef wall. You had to look closely to even see them even though they were quite large. Jewels and I worked hard to collect data from the PI frames, but we found that the wave current was too strong to continue. We were being thrown against the reef and were afraid of damaging animals. The sad part for me is that we only observed algae, rocks, sand, and a few soft corals under our PI frames. I don’t have enough history to tell you whether this is normal or a change that has been occurring over time, but I am sure that our researchers would like to see more evidence of coral growth. I did, however, see a few very beautiful smooth brain corals that at least, at this point, look healthy. Unfortunately, I almost bumped into a Lion Fish, which is not a good sign for the environment as they are not native, and they are dangerous to humans. Everything considered, it was a fantastic day and it is always nice to crawl into bed each night knowing that you worked hard and tried to do some good in the world.