22 November 08

You would not believe the wind! I affects everything that we would like to do today. We can’t get satellite connection nor can we get in the water. One member of the research team that visits San Salvador often, commented that she has never seen the waves this high nor has it ever been this cold. We traveled into town this afternoon and stopped by Memorial beach to snorkel and get used to things, but it was too rough to snorkel. We did dip our feet into the water and it was definitely warmer in the water than just standing on the beach watching. This beach, by the way, was named because of the large memorial placed here in honor of the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico City. But…despite the wind, the beaches and water are magnificent!




Where we are staying is called Gerace Research Center. It was a Naval base during the 1950’s and 60’s. Currently it is a research center for groups that come to San Salvador. The director of this facility actually answers to the Bahamian Department of Education.

Back to business…. I asked you last time if you could tell me the chemical composition of seawater. I do have an answer for you. Actually, the salinity of seawater can vary, but the proportion of its salt always stays the same. On average, 1 kilogram of seawater contains 35 grams of salt. The major components of seawater are chloride (55 % by weight), sodium (31 %), sulfate (8%), magnesium (4%), calcium (1%), potassium (1%), and bicarbonate, bromide, boric acid, strontium, and fluoride (all less than 1%). Why don’t you find out the main sources of the sea’s saltiness. There are three main sources…

23 November 08

This morning we met as a research team to go over the details of our data collection. John Rollino, the research director, talked with us about his work here in the Bahamas and what types of data he would like us to collect. We will be working in small groups and snorkeling out to four separate patch reefs that are located around the island. Years ago, John and his team placed dock spikes in the reef to indicate the area of study. These spikes help us create a transect line. The transect is a linear line through an area that ultimately gives us a larger picture of what specimens exist in the bigger environment. In other words, it is a way to collect a sample.

In the Caribbean, there are about 53 species of coral and we will see about a dozen or so of those. Part of our work is to use the transect to identify healthy coral from those that are suffering from bleaching. Bleaching is when a coral polyp has literally thrown up it’s symbiotic algae. It is the algae that gives the coral it’s color and also helps to feed the coral through photosynthesis. Bleaching could be an indication of a bigger problem and if the coral does not recover, it dies. The research team will also be taking water samples at each dock spike as well as testing the turbidity of the water with a Secchi disk. This device helps us test the clarity of the water. This would be a good question for you to ask those amazing science teachers at North Sanpete. I am sure they have all used a Secchi disk at some point in their careers. We will also be using a point intercept grid made out of PVC pipe, tape and string to identify the animal species within this grid. This grid looks like a very large picture frame. You snorkel out to the coral, throw the grid and let it sink. Then, you identify all the animal and plant life within the frame. I have a picture of it that I will show you later. Pictures are difficult to download here because of the technology, so they will have to wait. As I go through the week, I will be sure to add more details about what we find and how this all works. Today, we just learned our jobs. This would be a great time for you to find out more about coral bleaching if you haven’t already.


We took the afternoon to test out our equipment. The wind is still rough and the sea is not very inviting, but we decided it was worth a trip to the southern shore to jump in. When we arrived, the sea was a bit more calm, but the water a bit cooler than yesterday. We stuffed our bodies into those wetsuits and off we snorkeled into the blue ocean. It was great! There were patch coral reefs filled with various species of coral. One of the research team members, Elizabeth, was a fantastic tour guide. She helped to identify the coral, both hard and soft, and the algae. She was also very good at describing all the possible bad things that could happen to us out there. Like…not to be too afraid of the tiger sharks or the hammerheads! WHAT???!!! We were also told to not touch the coral as some of the species could be very harmful for us and we are definitely harmful to the coral.