last day here

It is difficult to get my head around being in Oakland, CA in less than 48 hours. I have had such a "rock my world "experience it is difficult to put into words. I am excited about seeing those sweet faces (yep!! really!!!) and explaining to them what I did and what we found. I want everyone to understand the mission John is on...taking vacation time to continue this important research! I want to thank Earthwatch for an opportunity unlike anything i have ever done. And I want to thank Park Day School for being so supportive. I am sure a few of you were rooting for the shark, eh?

I am hoping to share my photos with school, community and friends along with tales galore. By the time I really got my bearings, and felt comfortable identifying all the species it was time to leave. I would love to return at some point and help out again...see what has changed and what hasn't . Let me know if I go on too much about the last week. see you-all soon...kareng

what to do when the weather doesn't cooperate

This morning was very windy (again), with large swells. John said we could not go out into the water. It is not the movement of the water around us that would be the problem but the fact that a four-foot swell could pick us up four feet and then drop us onto the coral reef- bad for both parties involved! We fit in a few hours of lab work. We tested: salinity, pH,nitites,nitrates,magnesium,iodine,calcium,organics,strontium(yikes),and much, much more. It felt familiar to be doing lab work. There is something very meditative about water quality testing. I needed a little grounding given that everything else I have been doing and seeing is new. One of the most startling results was the salinity: 38ppm! I thought the water tasted saltier than I was used to. Try and find out what the salinity of the Pacific Ocean just off shore of SF is, you might notice a difference. This also explains why I float so well…well that and the wet suit AND the extra adipose tissue.

This afternoon we were going to attempt to deploy our artificial reefs. This involved moving 6 heavy (35-40lbs) pieces down to the water and putting them on floats (one at a time) to get them to the correct spot on the reef. John also was going to drill a hole and place a piece of rebar into it so we could set the artificial piece on top and secure it into place. Do you think you can run a long extension chord out into the water? How would electricity and water do together? He planned to use air tanks to power the drill and would be in scuba gear himself. We had a meeting to choreograph this feat because once we got out there everything would be happening quickly around us- including the large swells! I felt as if we were trying to build the pyramids. Each of us had a job such as ferrying the tanks to the drill site; empty tanks back to shore or ferrying the reef pieces out to the drop point. This all became moot when the wind picked up and we had to cancel the deployment!

At the end of a very frustrating day we retreated to the lab for more water quality testing. We finished around 8:30 and took off for a night hike/tide pool experience. There are so few lights on the island that the stars were fantastic! It felt familiar to look up at the Milky Way and the two Dippers. But that was the only thing that was familiar. We got down to the tide pools and began to see amazing nightlife. We saw Sea Hares, Octopus, Bristle Worms, Brittle Stars, Shrimp, and Sea Anemone. I could recognize a lot of the critters but they looked very different than the tide pools we have on the Pacific Coast. We returned around 10:30 wet and amazed only to drift off to sleep dreaming of calm weather tomorrow. Just so you know, we awoke to perfectly still air!!!

Island Tour

Yesterday was a tour of the island (30 miles around) and a history lesson. We visited an Anglican church that was built in 1750’s. It was falling apart and even the stone (limestone) it had been built with was eroding. It was a bit unnerving to drive around because in the Bahamas they drive on the other (notice I did not say wrong) side of the road. Each time a car (and there are not many of them) would come towards us I would hold my breath thinking we were about to be in a head-on crash. We also visited Watling’s “Castle”. This house was built in the 1780’s after the American Revolution. Some of the Loyalists left the newly founded country for the Bahamas to continue to be under British rule. They brought their knowledge of plantations and crops to the island but found it difficult to grow anything here. After a decade or so they abandoned not only their plantations but also the slaves they had brought with them. These people are the ancestors of most of the present day Bahamans.

In the afternoon we were back in the water but not until many failed attempts. One area was too windy which made it very dangerous. The next area was along Pigeon Creek. I was in the water when John (the PI-principal investigator) loudly said, “Get out of the water…I mean get out of the water PLEASE”. As I backed up I saw a large Bull Shark (known for being unpredictable and aggressive…two traits one does not desire in a shark you are swimming with!)just off shore. There was no telltale dorsal fin us Great White Shark folk know to look for just a beautiful sinuous body moving through the water. Well, after that it was decided we did not want to participate in feeding time and we moved on to another site.

We arrived at our last site and quickly got on our masks and snorkels. Notice, I have very carefully NOT given you a description of me getting into a wetsuit. All I can say is -it is great none of you were there to see it. I am sure Conner or Sam would find something funny to say! Once in the water I was surrounded by many types of parrot fish, angel fish, hard coral, fan coral, flounder, blue tangs, puffer fish, spotted trigger fish, and more .It was incredible to be underwater listening to the rhythm my breathing and watching a world I am unfamiliar with (though less so by now)unfold.

Reef Rebuilding Madness…

Woke up to windy weather, to windy to be out in the water. Never wanting to waste a moment, John (the principal investigator) had us build structures that can be put out into the reef for the coral to grow on. They increase the rugosity (it is a real word, look it up!), which is important for the health of the reef. Given that we are on a small island in the middle of the Bahamas we could not run over to Home Depot and buy what we needed so we improvised. We worked with some squares of chicken wire, a few “apartment for rent” signs, two old plastic placemats, and a few pieces of plastic cardboard…oh and the ever present Gorilla Tape (like duct tape).

We built our forms in the sand at the beach and used Marine Grout (like grout you would put between tiles) to fill them. This took us the morning. The forms should harden by later today but I think they will be underwater (high tide). We will find them later (How many hours from low tide to low tide?). I will let you know tomorrow how we did!

We will deploy the forms to one of the three reef study sites tomorrow. Try as I can, I cannot visualize moving concrete type objects into the water and gently placing them in the reef. How might you move something that weighs 40 pounds out into the water? This would be a great lab at school.

Where am I?

Toto (Zipper), we are not in Kansas anymore!

This morning we dove on the south west side of the island. We were collecting different kinds of data. Some of us used what looked like large PVC squares with a grid inside made from string. We dropped it over the reef( 20-30 times) and identified what was located at each intersection of the strings. Quantitative data extravaganza! Gretchen would love this part of the project. We looked for hard coral, soft coral, sponge, rock, sand, algae and other. We had to drop this plastic quadrant many, many times and try and record the data. It is not difficult to write in a lab book on the table in front of you at school but when you are bobbing and being pulled by the currents and pushed by the wind it can be pretty hilarious. The water was pretty choppy and it made data collection difficult. The other group set a transect line underwater and tried to record everything that was one meter on either side. The currents moved the lines and again the various movements of the water had us all drinking in our fair share of salt water. They also tested the temperature, water for pH, turbidity (look it up) and the temperature on the beach. Why do you think we needed all those different measurements? One teacher saw a 6-foot eel; I saw a barracuda and lots of fish I do not know how to identify.



The most important part of collecting data is to be accurate, so last night we had a class complete with slides and a quiz at the end to see if we could learn the types we were going to be seeing today. There is nothing more ridiculous than a group of teachers trying to learn something. I will have a newfound respect for you-all upon my return. Once we “passed the test” we were good to go for data collection. Remember- it is not easy to get here and not a place you can run back to if you forgot some information so every test needs to be checked and rechecked. Also you want the most accurate data so when you formulate a conclusion you have data to support your ideas.

here I go

Getting Here… Woke up in Florida on Saturday at 5:30 AM local time (subtract three to find out what Bay Area time was). Got onto a plane with 17 seats …not full seats- I mean TOTAL seats and flew out over the ocean. (see photo when we work out how) There were more shades of blue than I could imagine! Stevens would appreciate it as nature’s version of a color exercise! We flew into Nassau the capital of the Bahamas and met up with the rest of the Earthwatch crew. What an amazing group of people from all over the country. We then boarded a slightly larger plane and flew out over the Bahaman Islands towards San Salvador. Of course my camera battery stopped working at this point and the extras where located somewhere in the belly of the plane. Note to self- keep extra batteries in the camera case at all times.


Upon arrival we all loaded our gear into our chariot (see photo when we work out how) for the week. We did not get very far before the car broke down. Actually it broke down again that afternoon. Each time the ingenuity of members of our group got it going. In the late afternoon we put on our wetsuits, masks and snorkels for a practice run in the reefs. WOW! Just putting my face down into the water and seeing coral, parrotfish, sponges and fan coral all around me was surreal. All the traveling became worth it in a matter of seconds. Try to find images of brain coral, fire coral, parrotfish, fan coral, lionfish and sting ray on the internet (or in books…books are good!) and you will have some idea of what my underwater world is looking like!

Lionfish, and fire coral, and shark protocol oh my!

getting ready

It is exactly one week before I am at the Gerace Research Station on the island of San Salvador, Bahamas. I am running around getting my equipment ready to go. I have borrowed Tom’s laptop, Michael B’s mask and fins and have had quite the adventure locating a wetsuit. Remember the 74-degree water? I’ve been told it will get chilly when I am in it for long periods of time, so I have scoured the Bay Area for one. Well, whenever in doubt try Telegraph Ave! There is a fantastic Dive Shop there with a wonderful owner. He was so excited about what I will be doing with Earthwatch that he is renting me the wetsuit for next to nothing.

Next on my list was to try to answer the questions that came up in my science classes.” Won’t the airplane ride to the Bahamas contribute a lot of CO2 to the atmosphere? And how can you do that if you are going to help research about Global Warming’s effects on the coral reefs? Wouldn’t it be better for the planet if you just stayed home?”

Never fear your science teacher is here! I discovered that by flying from San Francisco to San Salvador I would contribute 3 tons of CO2 to our atmosphere. YIKES! ( You can calculate your own carbon footprint by going online and searching carbon footprint calculator.) How do I "undo" that big of an "environmental oops"? I have just completed exhaustive research on carbon offsets. Carbon offsets allow me to donate money to different organizations that are doing things to reverse the process of CO2 build up such as planting trees, investing in solar energy, or other forms of renewable energy. I will be doing this before I leave next Friday. As far as the planet being better if I stay home, doing research allows us to collect data, which cannot be gathered sitting at home. The Bahamian Reef Survey has been going on for 17 years and continues to generate not only current data but also a lot of information about change over time.When we talked about climate change one of the most important observations you made was about the increase in the speed of the change over time! Without current research we would have nothing to compare to.