Sad News

Unfortunately, the news today reported that one fifth of the world's coral reefs are now dead and may soon be only a beautiful sight of the past. To read more, click on today's news headline below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28156581/

Final Posting

Hello everyone!

Although I did not have turkey on Thanksgiving, I was able to swim to the edge of the reef.... literally. We swam 80 meters against the surface current to a place called Snapshot Reef where I saw the most beautiful variety of fish in their home ecosystem!

Then, we swam about 65 MORE meters out to the edge... or "the wall," where the waters got deeper. I could see the sandy floor 55 feet below me. Then in a matter of seconds, it was 120 feet below me, and suddenly it was 7,000 feet below me. That is over a mile deep! The water went from bright tourquoise to a deep, dark blue in an instant. It felt like I was flying over a cliff.... but I was actually swimming over one.





Look closely at the picture and you'll see the two bouys I swam to, and you can also see the dark blue line where the water color and depth changed so rapidly.










Then, we got to eat out on Friday at a local restaurant and eat some local Bahamian seafood which was really tasty.

My flights both went very well on Saturday... although it took a while to get through U.S. customs who made sure I was an American and only carrying things home that I was allowed to.

I can't wait to show everyone all the things I have brought back with me, including lots of pictures! By the way, I spoke with the Corpus Christi Caller Times reporter yesterday, and she said the article will be coming out in Monday's paper. Hope you all can read it!

http://www.caller.com/news/2008/dec/01/students-track-teachers-watery-trek/

See you soon!
Mrs. Hester

Happy Thanksgiving! I know you are all enjoying your wonderful meals and vacation time off. I am so glad you are travelling with me to hear all about the Bahamian adventure.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to Rice Bay, near the place we are staying, the Gerace Research Center (named after Dr. Gerace who founded it), but the wind and waves were too much to do our research, so we had time to go recreational swimming. After rigorous swimming against the waves, we were able to see a beautiful coral reef near a shipwreck. We also were encountered by a smiling barracuda (it looks like some sort of alligator fish) that was curious enough about us to follow us around for a while. When it came directly at us, we left that area of the reef!!

This morning, we went to Rocky Point, but again, the wind was too much and we left to go instead to a place called Snapshot Reef. I was able swim 500 meters out to take some underwater video and hundreds of photos of this reef for you (which I will have to share later due to Internet restrictions on this island), which by the way has had the most tropical fish so far! Then we followed our wonderful, experienced guide, Elizabeth, out to “wall” which was quite a long swim (around 400 more meters), to where the land below me dropped off from the lip of the underwater canyon at 45 feet down to a short shelf of 120 feet to a depth of 7,000 feet!!! I felt like I was flying over a canyon… only I was swimming over it! The water quickly went from turquoise blue to a deep, dark blue. I swam to this spot knowing our group encountered three sharks there two days ago. Although, I didn’t see any viscous creatures other than another curious barracuda, I was definitely on the look out for sharks!

This afternoon, we went back to Rice Bay, and although the conditions were still a little rough, our research leader decided to make it optional for us to go out and collect data. SO… we went for it and swam out to the surf to try to collect as much data as possible about the coral reef. While collecting data, we saw FOUR lion fish which are poisonous and dangerous, but VERY beautiful! We finally swam back to shore and called it a day.

This evening, we had a special presentation from Elizabeth, whom I mentioned earlier, and she told about how she first came to San Salvador when she was 17 years old with her college professor, Tom McGrath, who put together this coral study in 1991 and has been coming for 20 years since. There were artifacts found at Long Bay and Monument Reef (Olympic Monument) that dated back to Christopher Columbus’ voyage, which were in fact, the only artifacts ever proven to be from his voyage. The archeological site where these were found was across the street from what is now Long Bay. Among the artifacts were 23 glass seed beads (love beads) which are very small. Also found, were a few shoe buckles and part of a coin. Coins used to be snipped apart because it was still considered part of the value of the original coin… fractions!!! At the time the artifacts were found, Dr. Gerace’s wife had been a student of Elizabeth’s mother at Corning Community College, and Bob Brill, her father, was then asked to become involved in this archaeological work. Her father, has pieced together the history of glass making by looking at lead isotopes (chemistry) and can even tell what lead mine in Spain the lead came from when looking at that glass bead. It was a fascinating piece of history to hear! I am also learning a little bit from Charlene Hutcheson, right now, who has a masters in Anthropology and specializes in pre-Columbian Bahamians, known as Lucayans, who were the original inhabitants of the Bahamas. She studies their baskets by looking at fragments of pottery artifacts found. There are at least 30 Indian sites on the island and about 10 have been excavated. These artifacts have been found at the palmetto grove site toward the airport, ward minis, pigeon creek and also the same site as the Columbus artifacts.

I am also learning a little bit from Charlene Hutcheson, right now, who has a masters in Anthropology and specializes in pre-Columbian Bahamians, known as Lucayans, who were the original inhabitants of the Bahamas. She studies their baskets by looking at fragments of pottery artifacts found. There are at least 30 Indian sites on the island and about 10 have been excavated. These artifacts have been found at the palmetto grove site toward the airport, ward minis, pigeon creek and also the same site as the Columbus artifacts! I hope to learn more from her as I stay here.

Look forward to hearing from you all again tomorrow!
Mrs. Hester

Look forward to hearing from you all again tomorrow!
Mrs. Hester

Lindsay's Reef

Live from the FIELD!!!!

Hello everyone!!! What an amazing day we had yesterday. We started surveying the coral reefs at Lindsay’s Reef, San Salvador, and some people even saw some large sharks… We worked very hard to tread water above our survey point to make sure all the data we collect for the coral reef study was accurate.

Then in the afternoon, we went to the second highest point on the island and climbed up the spiral staircase of the lighthouse. It was built many years ago by the British to stop people from “ship wrecking,” a form of pirating goods from merchant ships by lighting fires on the beaches that made people think it was a safe place to land and thus wrecking their vessels. Then, the pirates would steal anything of value. Once the lighthouse was erected, it became more difficult for pirates to do this, which helped out British merchant ships.

Then, in the later afternoon, we went up to go down. Wondering what I’m talking about? We hiked up a large hill through the thick brush to get to a wonderful cave to hike into to see bats! The cave actually had water in it, so we swam inside it much of the way going between stalactites and stalagmites. It was an awesome sight. We even turned off all our waterproof flashlights once we were inside to experience true total darkness. This cavern was one of the best experiences of my trip so far.

This morning, we were all geared and ready to survey Rocky Point Reef, but when we got there, the waves were much too aggressive, and it would have been dangerous, so we instead went to see some other sights of the island. We got to visit a really interesting coral reef fossil bed from where other parts of the island had been under water 125,000 years ago during a different global warming period. Then we went into town again, and I visited with Bloneva, a 74 year old native who taught me how to use palm tree leaves to weave baskets… which I plan to teach to everyone when I get back.

So… the adventures continue as we will go out to Rice Bay reef this afternoon, and hopefully I’ll be able to get back online soon to tell you all about it. We’re not sure if we’ll be able to post any more pictures, but I hope to read more of your comments on the blog soon!

Mrs. Hester

Beach Profiling

What a fun-in-the sun day it has been so far today!! We went to Rocky Point and Lindsay’s reef this morning to survey the beach. This means we used meter sticks, ropes and leveling tools to see how much the beach sloped down to the water.

The scientists will use the data we collected to see how much change has occurred on the beach over time – such as erosion and deposition… do you remember what those two words mean? Erosion is when rock or sand gets gradually carved or removed over time by wind or water. Deposition is when more gets added back. It’s sort of like erosion is subtraction and deposition is addition… like when someone “deposits” money into the bank… they’re adding more to their account!!

Hope you check back later on today to see what we do this afternoon… the winds are not so strong and there’s a little more sun… so we’ll see what comes next!

: ) Mrs. Hester

CORAL REEFS of San Salvador!

Well... I could not get into the water yesterday because the waves were so big! Check out my photos of the beautiful Bahamian waves!

Did you know that corals like to live here in the Bahamas because they like to live in clear water – which is nutrient poor. The coral polyps depend on the intercellular algae (zooxanthellae) inside the cells in their bodies to do photosynthesis for them. If coral is stressed, it expels algae, if it expels algae, it loses color, if coral loses color, we call this coral bleaching (BRIGHT WHITE AND CLEARLY DEFNIED POLYP CUPS). If we can still see polyp cup definition, scientists know that the damage has only recently occurred.... although parts of the coral may be bleached, or stressed, they are not yet dead and may still possibly survive.

We're going to be counting the number of bleached corals found on transect and random surveys! It will be LOTS of math and science... or as I call it... SCMATH!

Also, most corals are also nocturnal feeders and use tentacles to feed on plankton at night! They are really interesting animals.

Here's one last photo of today that I took with my mask at San Salvador's beautiful reef at French Bay. What a lovely sight... it was awesome.

Until tomorrow..

Mrs. Hester