Lighthouse Cave

Here we are in the lighthouse cave.  It is a short walk from the lighthouse through the trees to the opening of the cave. We climbed down a ladder to the "dry room" of the cave.  It was used in the past by people as shelter from hurricanes.   There are parts where we had to walk through water to get to the second room of the cave.  It is also home to many small Buffy Flower Bats.  We saw many of them while we were there! 

This cave is connected to the sea through underground passages so the water is salty.  

Dixon Hill Lighthouse

This lighthouse was built in 1856 and stands on the northeastern part of the island.  It is one of only a few lighthouses in the world that are kerosene fueled.  It sends out a 400,000 candle power light twice a minute that can be seen up to 19 miles away.  

This next photo shows the lantern of the light house.  You can see the mantle of the lantern and how thick the glass is.  

Gerace Research Center

This is where we stayed!  The Gerace Research Center occupies a former United States Naval Base.  The base was built by the Navy as a tracking station for nuclear submarines during the Cold War. 

It has been used as a research station since the early 1970's.  This link shows  the facility.  There was a group of college students from Iowa here as well.  We visited at a time when there were not many others.  There can be up to 200 people using the facility. 

Night Tide pools

We went out one night during low tide and explored the tide pools.  This picture shows part of an octopus we found hiding in the rocks.  We also saw many brittle starfish, sea urchins and sea slugs.  There were tons of hermit crabs scurrying around.  It was interesting to see what we could not see when the area was covered with water!

Building Forms

One of John's goals is to develop a way the islanders can restore their reefs inexpensively.  We experimented with building several different structures that will increase the surface area of the reef.  John hopes these structures will attract hard coral growth.  We made forms in the beach sand and poured in marine concrete to create the shapes.  This picture shows one of the forms we made.  The cross part will be the top and the bottom will be attached to the reef itself.  We did not get a chance to place these out on the reefs because the weather did not cooperate.  John hopes to get them in place next week with the other group of Earthwatch volunteers.  

Watling's Castle

These are the ruins of Watling's Castle.  It was built on a small rise (about 85 feet in elevation) on the southwest coast of the island.  This picture shows the main house.  Behind it was a small kitchen with a very large chimney.  There are also remains of the slave's quarters.  George Watling tried to have a plantation here but discovered the soil was not suitable for growing crops.  

Pigeon Creek

We had planned on snorkeling up Pigeon Creek to look at the fish that would be living in and around the mangrove roots. The base of this tree spreads out to form a series of prop roots that provide habitat for many kinds of fish. We got all our gear on and were just about to step into the water when we spotted a bull shark. This type of shark is more aggressive than the nurse shark that is common in the area and very unpredictable, so we did not go snorkeling there.

This is a picture shows some mangrove trees in the distance.  You can see how their root spread out.  The tree has adapted to be able to survive in a saline environment. 

Lion Fish

Check out the lion fish!  Lion fish are not native to this area and are becoming a problem.  They are an invasive species and are threatening the native fish in the Bahamas.  They have venomous dorsal spines and have no natural enemies.  We did see several of them at the reefs we were studying.  

Here I am swimming out to a patch reef.  We spent a lot of time in the water!  Even though the water was about 75 degrees I got chilly after being in the water for two hours at a time!  

Lindsay's Reef

Lindsay’s Reef

I am holding a Point Intercept Frame (PI Frame) We used it Monday at Lindsay’s Reef. This reef is at the south east end of the island and is one that John has been studying for many years.  My partner and I swam out over the reef and dropped this frame over the coral.  We then counted all the coral under the PI frame.  We only counted what was under the orange markers. We made a note of what we saw on a white board with a pencil while we were swimming!  That took a little getting used to! We classified what we saw as hard coral, soft coral, sand, rock, algae, other sponge. We ended up seeing quite a lot of algae, some soft coral and very little hard coral.  I did see a spotted eel that was about six feet long!

John has been coming to San Salvador Island for over ten years to study the coral reefs.  He has found that the amount of hard coral living in these areas has declined. We found with our survey that the hard coral accounted for about 7% of the total reef cover which is down from the amount when the survey first started in 1992 when the hard coral made up about 14% of the reef surface.  

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WOW San Salvador is absolutely beautiful! The beaches have pure white sand and the waters are vibrant shades of blue! Today we learned how to identify many different types of corals. We swam out about 20 or 30 yards off the beach to patch reefs. We saw several types of brain, star, and fire corals. You have to be really careful not to touch the fire coral because it can cause painful stings.

John, the principal investigator on our trip, showed us some of the tools we’ll be using when we go out into the water tomorrow. We will be taking measurements on the coral reefs. We will look at the types of coral growing in certain areas as well as be looking at the amount of coral bleaching.

See if you can find out what is causing the corals to bleach.

Publicity!

Here is what was published in the local Douglas County Newspaper about my upcoming trip!  

Great Web site

Just four days left!!  

Here is a great web site to check out.  It has tons of pictures of the marine ecology of San Salvador island.