Everybody ready? OK! Everybody out of the water!

This morning, Wed. Feb 18, the water was still pretty rough so we did a tour of the island instead. We saw the Elementary School and the High School, mangroves (I will add a link here later about what these are), some more inland lakes, ruins of old English settlements from the 1700’s, fossilized coral in rock by the shore, and we had some time to walk around the town, which is very small. I bought a small flag from the Bahamas and a bag of Munchies Cheese Fix Chips, which cost $5! Everything here has to be brought in by boat or plane so everything is more expensive than we are used to. I tried to call the 3rd graders at Pinckney Elementary from the satellite phone but it was not charged. Bummer! The internet has been down for 24 hours at the research center due to overuse.
After lunch we got ready to go collect data at French’s Bay but when we got there it was too rough so we went to the Pigeon Creek inlet to snorkel around the mangroves. Just as we had all our wetsuits and snorkel gear ready to go in the scientist in charge said, “Everyone out of the water, there is a shark!” It was only about 5 yards away from shore in very shallow water. It was about 3 feet long but we could not tell what kind it was. It was fun to see it from a safe distance. So we left and went looking for another place to snorkel. We snorkeled for fun close to the research center but we did not collect any data since it is not a place that is part of the research project. I saw a lot of fish, some that I listed before and some new ones: Ocean Surgeon, Yellowtail Snapper, and Red Hind.Every evening at 7:15 we meet for a class. I have learned about types of corals, the geology of island and climate change.

CHALLENGE QUESTION: What do you know about climate change? Research some causes and write on paper or post a comment about what you find out about how it effects the coral reefs or draw a picture.