Today I woke up to a beautiful sunrise from my bed. I got up and took a picture of it, the pinks in the sky over the ocean was amazing. We had our first meeting this morning at 7 in the Octagon going over what the project is about. These are my notes from the presentation which was done by Niels.
Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) Project Presentation
1. Observation
a. Walk the shore and measure GPS point, DO, salinity, temperature, pH, water depth, tide state, wind speed, etc.
b. Observe shark for 15 minutes- write down chronology of shark’s behaviors
c. What needs to be complete: finalize ethogram, create new data sheets, organize equipment
2. Substrate Association
a. Observe shark mating event, when finished, flag location
b. Collect ~1/2 L sample substrate
c. What needs to be complete: figure out how to sieve (wet or dry sieving)
3. Capture and Tagging
a. When observed, radio the available CEI letting them known location, size, number and depth, then you observe for 15 minutes, then people from CEI bring materials
b. Deploy seine so shark is trapped between shore and seine
c. 3 people per shark- one person measures head, one person grabs the tail and the third person does tagging (about 3 tags- first tag is a number with CEI information, and other 2 are color coded tags) They go in the 2nd dorsal fin for males and 1st dorsal fin for females.
After the presentation we just kind of sat around, giving me time to write this! I am pretty excited to work with sharks; it is different from anything I would have thought I would be interested in. I am most looking forward to capturing and tagging the sharks. It looks pretty intense; I am excited to learn how to handle the sharks. Just being out in the field will be exciting; I can’t explain the beauty of this place. I feel at such home and totally in my element.
We had a risk management meeting with Gabe; he just explained rules and stuff, nothing fancy. We had to fill out medical forms and stuff like that. After, the high school kids are doing their first rounds of presentations to practice. I, Jana, and Zack went to watch a few. They are incredible. There was one kid in particular who spoke, he seemed like he was a teacher. He was so confident and personable; it was awesome to hear them speak about the projects they have been working on all semester. After two presentations, we had lunch. It was grilled cheese sandwiches, some type of soups, and vegetables. After lunch, I went and rented a bicycle because for our field work we will be riding our bikes to different creeks to observe the sharks. Now I have a little time before I go get my internet set up on my laptop and my Island School email. They day is beautiful. The clouds look as if they are reflecting the beautiful turquoise color of the water, it is truly breathtaking.
I have made friends with the other two interns working with shark research, Zack and Jana. They are super nice. I have had a lot of time to get to know Jana, she is an incredible person. Since she was 14 she has been doing amazing things like traveling and writing articles for the Bahamian newspapers to share knowledge that she had of destruction of the environment. She has told me some great stories about herself. Niels just told us that we are riding our bikes around to all the different creeks tomorrow! I am super excited about that.
We had a shark team meeting today. I met the whole crew. There are 7 of us; the biggest crew out of the other projects. We went over expectations and schedules of working, I am getting pumped. We are trying to finalize our specific project for the Nurse sharks now, researching scientific articles and stuff like that. It is so windy and nice outside, so we have a lovely breeze while searching the internet.
Dinner was delicious; we had spaghetti and sauce with very fresh tasting pesto, bread and vegetables! It was soo good, however I have not pooped yet. After dinner Zack and I rode our bikes down the street to a place called sunset beach, it was magical. We went swimming in the beautiful blue water as the sun was slowly setting. Then we rode back to the “octagon,” which is the common room for the interns between the girls and boys dorm. A group of interns were watching a movie on lionfish, which is a very invasive species of fish. They have a “book club” every Thursday night where they present either a movie or scientific article and discuss it. Now we are all just hanging in the octagon doing our own thing because there is no internet in the dorms. I think I am going to head to bed soon, so I can be woken up again at 5 something in the morning by the sun!
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