Last day in the Bahamas
The High School Marine Biology program participants share their discoveries from their last day in the Bahamas, and reflect on their entire experience. Here’s a blog post from two of the participants:
We can’t believe that today is our last day in the Bahamas! It has been an amazing trip that none of us will forget. Today we went to Cat Cay to do a beach seine, and had the opportunity to look at the homes being built on the island. Each of us wondered how the building development will affect Cat Cay’s surrounding environment.
Also, we had the chance to look at the plankton from the tows we have been working on all week. It was fascinating to be able to see the difference between the tows! The night tow was the best tow, with the largest yield. We have collected interesting data this week that will help us study how development affects the environment.
Later in the day we had some fun surprises. While we were on our way to Cat Cay we saw wild dolphins swimming next to our boat! It was incredible to be able to see a pod of bottlenose dolphins. We had encountered dolphins in the distance before, but this was the first time we saw them up close. Also this week, we have seen a variety of spectacular species of many different phylums. We have studied different kinds of zooplankton, squid, sea turtles, as well as nurse sharks, lemon sharks and even sting rays.
Participating in HSMB has allowed us to see what a career in marine biology would entail, and has helped us to realize our aspirations and future job opportunities. This has been an amazing and eye opening trip and we will be extremely sad to leave the R/V Coral Reef II, which has been like a second home for all of us during this amazing week!
Posted by Jordan and Olivia, program participants
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