Tropical Marine Ecology 2009

19 January - Science versus suntans

It was with mixed feelings that MAR388 saw another January in Jamaica come to an end. Reflecting on the flight back to NY, I was reminded of how interesting it is to see a group of virtual strangers live, work and eat together and meld into more than a collection of students. Each year is as different and unique as the students who participate. Sitting on the plane and listening to the words of encouragement and celebration as different members of our class won the in-flight trivia game, you realize that some of these friendships will last far beyond the mere 17 days that we were together. Teaching travel courses such as Tropical Marine Ecology are both a rewarding and exhausting experience. As a faculty member, you spend all of your time with the students and interact with them in ways that are not possible in other situations. Not all faculty members succeed in a course like this and once again I felt privileged to have had such an excellent co-instructor as Joe (a.k.a. Simon). Joe is everything that I am not (organized, pleasant in the morning and realistic). [Ed: Oh stop, you're going to make me cry... It's a good team effort as Brad is patient, understanding, and super-excited about everything in the water.]

As I considered this year’s class, it was difficult for me to tease apart whether it was the size of the class this year, which was the smallest that we had ever brought to Jamaica, or that having done this course for three previous years makes us better at doing it. Whichever it was, MAR388 2009 was one of the best classes that we have had. This was not only because they worked together so well, but also the final products of their research were exceptional. The primary objective of this course is to experience research. That means much more than simply doing an experiment. It’s formulating a question, thinking of how you might approach that question, designing an experiment, failing…, thinking of how you might improve the flawed design, staying up late for that data point or going out in the rain. Hunting the elusive bald eyed goby or improving your fisherman’s slip knot so you don’t lose that urchin. Seeing the difficulty in doing all that you wanted to do. Preparing a presentation that uses your data to make a point or convince an audience. For some, it basically included the discipline to drop bad habits. [Ed: Have somebody from the class explain what that last sentence means.] Joe and I were so proud of the performances of the groups that we are going to post the final presentations on the blog for all of you to see. It is our hope that this motley crew of biology, marine science, pre-med and linguistic students will take away from their Jamaica experience something much more lasting than their suntans. -- Brad [Ed: and Joe]

18 January - Time to Head Back North

First let me start off by introducing myself since I have been woefully left out of most of the blogs and photos (thanks Cassie, who went room by room talking about everyone but me, not that I’m bitter). My name is Amber, or sometimes referred to as Waves of Grain (a clever play on America the Beautiful lyrics), and I am the graduate student extraordinaire and redheaded stepchild of this trip; I am neither one of the undergraduate students nor a professor. I simply came here to begin my thesis project, which required me to dive twice a day, everyday, in the crystal clear waters of Jamaica’s north shore (it’s hard work, but somebody had to do it). For those who are interested, I was putting out settlement plates (terra cotta tiles) underwater to determine if coastal development affects sponge recruitment. My team (Joe, Brad, and Alan) and I put these plates out via a pneumatic drill converted to work underwater off of a scuba tank, which was by far one of the coolest things I’ve done underwater thus far. We also tagged and measured 180 sponges so that I can track their growth over the next 2 years (yes, I will be returning to Jamaica, every six months).

Now for those who are not interested in what I am doing, I will recap some of the highlights of our last night and day in Jamaica. Last night after dinner we (well really Tex) decided to have a bonfire at the end of the jetty, and true to the saying “build it and they will come” eventually the entire group was settled around the campfire, reminiscing, telling ghost stories, and pretending that reality was not just a day away. We went around the circle each telling what our favorite part of the trip was, for many it was Ocho Rios, others The Ultimate Jerk.

Today, as we all pack up our belongings and finish cleaning the wet lab (after Simon Cowell ruined our final game of Catch phrase), we are all sad to go, dreading the snow, and remembering that, despite spending the last two weeks basking in the sun in shorts and sandals, it is in fact winter in New York. I just want to say to everyone, that I had a great time, and I hope that it was even more memorable for the 14 of you. As we all go back to our respective realities, for better or worse, remember this one piece of advice I leave to you all...[Ed: Amber's writing was really blurry here but I'm pretty sure her advice was to study hard and do well in your classes this upcoming semester.]

-- Amber [Ed: We'll have one final blog post from Professor Peterson once we're all back in the states.]

16 January

I was supposed to start my day twenty minutes earlier than the 7:20AM that it did start. Last night Joe picked me out to wake up before breakfast, find Anthony (which always proved to be impossible) to ask when the Rio Bueno dive was going to be this morning, then wake everyone and tell them. Apparently the logic was that since I have to wake up at 6:30AM for morning swim practice back at Stony Brook, I am “trained” for waking up early; psh yeah… ok haha. I wanted to take advantage this “sleeping in” until 7:30 that I’ve been getting as much as possible. Carrie generously offered to keep a look out for Anthony in the morning seeing as she and Allison had to be up at 6:00AM for their project and this way I got a little extra sleep. Have I mentioned Carrie is the best!

I rolled out of bed to discover French toast for breakfast. It’s my favorite breakfast here. I also was informed that the Rio Bueno dive was at 8:00AM so I quickly ate my fill at breakfast while listening to one of Brad’s… lets call them interesting… stories. Kristin and I headed down to the dock to get our gear ready. Once all eight divers (Joe, Brad, Amber, Alan, Carrie, Raphey, Kristin and I) and two snorkelers (Alison and Josh) were on the Scomber, Anthony whisked us away to the dive site, Rio Bueno, complete with a stop about halfway so that Joe could get pictured of this little fishing boat… he said something about it looking English or something… I thought it just looked like a canoe. [Ed: I said the boat (a panga) looked like a "New England fishing boat" because it had two poles sticking out amidship on each side that looked like the outriggers draggers and trawlers use to stay right-side-up in the water.]

Rio Bueno is my favorite dive site because of the drop off of the reef that goes down 100+ feet below the surface. We only go down 60 feet, but as Brad says, it’s hard to resist the deep calling your name. The best part of diving for me is looking out in all directions and seeing the reef disappear into a soft blue. Kristin likes diving so much because she loves being a part of everything under the water, not just looking at it on the Discover Channel. Today, while at 60 feet, Anthony and Amber started yelling and making a lot of noise. At first I thought it was because I had ventured down too deep, but when I checked my gage I was only at 55 feet. It turns out there was a huge stingray that passed by below us. I must admit I was a little upset at having missed it because I was busy taking pictures of everyone. It also turned out that Brad saw a turtle that he went chasing after! My jealousy rose a little. Allison and Josh said there wasn’t much to see snorkeling but they turned the trip into a game of breaking the air bubbles before they could reach the surface and EXPLODE!!!

Everyone met back on the boat where Amber and Brad treated us to some tunes via their voices along with “dance moves” from Brad. Anthony, then, brought us back to Discovery Bay. The boat trips can get pretty exciting once the wind has picked up and we go flying over waves. Plus, I feel like you have so much to look at. There are two great views, one of the mountains rising out of the ocean to form the island of Jamaica, and the second is of the sea where you can catch glimpses of flying fish if you’re lucky. Today they were coming right out from the waves of the boat.

The divers and snorkelers got back and had a very filling lunch of beef patties. Then, Kristin and I put together the data from the past weeks experiments while laying out in the sun with Carrie. Tonight we had the treat of going off the compound for dinner at a great outdoor restaurant (and I do use that term loosely) called The Ultimate Jerk. I ordered the best grilled chicken I’ve had here with French fries which was amazing. The rice was also a big hit judging from everyone’s plates. After dinner there was dancing and singing and tons of craziness. It was the best night of all. Complete with Brad and Joe dancing together [Ed: We were dancing beside each other, not together.] and Joe swing dancing with Anna. He could really hold his own. On the bus back to DBML there was serenading by Brad to Joe along with, what I guess you could call singing, and may be construed as screaming on the well known party bus! And of course, the party didn’t stop there. What would the greatest night of all be without night volleyball… with, you guessed it, more singing! I hope we’re all ready for our final presentations tomorrow afternoon. Wish us luck! ~ Lisa

15 January - Cranbrooke Botanical Gardens

My Thursday morning started out bright and early at 7:00am when I met up with my research partner, Josh, in the wet lab to record data on our brittle star experiment. Today was the first day we started testing the removal of red wavelength light in our black test tank by dying the water red with food dye. Yet I was still a bit shocked to see the black test tank that we designed to be fill with dark red water as if something has been murdered inside our tank overnight. Despite that horrific thought, I enjoyed my breakfast of cheese omelets with tasty papaya in the wet lab just like any usual lab day [Note: Not the best place to eat breakfast, but work comes first.]

For lunch, we were all really excited to be served with beef lasagna except for Raphey, who filled up his plate with the usual veggie and fruits mixed in with the cold fried fish that we had for dinner last night. Then we were all off to our trip to Cranbrooke garden, which is a botanical garden that encompasses some hiking and swimming. None of us truly have a good idea what Cranbrook garden would look like or what we will see and do. In my mind, I was thinking that it might be something similar to the Brooklyn botanical garden. Much to my surprise, we arrive at Cranbrook passing by cows and horses. Then we had to get out of the van and start walking through aisles of palm trees, which leads into a hut usually reserve for weddings. Past the hut is the main entrance to Cranbrooke garden, which much to my surprise looks nothing like a garden and more like a tropical rainforest. We passed by a section that was fill of bamboo that shoots up so high and long that it almost completely shaded us away from the burning sun.

We were fortunate enough to have a tour guide along the way to tell us about all the different plants that were surrounding us. The garden was full of exotic flowers that not only look beautiful, but also taste great. The guide told us that one of the white petal flowers tastes like sour apple and told us to try it, many of us were skeptical at first but then most of us tried it and loved the taste. We were then introduced to plants that also had different medicinal uses. There was this hot pink flower that has buds, which can be used to relieve pink eye, and there was a leaf that can help stop bleeding. Along the way, the tour guide also pointed out a cactus that can be used to make shampoo. There was also a touch sensitive plant that shivers up its leaves when touched, which many of us find really fascinating. Then the tour guide took us through a path along side the brook.

At the end of the path, there was a small lagoon of water where we can all swim in. I was really excited to get into the water without gearing up in my fins and snorkel mask. However, we were all overwhelmed by how cold the water was and by the how weird the quick sand texture at the bottom felt. All that is disregarded when we had our fun taking turns jumping off the rocks and into the pool of water. Many of us all had our unique way of making faces and movements while entering the water. [Notes: Pictures from Cranbrook should hopefully be posted in best of week two soon.]
The trip to Cranbrook garden was amazing and I think it is safe to concluded that we all had fun. I really enjoyed the hiking and swimming in the brook. It was also the first time that I’ve ever tried eating flowers and actually enjoyed it. [Caption for bottom photo ] Picture of me holding our two test subject, the blunt spined brittle star (Ophiocoma echinata) and the banded-arm brittle star (Ophioderma appressum). Behind me is our designed black test tank. [Caption for top photo] Group photo of us near the entrance of Cranbrooke garden by the aisles of palm trees. -Avocado Amy