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Marena Maupin - Gerace Research Station San Salvador Bahamas
Week 3

Week Three Report- June 12th – June 26th
By Marena Maupin

I would like to thank all the persons who made it possible for me to enjoy my summer internship.

THANKYOU

*Ellen B. - Donating a quilt top for my quilt raffle.
*Lynda A. - Sewing the quilt top and bottom together and aiding in tying the quilt.
*Jean H. - Helping tie the quilt and donating two loafs of homemade bread to my bake sale.
*Rob H. - Buying $100.00 in raffle tickets for the quilt. (He won the quilt raffle.)
*Lori and Bob H. - Donating brownies for my bake sale. HUGE THANKS for buying me a brand new digital camera for my trip.
*Ruth P. - Donating about $40.00 worth of her wonderful toffee to my bake sale.
*Pinhead Institute of Telluride- Allotting me $1,500.00 scholarship based on merit.
*Everyone that bought raffle tickets in March.

Tuesday, June 19th
            The cafeteria ladies at Gerace Research Station are really kind and very interesting.  There is Cynthia, who is always smiling, then there is Mrs. Forbes. She is a firecracker, for an elderly woman. She came up to me with a large grin on her face, when I was washing dishes and said, “Work, work, work.” I knew she meant business even with that grin, so I replied in a humble voice, “I am working.” You also, never catch Mrs. Forbes without wearing her hat, which is usually a white fishing cap that has colorful letters spelling out Bahamas. Finally, there is Miss Clementine. Miss Clemei, as everyone calls her, loves to dance. Whenever a song comes on the radio in the cafeteria that she likes, she dances all over that kitchen.  These ladies embody the Bahamanian spirit of being happy, polite and fun. I am learning and fascinated with this new culture to which I have been exposed, especially coming from a small and very Caucasian community of Paradox.

 

Wednesday, June 20th

            This afternoon, I drove with my pals Renee and Amanda, to Grotto Beach, which is located south of the research station.  The roads are a bit bumpy in San Salvador, due to hurricanes and harsh rains. We also had along Janet because Amanda and Renee have been teaching Janet how to swim. Janet is a representative from San Salvador’s Living Jewels Foundation http://www.savesansalvador.com/. The Living Jewels Foundation is a conservation and awareness foundation here on San Salvador. The foundation is presently working on two major projects.  The first one is getting a national park established on the island of San Salvador. The second project is raising awareness of the endangered species of the island and its surrounding waters. Two of the major endangered species on the island are the San Salvador iguana and the San Salvador woodpecker. I may have seen the woodpecker in the forests by the research station, but I was definitely fortunate enough to have seen and come close to the San Salvador Rock Iguana (Cylura rileyi rileyi)  (see the photo in my photo collection). Scientists know from the fossil record that the main islands of San Salvador formerly teamed with iguanas. As the largest terrestrial vertebrates in the Bahamas, iguanas contribute to the uniqueness and health of the incredible Bahamian ecosystems. As vegetarians, they distribute the seeds of plants in their feces, and the fecal material actually increases the viability of seed and seedlings. These iguanas eat the native cactus. Unfortunately, there is a now and introduced moth that is eating the cactus which is a main source of food for the iguana.
We saw this threatened species of iguana on a more remote key (or small isle) called Green Key. Green Key is located in Graham’s Harbor where the Gerace Research Station is located. Iguanas are found elsewhere in the Bahamas, but those on San Salvador are unique. They have no other home in the world and unfortunately their decline has been staggering.  At present, there are fewer than 600 San Salvador Rock Iguanas remaining. They are restricted to .2% of their former range. They are essentially confined to the most remote and hard-to-get places left on the islands, which are four tiny offshore cays and two small islets within the hypersaline (really salty) lakes that area within San Salvador.
The threats that cause the iguanas decline, besides the introduced moth, are feral animals including dogs, cats and rats (they eat the eggs). For this reason, the iguanas may never be able to recover on the main islands. Rising sea levels threaten to flood the lower elevations keys. Disease to the iguana could also be catastrophic because of the small populations. In spite of laws that protect the iguana, people still remove some of the iguanas and two smugglers are presently in jail in the U.S. for doing so!
While Amanda and Renee were teaching Janet how to swim, I snorkeled around and gathered shells. Some of the shells I collected were sunrise tellins, a couple were limpets which are marine mollusks that are gastropods which means that they only have one shell, and some bittersweets which are also gastropods, but they are considered bivalves like the sunrise tellins, so they have two shells.
After going to the beach we went to the marina to see if any lionfish had been caught. Amanda is working on her master’s thesis and Renee is her understudy. Her thesis is based on the lionfish invasion of the Bahamas. Lionfish weren’t originally in Bahamian waters, until recently and are a non-native species that is disrupting the balance. We discovered that there weren’t any lionfish speared for the day so we went back to the GRC for dinner.

Thursday, June 21st
            Today a Symposium about the Natural History of San Salvador and the Bahamas started and went through the weekend. Due to the conference, there were a lot of last minute tasks to be completed. This morning I helped bind the programs for the conference and put the programs and folders into bags. This was time-consuming. After lunch, I helped the facilities manager, Mike, move soda flats and boxes of cleaning supplies.  Then I made two copies of a book for one of the secretaries, Rochelle. After dinner, I went to the beach and recorded the Bahamian sunset via video camera.

Friday, June 22nd
            About a week ago, I was offered the opportunity to become a certified SCUBA diver, which was exciting to me. Since the conference was in session, I spent a majority of my day reading and journaling. I read the introduction and the first section in my dive manual and I recorded answers to the questions at the end of the first section.  After dinner, I joined in a game of volleyball. I played for about an hour with a college biology group from Miami.

Saturday, June 23rd   
            Today, I read a little and watched a video for my SCUBA course. In the late afternoon, Tom, my mentor, gave me instructions on how to manage the library and helped me prepare for doing so.  I had to write down what folks were purchasing and also I had to keep track of the Internet time. I had to eat rapidly, because by the time it was my turn to be served, there were only about 15- 20 minutes until I had to open the library. During the conference, lines were hectic!  The library is only open for one hour from 6-7p.m. every night and tonight I ran it. In the library, there are field guides for sale, proceedings and abstracts for sale, and even GRC t-shirts for sale.

Sunday, June 24th
            I was supposed to work in the pool this morning to begin my SCUBA course, but the course was cancelled, it was a bit of a bummer.
I was in charge of the library this evening. Having handled the records the previous evening made me more confident and made me feel like I had a better grasp of the procedure. I then went to the beach with a couple of girls from Ohio. They had just graduated from high school and were at Gerace Research Station because one of their mothers was a research biologist there, so they were invited to come along and enjoy the  beach.

Monday, June 25th
            Today was a great day! I finally finished taking inventory of the shell collection owned by the GRC. There were 10 drawers, with 20 species of shells in each drawer. All of the shells have been labeled already, but some tags were incorrect, so I had to correct many. The whole process of taking the inventory took about 3-4 days.  I am very happy to know that it is finished! I also finished reading another paper that Tom had given me. The three problems discussed in the paper were the following:

  1. Reef ecologists have turned their backs on history and assumed that what they were studying was “normal”, yet no research had been done to find the true baseline data for the condition of the coral reefs. As a result, reef ecologists are reporting that reefs are healthy, when they are actually far from it. The problem is that everyone assumes that the way they first saw something is the natural or healthy condition.
  2. Over-fishing killed a large majority of large marine herbivores, leaving only the urchin to consume algae and seaweed on the reefs. Then disease destroyed the urchin population, leaving no consumer to crop the seaweed and algae. The seaweed and algae quickly grew and smothered and killed the reef.
  3. Too many fish consumers along the east coast of South America. There aren’t enough fish along this 250 km of coast to feed 40,000 people. When people are fishing all-year-round, they aren’t giving the fish a chance to spawn and replenish the population. Therefore, the populations just keep plummeting. Sooner or later, the younger generations aren’t going to be able to garner their food from the reef or enjoy the beauty of it.  All the coral will be dead and the fish will be gone if we don’t start be careful in what we do while interacting with our environment.

This paper took some time to read, but I would recommend that others take note on the problems mentioned in it and think about what they can do to reverse the problems.

Tuesday, June 26th
            Today was a fun day, full of the excitement of learning some SCUBA skills. I worked in the pool today and learned how to clear my mask, take my gear off under water, how to clear my regulator and how to put my gear together and take it apart before and after the dive. Clearing my mask was the task hardest for me. It is required to know how to clear your mask, so that if water gets in it while diving, you know how to get it out. By the end of the lesson, I had mastered clearing my mask! I was even able to completely take my mask off and put it back on and clear it. I also practiced my surface dives. I thoroughly enjoyed my day.

My two favorite events this week were the dive lesson and completing the inventory. I enjoyed completing the inventory because it made me feel good that I accomplished a task I was asked to complete. The dive lesson was enjoyable, because I began the path to learning a lifelong skill and hobby. I love learning anything that I can use all throughout my life.