Three months ago, the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) welcomed back Simon Fraser University (SFU), and their 2015 field team of seven researchers. Based in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada (with two more collaborators joining them from the University of Bristol, UK), they made the trip down to Eleuthera to continue their research on various aspects of the lionfish invasion in The Bahamas. From acoustics to nutrient dynamics projects, the summerwas a dynamic one for SFU, filled to the brim with scientific escapades. And the most important thing they’ve learned? Every problem can be solved with cinder blocks and cable ties.
Field assistant Emma Atkinson and Fiona Francis ”discuss” logistics while repairing one of Fiona’s cages.
May kicked off with an exciting collaboration between the SFU team and Brendan and Sophie Nedelec from the University of Bristol that delved into the effects of lionfish on the acoustics of a coral reef – are reefs with lots of lionfish perhaps quieter than those with fewer or no lionfish? To tackle this question, the team needed more than keen eyes, and their ears certainly weren’t sharp enough to pick up on any differences. Sophie and Brendan came down equipped with a hydrophone, accelerometer, DJ-like switchboard, and a lot of cords that were loaded onto the boat and brought out to patch reefs to take sound recordings during the day and at night (when lionfish are typically hunting). Continue reading →
Congratulations to CEI Director Aaron Shultz! He successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on “Responses of Subtropical Nearshore Fishes to Climate Change” at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with Dr. Cory Suski as his lead advisor.
Aaron’s research focused on how climate change stressors affect fish in nearshore ecosystems. These ecosystems are important nursery and foraging grounds, but there was insufficient knowledge on how fish in these areas will react to the predicted increases in temperature and carbon dioxide.
The Slayer Campaign has been a huge success at the Cape Eleuthera Institute this year, and we’re well on our way to setting a new record for the total catch this season. The initiative provides the perfect opportunity for local fishermen, while also removing invasive lionfish from the reefs. Here at CEI we always make sure the fillets are passed on to our kitchen staff so that the taste can be shared throughout the community.
Record 44 cm lionfish
The true spearing skills of our local fishermen were recently highlighted by the size of one lionfish in particular, whose total length reached a rather impressive 44 cm. You may remember we recently set an official record here at the Cape Eleuthera Institute with a 42 cm fish. So, when this new record breaker was laid before us on the dissection table, we decided to submit the numbers (and photo to prove it!) to the wider international community of fellow lionfish slayers. We can now proudly announce that our own 44 cm lionfish is the new official record for the whole Bahamas. Great work Dennis Johnson and Leonardo Butler for slaying this fish!
If you’re curious, the world record is currently held at 47.7 cm, so we’re not too far behind! Check out the Lionfish.co website for more details.
On Friday 18th September, Dr. Owen O’Shea of the Shark Research and Conservation Program along with Shark Program intern Amanda Billotti and Educational Program leaders, Anna Zuke and Lydia Geschiere made the trip to Spanish Wells’ All Ages School to deliver a workshop to 36 students from 11th and 12th grade as well as their teachers. This was the first time that CEI scientists have visited this tiny fishing community off the north coast of Eleuthera to share the exciting work we do here. During the workshop students were given presentations about the evolution ecology and importance of rays and sharks, particularly in Bahamian waters lead by both Dr. Owen O’Shea and Amanda Billotti. One of the main themes touched upon was the importance of these ancient animals as economic resources in The Bahamas; discussing how a living shark or ray is of greater value as a tourism tool, then a dead one at market.
The students then participated in group discussions where they were able to collaborate amongst themselves to demonstrate and share what they had learned. Four key concepts were randomly assigned to each of four groups, and the CEI team mentored a group each, before a student from each team presented their groups responses to the class – these topics included discussing the ecological role of these animals in marine ecosystems and global challenges to the conservation of these animals.
CEI research teams in collaboration with the Educational Program team are striving to increase outreach to other communities on Eleuthera. Each month will see representatives of the Shark Research and Conservation Program travel to a different school to deliver interactive workshops and discussion with students about these most valuable of marine resources.
CEI and team EP aims to continue to promote internship opportunities to Bahamian students, and this was warmly received by all of the students we interacted with last week.
As a new semester is upon us, Cape Eleuthera Institute community welcomes four new interns to The Sustainable Fisheries Team. Since starting their internship two weeks ago, Helen Conlon, Rob Drummond, Eduardo Lopez, and Logan Zeinart have already dissected over 100 lionfish, helped out with Island School SCUBA week, visited and cleaned the Staghorn Coral Nursery at Tunnel Rock, and practiced fish identification for the quarterly lionfish patch reef surveys coming up this month. Each new member has been an integral part of the team thus far and has offered their valuable insights with their varying backgrounds and experience in marine science.
The Sustainable Fisheries Team in the midst of dissections
Helen became interested in the lionfish invasion after working as a Divemaster in Bonaire, the Caribbean, 4 years ago where she took part in regular spearing (lionfish spearing as a way to control population growth). This lead her to complete her dissertation surrounding cooperative hunting in lionfish at CEI last summer, and to her return this year as a sustainable fisheries intern.
Rob Drummond is originally from the UK, although he has been working in The Bahamas since January as a volunteer and intern at Greenforce and Forfar, respectively. Since graduating from the University of East Anglia, with a BSc in Environmental Science back in 2011, Rob has been diving in Madagascar and worked for an environmental consultancy back in England before backpacking around South America last year.
Eduardo Lopez is from Bogota, Colombia and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2015 with a double major in Economics and Environmental Thought and Practice. Eddie is excited to be back on Eleuthera after his time as an Island School student in Spring ’09. Eddie is eager to help the Sustainable Fisheries Research Team here at CEI.
Logan Zeinart is from New Zealand and completed a marine science diploma and degree. He loves everything marine, from the simplest animals (Porifera – sponges) to the marine fauna, and everything in between.
With the help of the four new interns as well as the Sustainable Fisheries RA, Alexio Brown, and RT, Alanna Waldman, the team dissected 132 lionfish last week. Thirty of the fish were collected from the June patch reef surveys and 102 lionfish were brought in from the Slayer Campaign. The Team collected data from all of the fish and filleted the fish brought in by the local fishermen. Amongst the 132 fish dissected, the longest ever recorded here at The Cape Eleuthera Institute was part of the batch at 42 cm.
The longest lion fish at 42cm!
A notable discovery was the finding of a bar jack inside the mouth of one of the lionfish dissected. The heaviest fish was just less than 1,000 grams and one lionfish, found at one of the patch reefs during our June surveys, had 13 fish in its stomach. This data has implications for the future of our reefs because, if lionfish are constantly consuming reef fish, then the native fish populations will decline and lead to a decline in the health of our reef ecosystems.
The Sustainable Fisheries Team will be conducting their September patch reef surveys in a week and look forward to monitoring the lionfish invasion, as well as removing more lionfish from the patch reefs!
Kinship Conservation Fellows is an environmental leadership program that emphasizes market-based solutions to environmental problems. Applied Scientific Research Department Head, Candice Brittain, was awarded a place on the prestigious program and headed out to Bellingham, Washington for a month-long fellowship in July.
2015 Kinship Conservation Fellows cohort at The Northern Cascades Institute
The eclectic 2015 international cohort of fellows came from far and wide, travelling from Bhutan, India, Argentina, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, South Africa, Madagascar, USA, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, and The Bahamas.
Fellows play a game created by The Environmental Defense Fund, Catch-Shares to enable fishers to take ownership of their fisheries and negotiate solutions
On the first day, each fellow was asked to define conservation and sustainability and to share these definitions with the group. None of the 18 fellows had the same description; an important lesson that these terms can have very different meanings to different people. This set the scene for the coming month and the many challenges that lay ahead.
The Kinship curriculum explores incentives for conservation. The two themes for the month focused on cultivating leadership: skills and strategies & market (incentive) based conservation strategies. Fellows learnt about different types of leaders, how to re-frame their problems, and had invaluable one-on-one coaching sessions. The group grappled with economics and finance classes, learning from agricultural, water management, and carbon examples. Impact investment demonstrated a viable way to fund and sustain conservation initiatives, and there were lively class discussions on how conservation can be implemented and operated as a business, generating either income or other non-monetary gains to motivate stakeholders to conserve.
Candice and Kinship Conservation Fellow, Siddharth, kayaking during the July 4th field trip at Larrabee State Park
Taking on the roles of various stakeholders in high conflict conservation scenarios allowed fellows to realise opposing viewpoints, re-evaluate situations, and to practice and develop negotiation skills to find new innovative solutions. Emphasis was placed on how to create the most impact; if a project is successful, could it be replicated and then taken to scale?
Exciting field trips during the month included celebrating American Independence Day while kayaking at Larrabee State Park, 4 days hiking and learning negotiation skills at the Northern Cascades Institute, and finally an unsuccessful, but enjoyable, orca watching trip to Friday Harbour.
Candice and Kinship Conservation Fellow Viviana Lujan Gallegos jointly present solutions to environmental issues on Eleuthera, The Bahamas
The program was concluded with each fellow presenting a site-specific project they are working towards, applying the knowledge they gained from the fellowship and adaptive strategies they intend to develop in the future.
While all visiting groups are special to us here at CEI, certain ones touch our hearts in unique and unexpected ways. Akhepran International Academy, visiting us for the first time from Nassau, was one group that made a big impact in their short time with us.
Students sit on the beach to hold turtles as the research team takes their measurements
On Monday August 24, 10 students along with 2 teachers arrived from New Providence and jumped straight into the island school life. They had a jam packed day to orient them to our campus, complete with a sustainable systems tour and awesome day one snorkeling.
The rest of the week had a large emphasis on working with our research teams and discussing the implications of their work on our world. Lloyd Allen, head chaperone and a teacher at Akhepran, has a big vision for his scholars and hoped that in their time here they would see the plethora of career options in sciences and engineering and be inspired to pursue their passions.
Some students have dreams of being engineers. These students really enjoyed learning about our aquaponics system with Michael Bowleg and spoke excitedly about going home and engineering their own aquaponics system at home. Others dream of being marine biologists and, after a morning learning about and dissecting lionfish, want to go back to Nassau and tell everyone they know about this invasive species and get them to eat lionfish instead of more commonly overfished species.
These examples are just the beginning of this group’s studies.
Students assist researchers by helping to catch southern stingrays.
Their curiosity, questions, and positive approach to life made them a joy to spend the week with. By the end of the week many spoke about how their perspectives on the ocean had shifted and they had learned to love the ocean they grew up around even more. One student said, “every time a wave hits against me it’s like a kiss from mother nature” and another admitted that she had fears about the ocean, but that swimming in it and “being one with the fish” showed her she didn’t need to be so afraid.
This was truly a week of growth and inspiration, and even though their trip was cut short by threats of a hurricane, we look forward to this relationship and have hopes to visit their school in Nassau in the future.
Professor Duncan Irschick, integrative biologist and innovator at the University of Massachusettes, recently visited Cape Eleuthera Institute for an exciting week of field work with the Sea Turtle Research and Conservation (STRC) team. Far from being his first visit to CEI, Prof. Irschick is working in collaboration with the STRC team on a novel project to investigate the relationship between life stage and body shape of green sea turtles; how does flipper shape and carapace (shell) shape change with age and what implications does this have on the animal’s fitness? Over the course of the year, STRC researchers have been capturing digital images of the flippers and carapace of individual green turtles as data for investigating this interesting question.
Prof. Irschick takes a series of digital images of an individual green turtle for input into the 3D modelling software
The primary focus of Prof. Irschick’s visit this time, however, was to take a series of high quality digital images for each turtle that was captured during the week. With each photo in the series taken from a different angle to the turtle, Prof. Irschick is able to use a software program to create a 3D digital model of the turtle. His hopes are that with the use of 3D printing, these perfect replicates of real-life turtles can be used as an interesting and interactive educational tool. During the week, we caught a total of 11 turtles for Prof. Irschick’s 3D modelling – a very successful week!
Mid-week, the staff and visitors of CEI were treated to an evening presentation by Prof. Irschick entitled ‘Bioinspiration as a way of understanding the world’.
Prof. Irschick delivering a presentation entitled ‘Bioinspiration as a way of understanding the world’
This talk gave insight into how biological form can inspire synthetic design and touched on the striking similarity between the shape of bicycle helmets and sea turtle carapaces and how, by studying the form of gecko feet, a collaboration at the University of Massachusetts was able to apply anatomical principles to create a gecko-like adhesive called GeckSkin TM. His presentation was met with a host of questions on this inspiring topic and has certainly left us looking at the form and function of organisms in a new light.
At 6:15 am the alarm goes off every morning, waking us for a day filled with the fresh possibilities of discovery. Here, at the Island School, we partake in a program that focuses on not only challenging us mentally, but also pushing us physically, to accomplish more than we thought ourselves capable of.
Gappers head out on their first expedition on the boat.
Our first morning here on Eleuthera, we walked straight out the front doors of our dorms onto the beach. Before entering the water, we laid face down on the beach, digging our hands into the sand, talking to the microscopic pieces of shells, coral, and rocks, asking them, “where did you come from?” “how did you get here?”. It is this humility of submerging yourself into the natural ecosystems that drives our learning here at the Cape Eleuthera Institute. We then made our way into the warm water, with our fins and masks and snorkels ready to travel to a world only accessible to those seeking it. This is the magic of this program, the opportunity to uncover and explore the world from an ecological perspective.
On our first full day on Eleuthera we made our way to the marina. There is a filleting station that the local fisherman use, which the sharks take full advantage of. We got to watch four nurse sharks and a southern stingray eat the discarded fish. It felt extremely surreal and humbling to see sharks feeding in the wild, as opposed to the stereotypical aquarium feeding experience. We then jumped right into The Cut.
Phoebe observes fish interactions in the roots of the red mangrove
The Cut is a lazy river that is a spot we are going to frequent often; it connects the marina and the ocean. So far, this has been one of our favorite places to go. It is filled with snapper, grouper, anemone , stingrays, and Phoebe’s favorite conch! Phoebe found a group of five empty conch shells that were all connected. Though extremely heavy she felt it very important to pick them all up. This sent us all into a fit of laughter, as she was barely able to keep her head above water, while refusing to put her “jackpot” down. Needless to say it was an incredible day filled with exploration, adventure, and more knowledge about the ocean then I have ever received.
Together with our leader Liz, we are a group of eight, in this short seven days we have become incredibly close. We feel like we have known each other (the gappers) for much longer than just a week. The sense of community and purpose at The Cape Eleuthera Institute and The Island School is overwhelming. Us gappers have been welcomed with open arms and enthusiasm by everyone here. And we are nothing but looking forward to the next eight weeks here in our new home!
From left to right: Jorell Pageot, Anna Safryghin and Brittany Bradshaw
The Sea Turtle Research and Conservation team here at CEI welcomes three new members to the team for the fall semester! They arrived last Saturday and, after a few days of orientation, they got to finally jump on a boat and head into the field. Despite the early finish due to unpredictable weather conditions, all the interns had an amazing time getting hands-on experience in working with Meagan Gary on her Masters study by monitoring for sea turtles carrying her acoustic tags. Brittany Bradshaw (left), who had the task of listening for sea turtles, is a 21 year old college graduate from the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus (Trinidad and Tobago), where she did her BSc. in Biology and Environmental Resource Management. Although she came from a Caribbean island, she honestly believes without a doubt that Eleuthera is the hottest place in the world! Brittany is excited to learn and will be spending her free time scuba diving and participating in projects with the other staff members at CEI.
Anna Safryghin (middle), manning the hydrophone, is a 21 year old half Italian and half Russian placement year student from Plymouth University, UK. Anna studies Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology and also plays soccer for the University team. She left the freezing Russian cold behind her to come and enjoy the hot and stunning Eleuthera. In her free time, Anna can usually be found engaging in some kind of physical activity, from water polo Wednesday to volley ball Tuesdays. During her 6 months at CEI Anna is looking forward to gaining experience in the field in all ways possible.
Last but not least, there is Jorell Pageot (right), who did a great job recording the positions of the turtles during her first field day. She is an 18 year-old, recent highschool graduate, from the not-so-far Nassau, New Providence. Jorell has been so enthusiastic about everything since her arrival. It is actually her first time on any of the family islands and so far she is “loving it”! Jorell looks forward to working with the turtle team and learning new things, she plans to become a marine biologist and is already looking at colleges to begin her studies to achieve that goal. Jorell loves meeting new people, soccer, and she wants to become a certified scuba diver. We look forward to working with this team for the rest of Fall 2015!
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