This fall the gap year team has undertaken the task of completing Fall 2013 shallow water conch surveys. Once complete this data will be a part of a larger effort to conserve this economically and culturally important species.
The sites we are surveying are in the Bight of Eleuthera; there are 18 sites total, and so far 10 have been completed. They involve snorkeling three transects, each 30 meters in length and 2 meters wide, and counting and measuring the conch we find. So far the juveniles are pulling through, and almost 100% of the conch found have been juveniles, demonstrating the environment still able to support the nursery for this species.
The surveys prove to be quite exciting, and we have spotted a plethora of other species while surveying (such as lemon sharks), and there are a lot of Echinoderms who share their habitat with the queen conch. During the surveys we are often fighting strong currents, dodging an array of jellyfish, and dealing with the hot sun. However, as tough as these times are we know we are doing something awesome for this gastropod.
The start of the semester has been an extremely busy and exciting time for the lionfish program. In November, Dr. Jocelyn Curtis-Quick, head of the team, will be heading to Texas to present her work on lobster-lionfish displacement at the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute conference. The purpose of this study is to determine whether lionfish are displacing spiny lobsters in critical habitats and what this means for the economically important lobster fishery. We were also pleased to welcome gap year student Ryan Hodges to our crew, who will be working with us for the next four weeks. His extra set of hands is needed considering we have over 150 hours of video to analyze before the GCFI conference! Continue reading →
On Friday, September 27, students from Deep Creek Middle School (DCMS) met with staff from the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) at Paige Creek to discuss mangrove ecosystems. Tiffany Gray, lead outdoor educator for CEI, led the eighth grade science class through an interactive lesson covering mangrove identification, their importance and threats to the ecosystem.
Stacey Dorman and Kylie Bloodsworth, CEI Flats Ecology interns, also gave the students an overview of research carried out by the institute and how mangrove ecosystems might be affected by climate change. The students then snorkeled up the creek system, taking note of important biota residing in the mangroves, such as juvenile barracuda, schoolmaster snapper, checkered puffer and juvenile lemon sharks. The DCMS students happily came away from class with the knowledge that mangroves are important ecosystems worth researching and protecting!
Our Gap Year crew has been very busy in their first month here at CEI with marine research, road trips, classes and community service. We’ve studied human ecology, coral reefs, mangroves and more. We analyzed sustainable aspects of our Island School/CEI community here and compared them to our home communities with the ultimate goal of designing a solution to an issue of sustainability at home.
Outside of our classes, we’ve helped out with many on-site research projects studying everything from green sea turtles to Caribbean sharks to a local favorite, queen conch. We’ve also conducted plastic surveys and helped out in our permaculture garden. Last week we explored outside our immediate community and volunteered at the Tarpum Bay Arts & Cultural center doing a landscaping project (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eleutheras-Art-and-Cultural-Centre/234550843232729). There we met the lovely director, Audrey Carey, who regaled us with stories about what life was like when she grew up in the Bahamas (very sustainable!) and showed us the local students’ and artists’ work. Continue reading →
Former Flats intern Melissa handles a juvenile lemon shark
Interested in an internship at the Cape Eleuthera Institute? CEI is currently hiring interns for Spring 2014. The deadline to submit applications is October 1st. Please follow this link to check out the many opportunities available for Spring 2014!
At the end of March, Kate Barley represented CEI and attended a stakeholder workshop on Ecological Gap Analysis at the Wyndham Nassau Resort. Decision makers from government, policy makers, academics, and NGO’s were also in attendance. This workshop was a part of the larger Global Environment Fund (GEF) Project titled “Building a Sustainable Network of Marine Protected Areas for The Bahamas.” The main objective of this is to expand the coverage of Marine Protected Areas in The Bahamas.
An ecological gap analysis is an assessment to check if the the goals and objectives for the area are being met. An ecological gap is where a certain species or ecosystem (e.g., A reef, mangrove, forest, etc.) is not represented enough for the long term protection that it needs. This is important because The Bahamas is part of an international agreement, The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and as part of this, has agreed to protect at least 17% of the land and 10% of marine environment by 2020. This protection does not all have to be in the form of closed areas, but does need to be effectively managed, ecologically representative, and connected to other ecosystems with the overall goal of reducing the pressure on biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of resources. Continue reading →
Here are short bios from our three Gap Year students:
Eryn Dioli: My name is Eryn Dioli and I just graduated from high school in June of 2013. I’m taking a gap year before I start college, and in the fall of 2014 I will be attending The University of Colorado at Boulder where I hope to study international relations. I was drawn to CEI because of the way sustainable living is so much a part of life here. I have grown up on the ocean and it’s a great experience to be living in a place that is so dedicated to conserving it. I’m looking forward to learning more about permaculture and how I can implement that in to my own community at home, and to take part in the turtle research project. Continue reading →
Up-close shot of a juvenile green sea turtle.Meagan spotting a turtle.
Annabelle Brooks and Meagan Gary, researchers with the CEI Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program, recently spent a day in Savannah Sound, Central Eleuthera, with Fishbone Tours (http://www.fishbonetours.com/). Established by Julius Rankine, resident of Savannah Sound, Fishbone Tours offers fishing trips and adventure tours that include a variety of activities including snorkeling on reefs and in mangroves, visiting a conch ranch, lunch on a secluded beach, and catching sea turtles. Not only a fun day out, Julius and his wife also take the opportunity to educate visitors about the various marine environments and species of the Bahamas.
Julius Rankine from Fishbone Tours measuring the carapace length of a green sea turtle.
CEI’s Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program has teamed up with Fishbone tours, training them on measuring sea turtles that they catch and release, gathering valuable data about the sea turtles using the rich habitat of Savannah Sound. This collaboration will allow us to expand our existing data set from South Eleuthera. During their time in Savannah Sound, Meagan caught a juvenile green turtle and recorded carapace measurements, and the team explored the variety of different habitat types found throughout the sound. This was a great way to start collaborations on Eleuthera and start planning for future research in the rich ecosystem of Savannah Sound.
This Fall semester, The Lionfish and Conch Programs decided to do something new. They instituted a dual internship, which would focus on sustainable fisheries and marine conservation; interns would work with both the lionfish and conch projects. Three lucky interns are being put to the task this fall to work among projects in both programs, and their bios are below.
Alicia Hendrix: A Washington state native, Alicia finished her B.A. in Biology and Fine Art at Scripps College this past January. Since then she has been at the University of Washington labs in the San Juan Islands expanding upon the work completed for her undergraduate biology thesis and teaching high school students scientific illustration. During the course of her undergraduate studies, Alicia conducted research on trace metal chelation by jelly DOM at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science and on protein localization in trypanosomes at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. In 2011 she earned her Divemaster certification at Utila Dive Center, where she also assisted with the Coral Watch program on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. She is thrilled to be a part of the internship program here at CEI, and is already learning so much! Continue reading →
This September marks the one year anniversary of the arrival of the current Lionfish Research and Education Program (LREP) manager, Dr. Jocelyn Curtis-Quick. Jocelyn is a marine ecologist with over ten years of tropical marine field experience from all over the world. She has a Master’s degree from Plymouth University and PhD. from the University of Essex, both of which primarily focused on reef resilience and how fish respond to habitat degradation. Many reef fish play important ecosystem functional roles and their demise can have significant implications for the reef system. The Indo-Pacific, where Jocelyn conducted her studies, has especially high diversity and functional redundancy, which means that reefs in this area are more capable to resist and recover from disturbance. Jocelyn’s PhD. increased our understanding of niche partitioning and resource utilization by key fish taxa and importantly identified the plasticity of fish to adapt their feeding strategy in response to changing habitat quality. Continue reading →
The sites we are surveying are in the Bight of Eleuthera; there are 18 sites total, and so far 10 have been completed. They involve snorkeling three transects, each 30 meters in length and 2 meters wide, and counting and measuring the conch we find. So far the juveniles are pulling through, and almost 100% of the conch found have been juveniles, demonstrating the environment still able to support the nursery for this species.
The surveys prove to be quite exciting, and we have spotted a plethora of other species while surveying (such as lemon sharks), and there are a lot of Echinoderms who share their habitat with the queen conch. During the surveys we are often fighting strong currents, dodging an array of jellyfish, and dealing with the hot sun. However, as tough as these times are we know we are doing something awesome for this gastropod.
by 
