Third Week / La Tercera Semana

Sunday was my day off.  It was relaxing to do some cooking, practice guitar, and cheer on England in the World Cup, but I prefer the action-packed days at the Trust!

Sugar Pie, our furriest, most frequent visitor at the Trust / Sugar Pie, nuestra visitante más frequente y peluda en el Fideicomiso

First thing Monday morning I met the kids of Manta Raya, the new camp for the next two weeks. The campers are 9-12 years old, and super engaged in what whatever we're learning. Right away I recognized a couple of them either from saying hey in passing on my way to work, or because they look like their younger siblings from last week.

Mark teaching about the balance of ecosystems, and the balance of life / Mark enseñando sobre la balance de ecosistemas y la balance de la vida

That day I went with Mark to pick up Ashley and Chase, two students from the University of Nebraska Kearney who came to Vieques for ten days to capture and study lionfish, an invasive (and venomous) species here in the Carribbean.

The lionfish. Photograph by Mark Martin, featured in Vieques Insider magazine / El pez león. Fotografía por Mark Martin.

Lionfish reproduce every two weeks. (Just imagine for a second if you did!) In order to manage that, they eat the native fish like it's nobody's business. They have no natural predators here, so they can totally throw off the delicate balance that keeps coral reefs healthy. Since the fish and other creatures of the reef are crucial for our food supply and economy, not to mention valuable in their own right, Ashley and Chase were doing pretty important work!

Here's Ashley and Chase! They also helped me painting some signs for the aquarium. / ¡Aquí están Ashley y Chase! También me ayudaron pintar algunos rotulos para el acuario.

That week I also met Professor Marc Albrecht, Ashley's biology professor and advisor who came to Vieques at the same time to work on some other research projects. I learned a lot from him, like about the alarming rate at which human are consuming the earth's resources.

We sometimes think of nature as this big expanse of wilderness that exists all over the world wherever there aren't towns and cities, but Professor Albrecht pointed out that 75% of arable land is already in human use. He showed me a great video called "The Story of Stuff," which gives a big-picture view of where our stuff comes from, how we consume it, and where it eventually goes when we throw it out. If you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes to spare, I definitely think it's worth watching!

Story of Stuff Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

Source:  http://storyofstuff.org/

The beautiful ceiba (kapok) tree that Professor Albrecht and I stopped to see on our way to collecting some data in the mangroves of the Nature Reserve / La gran ceiba que Professor Albrecht y yo vimos antes de tomar medidas de las mangles

It can be a little depressing to take it all in once you start to delve into human impacts on the planet. But Mark reminded me that while it can be overwhelming, but we can't be defeatist; we won't get anywhere if we throw up our hands and give up on protecting our natural resources. I think both Professor Albrecht and Mark have valid points, because we need to be more aware of the state that the earth while at the same time not losing hope, so that we can make appropriate changes in how we live on it.

* * * 

What made that week at camp so fun, per usual at Manta, is that we learned about the environment  not from textbooks or lectures, but from swimming, touching, hiking, smelling, feeling, seeing, and being in nature herself.

Learning how to enjoy the ocean responsibly / Aprendiendo como disfrutar el oceáno en una manera responsible

A lesson about all the invasive algae out there / Una lección sobre las algas invasora

Donning a stylish algae hat...with a few laughs from the crowd / Usando la alga como un sombrero...con unas risas por el público

A lionfish that we caught at the beach/ El pez león que cojimos

You can look, but you can't touch! / Se puede mirar, pero no se puede tocar!

The newest member of the aquarium (the lionfish, I mean, though I'd be happy to have this guy at the Trust any day) / El miembro más nuevo del acuario (el pez, quiero decir, auque estaría felíz tener este nene en el Fideicomiso todos los días)

An eel we found for the aquarium, which was returned to the sea several days later like all the other organisms we capture / Una anguila que encontramos para el acuario, que fue devuelto al mar unos días después como los demás de los ser vivos

On Friday, my friend Annie (who made it into my first blog post, and I can assure you this one will not be the last!) arrived to visit me for the weekend. She jumped right in as a volunteer at Manta, and was a huge help preparing for our activities that day.

A lesson on water quality, scientific measurements, and the plankton of the bioluminescent bay behind us / Una lección sobre la calidad de agua, medidas científicos, y el plancton de la bahía bioluminiscente detrás de nosotros. (Photo credits to Annie)

A walk through the mangroves around the bio bay / Una caminata por los mangles alrededor de la bahía bioluminiscente

Annie and I riding back from the bay in the back of a truck / Annie y yo viajabamos en una guagua al Fideicomiso

Reading up about plankton / Leyendo sobre plancton

Taking a look up close at the microorganisms of the bay / Mirando los microorganismos que viven en la bahía

Experimenting with bioluminescence / Experimentando con la bioluminiscencia

Mind blown. / Increíble.

* * * 

Thursday was the most amazing night on the bio bay I have seen yet. The water literally glowed light blue in the wake it left when I stuck it in the water outside the boat. If you scooped up some water in your hand, it sparkled like little floating stars in your palm. When you threw the water away, the surface of the bay looked like it was being spattered with shimmering rain drops.
http://youtu.be/oSP6IfLcm6s
Here's a few shots from the field:

#mangroves #selfie #sciencegeek

Cool worm we found in the bio bay / Un gusano nitido que encontramos en la bahía

Field researchers Mark and Ashley in their natural habitat / Investigadores  de campo Mark y Ashley en su hábitat natural

It's really difficult to capture the bioluminescence in a photograph, but we did record a Bio Bay  Newsflash to update the community on the state of the bay! Bioluminescent Bay Update