Day 8: 08 May 2013
We had another long bus ride today. Even though
I am really stoked about learning what Caye Caulker has to offer, I am sad to
leave the Chiquibul. I learned so much there about biodiversity, natural
resource management, and I really enjoyed experiencing the ecosystem unlike any
I had ever seen before.
The
marine part of this trip has started off really well! We were able to enjoy a
Bellikin, the Belizean beer, while waiting for our water taxi to the Caye. The
rest of the day was left for getting settled into our hotel, which is better
than I had anticipated btw, and acclimating to the salty sea air!
Day
9:
AMAZING!! We enjoyed an entire day on, and in,
the water. I’ve been snorkeling in Key West, but this was so much better! We
identified sever species of corals: lettuce coral, brain coral, fire coral, fan
coral, and staghorn coral, to name a few. We also were able to identify sever
species of reef fish: damsel, banded butterfly, blue tang (a.k.a. “Dory” from Finding Nemo), parrot, a green moray eel
and even a barracuda!
We also learned the methodology that is used in
the Marine Preserve to make estimates about the fish and coral population on
the reef. First, we made a pass over the transect line set up and identified
all the juvenile fish we could see. The second pass, we identified the adult
fish we were able to see and estimated the size of the adult fish. On the last
pass over, we identified as many corals as we could, making note of a rough
percentage of which ones showed signs of bleaching.
Day
10:
Today was the day for mangrove and sea grass
ecology. The organization FAMRACC on Caye Caulker manages the littoral forest
preserve on the north end on the split on the Caye. They are in charge of
mangrove restoration through propagation. This is a very time consuming and
resource intensive project and I admire the commitment and dedication of the
leaders and students/ other volunteers that participate in the restoration
project. We were able to use some of what we learned from Boris in the
Chiquibul about calculating species density in a quadrant here. Thanks to
Boris, we all felt like old pro’s by this time. Boris made us re-do our plots
until they were right.
Day
11:
Today was more policy centered and I have to
admit, I was a bit uninterested. We got on to a small boat with one of the
Preserve rangers. His job includes monitoring the tour boats and snorkelers on
the tours and fishermen to make sure they aren’t destroying the reef or doing
really anything unsafe or illegal. I imagine that this is a ridiculously
difficult job seeing as how the Preserve is something over 100 square miles. We “sneak up” (lol) on a boat with about
eight snorkelers in the water around the boat. We watch for a bit to make sure
that everyone has a life vest and we all get in the water and check to make
sure the anchor hasn’t damaged the reef below.
After lunch, our group was supposed to enter a
restaurant to make sure they didn’t have any out of season catches. However,
the restaurant that the other group toured in the morning apparently had
something they weren’t supposed to and so they did not allow us to enter the
premises. Instead, we spoke with our guides about how the fishery cooperative
is supposed to work, the difficulties behind prosecuting those who are caught
illegally fishing, and a bit about the Queen Conch industry. The Queen Conch is
listed as an endangered species but has a legal season in which it can be
harvested and sold. When the quota for the season is met, the season closes. We
were able to speak with a couple of gentlemen who happen to be cleaning their
conch catches on the sea wall. They were kind enough to clean one for us and
our group bonded by passing around the raw conch and taking a bite. Mike and I were
even brave enough to eat a tendon from the conch. I found out, only AFTER
having eaten the tendon, it is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. Everyone enjoyed
a good laugh about that!
Day
12:
This evening we had a presentation about
Manatee habitat preservation efforts in the area by the Friends of Swallow Caye
non-profit organization. It is made up of Caye Caulker locals that have taken
it into their own hands to go to great lengths to save the sub-species of the
West Indian Manatee. Will Kara and I be lucky enough to see one on our snorkel
trip on our free day?? We can only hope!
Day
13:
Today was our free day! Kara and I decided that
we wanted to go snorkeling again. But it wasn’t at all the same as the places
we had gone earlier in the week. We went to four different sites along the
northern part of the reef. We headed out almost all the way to San Pedro,
another and much bigger Caye, and gradually made our way back to Caye Caulker.
We were able to swim with all kinds of different fish. I’m still trying to
figure out which one’s. We also swan with seven different sea turtles. One of
them was missing his front right flipper. He was an older tagged turtle and
looked to be doing just fine. How adaptable! We also swan with tons of rays and
nurse sharks! That was Kara’s favorite part… big smile on her face! We also did
get to swim with one manatee! It was amazing. I have seen them from above the
water in Florida, but never had one swim so close to me I could have reached
out and touched him (of course I didn’t). I borrowed Mike’s underwater camera
and took tons of pictures! Can’t wait to look at them!
Day
14:
We all arrived safely back in the States today.
Bitter sweet. I was so glad to see my kiddos again, missed them like CRAZY!!
But I really loved Belize! I learned so much in the past 14 days. The biggest
lesson for me was really about myself. I learned that field work and research
is what I want to do. Even battling the bugs (and there were A LOT of bugs) and
the vines and the water and all the other issues that come along with being out
in the field, I loved every minute of it. Now all I have to do is figure out
what I want to concentrate on…. The more I learn, the less focused I seem to be
in a particular area. I definitely believe that learning more about more is
better than the alternative though!
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