Day 143: Pre-Bahamas Weekend

Yesterday, VERY early, we met up and left for our weekend get away to a small island off the coast. It was really foggy as we approached the coast. We were greeted with gnats the second we stepped out of the 12 passenger vans, a relationship that would last far beyond anyone would ever want. We unloaded the gear and hopped onto a boat that took us to our little island. The island is salt marsh on one side and beach on the other. I definitely liked the beach area better. Anyways, we got settled in to our lighthouse/dorm establishment and then headed to lectures. Lots of lectures. Forgive me for not writing a whole lot, but part of the class is to keep a daily log with plenty of information about everything you did that day - like this blog but lots more specific and scientific. Because of the log, I feeling a lot of deja vu. Hope you'll forgive me.

Here's a list of SOME of the things we saw (we found over 53 species the first day):
hermit crabs, fiddler crabs (sand and mud), "sea nettles" aka jellyfish, lots of tunicates (gooey thick worm looking things that squirt water out of them when you squeeze them - also called sea squirts ;) ), snails, grass, mangroves, more snails, blue crabs, stone crabs, spider crabs, clams (scientific name: Mercenaria mercenaria. How cool am I that I remember that? Lol... jk, it's the only one I know...), oysters, conchs, hermit crabs, lots of little fish, and I can't even think of what else right now. Basically, a plethora of goodies.

We played around in the marsh and beach, had more lectures, food, and then time to identify all those species before bed. We woke up early again to head out to the beach by 7 to catch the low tide goodies. I already listed some of the things we found up there, but we also found a brittle star, a common star fish, a file clam (first one below), a stargazer (second below, it sits at the bottom and "gazes" at the stars while waiting for food to swim by. Looks ugly but was a really cool find) and a snapping shrimp (third below). We watched the common star fish flip itself over in a small Tupperware container. They are very rigid to the touch, but are very flexible. Cool!

After lots more time identifying these organisms (after more lectures of course), we packed up, cleaned house, and waiting for the boat back to shore. We were sent off with several dolphins jumping and playing in our wake as we were leaving. What a pleasant parting gift. Can't wait to get to the Bahamas!!!

The lighthouse/dorms, up a very steep hill. Small, but cute!