Farming & Sharks, Again!

Today we started the day off with a much-needed sleep-in day. It is rare that we get the opportunity to sleep in until 7am, as opposed to our routine AMX (morning exercise). After a breakfast of muffins and cereal, we headed to the aquaponics lab and permaculture farm. Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture; moreover, it is a circuit of growing plants like basil, lettuce, and mint from fish waste provided by Nile Tilapia farming. We helped them by weighing their fish to calculate their growth. 

In Permaculture with Rachel, a CEI researcher, we learned about sustainability on a farm and how the Island School maintains this practice. We helped Rachel by taking the weeds from her garden beds over to her trees to enrich the soil and to clear her garden beds. We learned that when these weeds decompose, they act as nutrient mulch. We were able to explore the farm with Rachel a little bit too.

After lunch, we went back out to the Saddle to look for the sharks with Brendan and Mackey (two shark researchers). Some of the first people in the water raced to see the shark, but those few people were the only students to get to see it at first. It returned at the end to many students’ delight!

Subsequently, we went to Brendan’s cage in the deep ocean to finish up our research from yesterday with the Cuban dogfish that we caught. We found that the shark had escaped from the cage, most likely meaning s/he survived which was the focus of Brendan’s study. The students on Brendan’s boat discussed abiotic factors in his research such as salinity, temperature, pressure, etc. that would affect the shark’s survival rate. We were amazed to learn about how little society knows about the deep ocean.

When we returned to the Island School, we all piled in vans to go challenge the locals in a game of basketball. All the students who participate in the Intramural Basketball League regularly at Hawken were very excited to get back onto the court. Though we have many athletic and talented players in our class, we were no match for the size, speed, and skill of the local Bahamian ballers. The game ended with smiles as we all got delicious Passion Fruit ice cups from a local vendor as we headed back to campus for dinner.

Post dinner, we met on the roof of the dining hall to reflect on our trip and the experiences we had while here in the Bahamas for 2 weeks. This discussion comprised of thoughts on making new friends, stepping out of your comfort zone, and experiencing things outside of the classroom and seeing our textbook broadcasted live in the ocean. We all began to realize how lucky we were to be placed in this class and cannot thank the members of the Island School staff, our teachers, Hawken, and our students for the experience.

We ended the night with stargazing, our daily quiz, and a nice, uplifting Chanukah ceremony. We look forward to making the most out of our last two days here on Eleuthera.

We look forward to seeing you. Peace out!
- Evan and Liz