Turtles vs. Conchs, Part 1

Hi Moms and Dads, 

We started off the day bright and early, per usual, at 6:30 for water polo. We were split into two teams and remained in these teams for the whole day: the Night Herons who were with Ms. Post and Liz, and the Spotted Eagle Rays who were with Pat, Stan, and Mr. Daly. Water polo was intense to say the least; it was one of our favorite AMX’s (morning exercises).

After our AMX, we headed in for a breakfast of granola and cereal. When breakfast was over, we split into our two groups. The Night Herons were headed to the beaches around town to survey the conch population, and the Spotted Eagle Rays were headed further down island to survey the turtle population.

The conching team started at the beach outside of our dorms and found over 250 dead conch shells. Abel found the first alive conch!

We cannot end this blogpost without telling you about the phenomenal lunch we had. We had ribs, lasagna, pasta salad, Caprese salad, and fruit. Best part yet: fresh, warm cookies.

With happy stomachs, we then went to two other beaches to collect more data of conch population, named Red Bay and Plum Creek. Red Bay was a bust, but we found 7 alive conch and a couple more dead ones at Plum Creek. Plum Creek was absolutely beautiful.

The Spotted Eagle Rays headed out to do their turtle research with the Cape Eleuthera Institute Researcher, Rachel Miller. They set up nets and tried to bring in the turtles intending to measure their size and the number in the area; unfortunately, they saw a lot but didn’t catch any. After a picnic, they set up two more nets, didn’t catch anything, so they moved to the other side of the beach to give it one more try, and still didn’t catch any. They packed up everything and headed inland to Ocean Hole at Rocksound to test their fortitude. They had many people that were scared but they all ended up jumping off the 15 foot cliff into the 600 foot hole of ocean water. There were millions of different vibrantly colored fishes that they were very excited about. It was an unforgettable experience – the Night Herons get to experience this tomorrow.

For our exploration time, some of our students went to the CEI (Cape Eleuthera Institute) to watch a rare fish dissection of a never-before discovered fish. It was incredible to be here while history was being made.

Post dinner, we ended the night with a documentary about Blue Holes in the Bahamas. We learned that Blue Holes contain the secrets to the past of the Bahamas animal life.

Miss you all,
Liz and Abel