Don't Worry, Be Happy - Tales from Hurricane Sandy part 3

Hey Everyone!

Our internet/phones are being very unreliable right now. I have managed to get a call home to let my folks know I am ok. But since I am unsure when I will get cut off again, I thought I would share with you my Ultimate Hurricane Sandy Playlist to enjoy while you wait for my next update. We rocked out to this playlist last night, and it certainly kept me happy and calm. I recommend everyone make this playlist as it is a great combination of everything! I feel particularly proud of my creativity in some of my choices (Queen's "Under Pressure" in particular...LOL Pressure, Get it?). I have listed the songs by artist but I would highly recommend hitting shuffle as it adds an element of surprise and livens things up each and every time.

Enjoy!


A Fine Frenzy - Blow Away
ACDC - Highway to Hell
Amanda Marshall - Let It Rain
Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain On My Parade
Beach Boys - Fun fun fun
Beach Boys - Wouldn't it be nice
Bedouin Soundclash - When the Night Feels My Song
Bette Midler - I Think It's Going To Rain Today
Billie Myers - Kiss The Rain
Blondie - The Tide Is High
Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm
Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women
Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Against The Wind
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy
Bon Jovi - Wild Is The Wind
Bon Jovi - Get Ready
Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop the Rain
Duffy - Mercy
Eagles - Take It Easy
Eagles - Life In the Fast Lane
Eagles - Take It to the Limit
Elvis Presley - All Shook Up
Film Dialogue - Stay Home
Frank Sinatra - The Summer Wind
Frank Sinatra - Stormy Weather
Gene Kelly - I'm singing in the rain
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
James Brown - That's Life
Men At Work - Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride
Michael Bublé - Summer Wind
Muddy Waters - Sittin' Here Drinkin'
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Poison - Nothin' But a Good Time
Queen - Under Pressure
Queen - Hammer to Fall
Ray Charles - Old Man River
R.E.M - It's the End of the World as We know it
Sammy Davis Jr. - Something's Gotta Give
Scorpians - Rock you like a Hurricane
Supertramp - It's Raining Again
Sweet Thing - Change of Seasons
The Beatles - Come Together
The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
The Beatles - Good Day Sunshine
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
The Beatles - Octopus's Garden
The Beatles - Rain
The Blues Brothers - (I Got Every Thing I Need) Almost
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
The Rankin Family - Forty Days and Nights
ZZ Top - Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell

Later folks!

Your Rock-n-Rollin Field Biologist

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Against the Wind - Tales from Hurricane Sandy part 2

Hello Everyone!

I survived! Not that I had any doubt. Fortunately, the campus has a back up generator so I am able to provide everyone with an update even with power outages happening elsewhere across Eleuthera.

What a fantastic experience that was last night! I have never heard winds that loud. A couple other Interns and myself tried to watch a movie on my laptop but even on full blast, the dialogue got completely drowned out by the wind. Below is a series of videos taken by a couple of the other interns as the storm progressed throughout the day yesterday. As you can see by the last video, you can hardly hear what they are saying as the wind picked up:

Noon on Thursday, 10/25 Sandy on the way

4:30 on Thursday 10/25

Walking to dinner, 5:15

The beach is gone, 5:30

Going outside is not smart anymore, 6:15

We got hit pretty hard right around 6 pm and that continued right into the wee hours this morning. This next video is of the Hurricane "proof" windows bowing in the wind as the storm hit us full force (around 9 pm last night). The vibrations created by the windows acted like a giant bass drum making sounds we thought were coming from thunder at first. I thought that was really neat! Also what you will hear in the video is not static, that is the wind and rain battering the windows:

When I woke up this morning, the wind had completely changed direction. Winds are still strong, but have significantly lessened from what they were last night!

I am off to help re-plant 2 of the large almond trees that got toppled last night, but I will send another update later today...provided we still have power.

Sincerely,

Your Hurricane-Surviving-Tree-Saving Field Biologist

Rock you like a Hurricane - Tales from Hurricane Sandy part 1

Well, right now I am sitting through my very first Hurricane. Literally  right now! As we speak Hurricane Sandy is hitting us head on. Sandy is a Category 2 Hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 105 miles per hour (Yikes!!). Normally Cuba and Jamaica would have slowed down this puppy, but no, it decided to pick up speed. as it went over land!

We spent the last 2 days of preparing the campus for this tropical event so I feel relatively prepared...well as prepared as I can be for my first ever Hurricane.

Walking across campus a couple hours ago, before the storm got too bad, I spotted the first downed tree. So, I have decided to bunker down in one of the buildings on campus (where the Interns have stocked their food) which is very secure with its reinforced hurricane "proof" glass. Right now I am enjoying the view and listening to my Hurricane Sandy playlist. It consists of 3.5 hours of music (56 songs) and includes medleys such as:

Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane
R.E.M - it's the End of the World as We Know it
Bob Dylan's - Shelter from the Storm and Rainy Day Woman
Amanda Marshall - Let it Rain
Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain on my Parade
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band - Against the Wind
Blondie - the Tide is High
Frank Sinatra - Stormy Weather
-among many others....

I will try to give you guys reports as this storm progresses but for now, here are some pics from, as Bob Dylan would say, my shelter from the storm.

and it will only get more intense as the night goes on...

Later folks!

Sincerely,

Your not-even-remotely-willing-to-engage-in-storm-chasing-happy-in-my-hideout Field Biologist

Close Encounters of the Shark Kind

This Internship has provided me with many wonderful opportunities to partake in some of the other ongoing projects. Since my checkout dive, I have taken part in 5 dives with Aquaculture team to the Cobia Cage.

This Video is of a descent to the cage taken on October 6th, 2012 my 5th dive to the cage. I think the coolest part of this video is the audio.

As part of CEI's offshore aquaculture program, cobia are raised to marketable size in an offshore cage constructed to hold thousands of fish. This cage is located about 4 km off shore and stretches from around 20 ft below the surface to 95 ft on the ocean floor.  (http://www.ceibahamas.org/aquaculture.aspx). 

Google Earth Map of South Eleuthera with location of Cage relative to CEI

Looking up at the top of the cage from the rim at 50 ft 

Safety stop at 15 ft looking down at the top of the cage

Bottom of the cage at 95 ft

Image of a Cobia, Courtesy of NOAA

While diving at the cage I helped to clean off the algae growth that builds up on the mesh. The first few times I used a scrub brush (which really isn't all that effective). One morning we went out at 6:30 am to scrub and feed the cobia. Students from the Island School came along to dive or free dive with us.

Me scrubbing the cage!! Yes that is a barracuda photo bombing this pic

This is the 4 ft (that's right!) long barracuda that hangs out at the cage 

Same barracuda. This photo was taken when he wouldn't leave me alone! Kept eyeing my watch and camera like it was food

Free divers enjoying an early morning swim at the cage

Now because of the massive amounts of fish in the cage, as well as those swimming around on the outside, this attracts all kinds of predatory species. Sharks are a common visitor to see. However, it wasn't until my 3rd dive to the cage I saw my first shark. It was on the early morning dive, and as I was waiting for my dive buddy to finish taking flow conditions at the rim, I looked down and saw something moving on the ocean floor. The shark was moving like it owned the place! It was a bull shark. In fact, I was later told that this was "big fatty" the massive 2 1/2 m long bull that likes to hang out around the cage. 

Let's play a game of spot the shark!

The 4th time I went out to the cage I was helping use the new pressure washer. This makes the work done by the scrub brush look like I used a tooth brush! This pressure washer is pretty hilarious to use. The force of it is so strong that it shoots you backwards off the cage. One of the Aquaculture Interns described it as being like a cartoon character who is sitting on a balloon when it pops and proceeds to shoot them all around the room! Fortunately for me when I used the pressure washer I had a harness which got attached to the cage. But I could still feel the force (star wars reference not intended) of it. In fact, because of this, I was overly focused on the task at hand: trying to clean the cage without falling over! After about 25 minutes I checked my gauge and noticed I had 1000 psi left in my tank so I look up to find my dive buddy and I see him staring intently right at me! I think "that's weird, do I have algae in my hair or something", and motion to him that I have to head to my safety stop. Once I get back on the boat I mention to the others that I hadn't seen a shark today. The others said that "big fatty" was hanging around the rim of the cage when they dove  an hour earlier. I look at my dive buddy and say I didn't see him, and he gives me a look and says "that's because he was swimming a few feet behind you the whole time"...well, that explained why he was looking at me weird earlier. Good thing I didn't know this or I would have gone through my air a lot faster!

I went out last Saturday (October 6th) and we encountered two other bull sharks at 95 ft (bottom of the cage) when we were attempting to move some cinder blocks. One of the aquaculture interns was on shark patrol and would chase one after the other away as we worked. Not going to lie, there was some hesitation to move on my part....definitely enough to enlist an "are you ok?" gesture from my dive buddy. After what happened last time I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure there wasn't a shark wearing a napkin around his neck holding a fork and knife ready to devour me!

Aquaculture Intern being  Badass on shark patrol!

All around amazing experience, and you will definitely find me at the cage every Saturday!!

Until next time!

Sincerely,

Your Sharkbait (Hoo Ha Ha!) Field Biologist

How I just love the smell of thawing sardines in the morning...

Sorry for the long delay everyone. I have been swamped and time here just seems to speed by! Today I would like to give you a brief overview of the daily work we do here to make sure all our fish are doing well.

Husbandry, is the science of breeding, rearing and caring for the animals in our facilities. Now while the Flats team isn't involved in the breeding of fish in our labs, we must still maintain their care for the duration of their stay. In the wet lab our fish are housed in large tanks where fresh seawater is brought in through a massive PVC piping system. The picture below is of one of the tanks that holds the bonefish we caught in the field.

The PVC pipe located in the right hand corner is the inflow of seawater, while the pipe located in the center of the tank is called the standpipe. The standpipe allows enough water to drain out of the tank to prevent overflowing, but not enough to drain the tank completely. If you also notice in the left side of the photo, there is a clear tube. This tube is connected to the air supply for the whole wet lab, and is then attached to an airstone which goes in the tank. If you remember, airstones are porous stones that diffuse air into the water and helps to maintain the dissolved oxygen in the water.

When I arrive in the wet lab in the morning, my first responsibility is to check on the fish and take tank conditions. That involves using a piece of equipment called a YSI (see below). YSI is a company that creates and develops sensors, instruments and software for environmental water quality monitoring and testing. The particular piece of equipment used here at CEI is a YSI PRO2030 and is used to take tank Temperature, Salinity, and Dissolved Oxygen. We also use a separate probe called an ExStik II to measure the pH (second image below).

The final measurement we take is the ammonia in the system. Fish excrete their nitrogenous wastes as ammonia, and in the tanks, these levels can build up quickly. Levels also tend to increase in higher water temperatures. Ammonia is toxic to fish in levels above 1 ppm (parts-per-million),and therefore, needs to be carefully monitored. If the levels ever reach 1 ppm (and this rarely occurs) we lower the water level and bring it back up with fresh water.

As there are two Flats Interns this semester, we split up the morning responsibilities. While I take tank conditions, the other intern thaws out a container full of sardines cuts them up, and feeds all the fish in the wet lab. Once that is done, the sardine heads and tails must then be transported to the artificial mangroves and dumped. The fish get thawed in the 4th vault which also doubles as our office space. So needless to say it does not smell pleasant in there during this time. It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it...and I wouldn't trade this job for anything!

Until next time!

Sincerely,

Your apologetic-for-taking-so-long-to-update Field Biologist