Island Times Blog

Thanks to our friends at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day! We spent much of the day assisting the shark scientists with their reef shark research,

…which focuses on the impact of longline fishing on shark behavior and physiology. The hope is that the data will lead to fishing methods and management practices that decrease shark stress and bycatch. Teams of four students rotated between our boat and the smaller research boat so they could get up close and personal with the sharks that were captured and tagged. It also gave them the opportunity to work side-by-side with the scientists and discuss their work in more detail. All of the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were excited to learn that they would have more opportunities to work with the shark team later in the week. Later in the afternoon we enjoyed a dive at CEI’s offshore aquaculture cage where they farm a fish called cobia. It was neat for our divers to see how the cage was constructed. They also saw a couple more sharks, a very curious grouper, and even a sea turtle. After the dive and dinner, we went to the CEI campus for a lecture by a visiting professor from Scotland. Dr. Salt presented her research on social and sustainability issues on small islands throughout the world. Her talk was engaging and was a perfect tie-in to many of the issues and concepts we have already been discussing throughout the FATHOMS program. Then it was time to relax and share a few stories before going to bed…. which we all did rather willingly.

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