Island Times Blog

Day 11 / June 26 – We kicked off today with a short geology presentation and the “Bat Cave” hike on the north shore of Tortola above Brewers Bay. We got some great photos of the gorgeous vistas along the way. After the hike we headed to Great Camanoe for a “live snorkel.”  We snorkeled the cut between Little Camanoe and Great Camanoe, traversing swim throughs that felt like we were drifting along. The site has the largest, healthiest stands of the endangered elkhorn coral that I’ve ever seen in the Virgin Islands. As if that weren’t enough, the students also saw basket stars, spiny lobster, arrow crabs, lionfish, and hundreds of fish. Then we met up with the rest of the SeaTrek boats at Lee Bay where we had some time for recreation, turtle tagging and beach games. After dinner our guest lecturer, Dr. Stuart Weiss, spoke to the students about sustainable agriculture, his research, and what it takes to pursue a science career. The students asked a lot of questions and found it very useful to discuss the applied aspects of Stuart’s research, as well as his advice on pursuing a career in science.

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