Island Times Blog

We kicked off today reviewing for our reef fish surveying project with REEF.org, one of our service learning projects

We also took some time to teach the students how to drive the dinghy. (Yes Mom and Dad, they are driving now!) They really enjoyed getting to learn how to operate the dinghies, and it will come in handy when we need students to assist us with turtle tagging and shuttling. After leaving Brewers Bay, we headed to Great Camanoe for a snorkel.  We snorkeled the cut between Little Camanoe and Great Camanoe. 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 a spotted drum, eel, spiny lobster, arrow crabs, 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, watersports, and beach games. After dinner our guest lecturer, Bob Godfrey, spoke to the students about sustainable agriculture and the research conducted at his Agricultural Experiment Station on St. Croix. The students asked a lot of questions and found it very useful to discuss the applied aspects of his research. Another fantastic FATHOMS day!