Island School Symposium and Conchfest Day 12

Today was a day off for us for a very special reason.  We had the opportunity to view the Island School’s symposium put on by their students (high school age) where they presented their research they had been working on for their semester in the Bahamas.  Going in, we had moderate expectations and in general hoped for the best.  Boy was I pleasantly surprised.  All the presentations put on by the students were fantastic.  They worked in groups of 6 students each on various projects that were headed by specific research faculty at CEI.  Among the notable presentations, I learned about a new species of giant isopods found in the deep sea (>3000 ft depths) off South Eleuthera, attitudes of local fisherman toward fisheries management and conservation, lionfish preferentially predation, and much more.  The content of not only their presentations but also their posters were certainly on par with undergraduate honors research and early graduate level research.  It made me feel so happy and optimistic that students of this age could produce such awesome studies (under the fantastic guidance of their CEI advisors).  I feel incredibly optimistic that the students will pass along their knowledge and understanding of the importance of ocean ecosystems to their families, friends, and peers regardless of what profession they seek.  As an advocate for experiential learning, I believe programs like this can profoundly change the world.  I was overjoyed to be able to witness the passion and interest of these high school students in striving to understand the natural world.  The art of learning how to ask questions in my mind is the most important part of becoming an intellectual and I believe these students have seized the opportunity to become active learners as well as educators.

                        

The symposium ended at around 3 so we had some down time today before the evening festivities of Conchfest.  Conchfest is an annual event that celebrates the cultural and economic importance of conch in a fun festival environment.  I thought I missed the shuttle to get to conch fest so I hitched a ride with a couple of CEI researchers.  It turns out that we left at almost the same time as the shuttle so we got their shortly after the rest of the guests, researchers, and faculty of CEI.  Shortly after I arrived, I was offered a warm welcome to come to Owen’s house in Deep Creek who is one of the main researchers at CEI.  I stayed over at his house and socialized with a number of other CEI staff and really enjoyed getting to know them on a more personal level.  I was also able to open up to them to the extent that I told them about my situation with Mark and how I am telling a little white lying about being a graduate student to everyone at CEI because I was told to do so by Mark.  It turns out that research assistants never stay in Hallig so the deception, although trivial and ridiculous, is necessary in order to not stir up the pot too much.  After about an hour, I hitched a ride back to Conchfest (which was on the outskirts of Deep Creek closest to CEI) to meet up with Tye and Stephanie.  I got some conch fritters and ribs for dinner (which I thoroughly enjoyed at the festival and back at CEI) and another beer to wash down the food.  I was really happy about being outside CEI for the first time and exploring the local area.  I also took a funny picture with one of the Simon Frasier University students named Severin near the CEI lionfish table (pictured here).  This setup of CEI’s at Conchfest was very impressive.  They presented lionfish as a culinary alternative to conch (which are an endangered species) and directly as well as indirectly spread awareness about the economic and environmental benefits of targeting lionfish as a viable source of fishing income.  Providing the knowledge and awareness accompanied by some tasty cooked lionfish seemed to go a long way toward educating the Eleuthera public about the conservation issues associated with lionfish and conch.  This was super gratifying to see in action.  After we hitched a ride back as a group, I quickly turned on the Kings game to see what was going on.  As I did this, they had just started the first overtime.  The game went into double overtime before the Kings scored the deciding goal to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals.  It is impressive and exciting that they are doing so well and are 2 games away from a championship.  Now I am finishing up the blog and heading off to bed.  Until later.