hello again....

Sorry about the pictures...I've been having some problems with my camera and the underwater pictures have not been too good because of the roughness of the ocean and the sand being all churned up...

Sorry Period 2 that I have not been able to talk with you 'live' but we are usually out of here early in the morning before you are even in class....

So, now what are we doing down here....so far we have only been out to snorkle three times...once to try out our gear and make sure everyone was comfortable with what they were doing...Second to learn to identify the various types of coral under water...and third, to actually take data...

It has been so windy here, and the currents have been so strong, you really need to be a confident about what you are doing in the water just to stay together as a group. Our research scientist has deemed the conditions to be so bad, that he does not think we should even try to collect data....

Collecting data underwater for this project involves such 'high tech' tools as PVC pipe, heavy twine, floor tiles, pencils, bottle caps, sealable plastic cups , and orange plastic tape...when I get back to school, I'll show you the pictures and you'll see what I mean...of course, the data collected in the field, and the water testing done back at the lab are then tabulated and fed into a computer....

Yesterday we did a bit of an island tour...we saw the lighthouse (one of the few nonautomated lighthouses still in existance...the view from the top of the lighthouse was absolutely spectacular...we then hiked to a limestone cave (20minutes through the underbrush) which was both interesting and challenging because the path hadn't been cleared yet this year. Oh, and along the path were dozens of those little hermit crabs foung along the boardwalk...now you know where they come from!

In the afternoon we did beach survey work which is helpful relevent to the shore area research that is currently going on.

Well that's about all for now...I'll try to get through today at some point....If I don't get through...I wish everyond and their families a very HAPPY AND HEALTHY THANKSGIVING..and thank you Mr. Barret and Mr. Fields for all your help...see you MONDAY...Mrs. H.