Hornet Under Water

the people you meet

2007-11-21T08:32:00.000-05:00

We haave a very ecclectic group of people on this trip...they represent England, Russia, Hungary, East Africa, and all over the USA...our leader is a NewYour/Jersey boy. The people range in age from 24 to74 years of age...and are all very interesting. I hope I can get i n touch with you all today....Happy Thanksgiving...MRS. H.

hello again....

2007-11-21T07:08:00.000-05:00

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.

well here I am..

2007-11-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

After a three plane adventure...two jets and a prop plane, I arrived in San Salvador. The weather is warm and balmy, and the water is a bit churned up from the tropical storm that came through recently.

The first day (SATURDAY) I discovered that Bahamas Air travels on Bahama's time; a two hour delay at the airport kept us from snorkling the first day, so we did a road tour of the island instead. Small island; took us a little more than an hour to go around the whole thing.
We actually stopped at the spot where Columbus landed on San Salvador, and did some snack shopping in one of the three tiny grocery stores on the island.

Saturday night was a general introduction to the study itself. John Rollino who is conducting the study gave us a history of the coral bleaching that has been going on here for the last several years. He also pointed out some really nifty ways they are going to be trying to solve this problem by actually grafting new corals onto the skeletons of the dead coral...more about this
later.

Yesterday morning we went snorkeling for the first time...the water was a bit rough and murky, but we were actually able to see many of the corals we are going to be studying. Everyone else except Mrs Stein, myself, and John R. had wet suits to wear against the 'cold' water. The three of us all being NJ people toughed it out...the water here is warmer than the Jersey Shore.

The people here are great....hope to get some photos on today...we have had major computer problems...talk to you soon...Mrs. H.

mission video

2007-11-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

test text and picture

2007-11-13T13:04:00.000-05:00

ok if i do this right i should have a picture