I am currently having an information overload. After 5 hours of lecture every day since arriving in Jamaica you can imagine how our brains are feeling right now (even though it hasn’t been that long)… Maybe it’s just me but it is a crazy amount of information for such a short period of time. However, after having a major study session last night and identifying every species in sight, I feel a bit more confident in my knowledge of marine ecology.

On 1/6/12 we were given our partners/groups for “collection and identification” of marine life, I was paired with Mike and we’re pretty awesome partners. We initially stayed by the mangrove due to poor visibility and collected some green, brown and red algae, but then were able to explore out by the reef crest and saw some pretty neat stuff! As we were exploring the reef crest I noticed a small silver fish that kept darting past my mask and following me, I brushed him off and kept going but then no later did I see him following alongside Mike as we moved onward. I notified Mike of this little guy and soon enough Mike was on a mission to catch this fish, this was possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen. Mike was flying and darting trying to capture this fish. His first attempt at catching this fish failed and we thought that the fish had left us, but then he was back again! This time Mike won and caught him! Immediately we named him Skippy, he was and still is our little pride and joy… We quickly brought him back to the wet lab so we could identify him, and so the search began.

It took us until I had to have my ear cleaned the next day to identify him… So I have water in my ear, and while everyone else was out exploring the reef I was stuck lying on my side trying to fix this ear problem… As soon as the hydrogen peroxide was administered my ear was fizzing and popping. Instead of just lying there staring at the wall I figured I would be productive and try to find the identity of our little fish. So here I am lying on the bed on my side with hydrogen peroxide exploding in my ears awkwardly holding a book trying to find his identity… Finally, I found it! Little Skippy is a yellow jack, Caranx bartholomaei!

Needless to say this trip is amazing and I am loving every minute of it! I’ll keep you posted on any other crazy events that occur while here in Jamaica. (:

Our little Skippy!

– Steph