[Ed: apologies for the delay in blog posts, we lost internet access here over the weekend]                      

Hey there! It is day two here in Jamaica for us, and acclimating has been easy. The weather has been beautifully warm, but there has been an occasional shower, which is also commonly referred to as “sky juice” here, which is pretty cool!

The other night, right after our lecture we headed into the wet lab- started some awesome experimental work, which requires scrapping a bunch of sea grass and then attaching it to rope. For this transplant experiment, we are taking grass from this side of the bay: where the grass is nutritionally richer, and taking grass from the opposite side of the bay: where the grass isn’t as rich, and placing it on the other side to see if the herbivores are willing to take the risk for food that tastes better. By doing this, we are able to then assess and see if the reward is worth the risk. This experiment has been really helpful by giving me clarity on which research project I choose to do.

The following day, the DITs (Divers in Training) were preparing by getting their scuba gear in order, and going for their first practice dive! Afterwards, we did some more work in the wet- lab for the transplant experiment and then went for a night snorkel to help us gather some algae and invertebrates to help us with our identification task.

So far the amount of work with lectures and labs combined have been both extremely informative, and exciting! We’ve been doing a lot of hands on work, while enjoying our time in Jamaica!

– Anita

Us night snorkeling. We saw amazing creatures!

Working in the wet lab