Academic Excellence

This morning I found myself kicking strongly, pointed headfirst into the current, trying to stay in one place while I peered into the water thinking: Does that two inch long fish about five feet away from me have a black or brown stripe on each side? Even though it was clear and sunny when we left the dock and returned to Moxybush for our field ID exam, it was now pouring rain, giving the surface of the water above me a rolling appearance, like the ocean was being brought to a boil. At the same time I was trying to write underwater on my dive slate, "Halichoeres bivittatus Juvenile (Labridae)." I finished, popped my head to the surface, spit my snorkel out of my mouth, and proudly began to swim back to the boat. That had been the 20th out of a series of species that were pointed out for me to identify, encompassing everything from algae to mangroves to seastars to burrowing worms to flighty fish. By the time I boarded our boat, the sun was out in full force again, (today's UV rating was 11 out of 12 by the way), and I felt great. That was the most interesting test I have taken in my life.

This blog post is basically to illustrate that even though I am in the Caribbean, swimming in the ocean everyday and watching beautiful sunsets off my doorstep every night, I actually am doing school work. A lot of it to be honest. As such it's going to be boring so I'm gonna sprinkle some pictures I've taken here so far throughout. I am taking three classes right now, Marine Ecology, Environmental Policy, and Resource Management, all with a specific focus on the issues confronting South Caicos. All three of these areas provide insight and research opportunities into the central question of the School for Field Studies here: "How can we better support the government and local community to better manage the marine resources and prepare the local community of South Caicos for the advent of mainstream tourism?"

See, South Caicos is at a unique point in it's history. In the past, there have been maybe one or two functioning hotels on a very small scale. However, there are two resorts in development right now that will house more tourists than there are locals on the island. They have been in development for a long time, and there is no signs that they will be completed in the near future, but like it or not, mainstream tourism is inevitable and there will be changes here on the island. Later in the semester, we will begin our directed research projects, focusing on the two pertinent case studies. The first is "the status of the marine resources that are currently considered important to the ecological and socioeconomic well being of the TCI environments and inhabitants," and the second is "Management strategies that assist in maintaining or improving the status of the marine resources in the TCI and contribute to economic development and diversification."

I am more on the marine ecology side of the spectrum, but it is awesome and important to see the management and policy side of things too. It is so great to be here in a real life situation doing what I want to do instead of just reading about it in a textbook. I feel integrated and important, I don't have to wait to graduate college before I can start making a difference.

Yeah, I mean the classes are intense, I read about two dense scientific papers a day, and am packing my head full of scientific names, but its not that bad, I mean its impossible to be unhappy in a place like this. I even have time for reading on the side, currently I am reading Sea Change, an excellent book by Sylvia Earle, which I highly recommend.