Explore NPU: Marine & Aquatic Biology
Students Take on San Salvador, Bahamas
Identifying Sea Turtles in Graham's Harbor
Overcoming Fear - Read an Entry From Chris
May 15th, 2016
"On Wednesday the 15th we all woke up to the welcome sound of rain pitter patter on the ground outside. Our first stop of the day was at Dixon Hill lighthouse. For many years this lighthouse has been illuminated by a kerosene lamp floating on a bed of mercury. I am horribly afraid of heights so I knew this would be an obstacle to overcome. Driven by curiosity and the desire to overcome this fear, I made it to the top of the lighthouse. I was flooded with joy to see the amazing view of San Salvador and the top had the best breeze on the island. After the lighthouse, the group made it's way over to a whipping post not even 100 yards away. This whipping post was filled with history of slavery following the arrival of loyalists. The plantation owner used this post to strike fear into the hearts of his workers. He would whip his slaves on top of this hill for all to see... Ending on a much lighter note, we finished our day by snorkeling at Snapshot Reef. This dive offered many reef spots covered with beautiful fish such as trumpetfish, queen angelfish, tiger grouper, and the vibrant blue chromis." -Chris, Sophomore
Bonding Time - Read an Entry From Mitch
May 16th, 2019
"Today we went to dive at Sue's Point. This was probably my favorite dive so far. I saw the most diverse assortment of fish I've seen at any dive site yet. There were a couple of really cool fish. One that I saw for the first time was the tiger grouper. When we got close enough and frightened it, it changed color. It went from black with white spots to almost completely white. We also say a spotted moray eel. I dove down and got really close to it and it opened it's mouth at me threateningly. It started to come out of it's hole every time I got close. Unfortunately, the camera I had died before I saw it. Besides the diving, life has been alright. It has good parts and rough parts. On the bad side, I have hundreds of bug bites, it is super hot and almost impossible to sleep. On the bright side, some of the things that I thought would be the bad part of the trip are my favorite things. I was worried about the rain ruining our days, but it has cooled us off from the heat and has been incredibly refreshing. The truck rides are also super nice. I thought they would be long and boring but they also cool us off and give us great bonding time." -Mitch, Junior
Dolphins and Iguanas - Read an Entry From Brody
May 17th, 2019
"Today, we split up into smaller groups for boat rides out to Gaulin Reef; Dr. Vick, Vanessa, Thalia, Rhane, Olivia and myself were in the first excursion out. We all gathered for early chow in the mess hall and proceeded to Graham's Harbor Beach across from Gerace. Our Captain and his boat were nowhere in sight... After twenty minutes we were all starting to worry he was going to be a no-show. Finally, towards the north west, we saw a speck-of-a-boat make its way toward us. We quickly and excitedly tossed our gear on board, hopped on the boat, and headed out into the open ocean. Ten minutes into our ride we were all surprised by a curious family of dolphins dancing and jumping out of the water. Even Captain Jimmy was surprised by the site and stopped the boat to take his own photos. One dolphin joined us for a few more minutes, staying to the front of our boat, showing off his fins. We stopped by White Key, a tiny island made of sharp, craggy rocks. This island is one of the few safe havens for the San Salvador Rock Iguana. We spent a quick five minutes hiking to the island's center and proceeded to return to our boat. We arrived at Gaulin Reef, geared up and plunged into the open waters. This location was by far my favorite sight for snorkeling. The Elkhorn Coral formed giant underwater forests. It was absolutely breathtaking. At Gaulins Reef I was able to capture a video of an enormous Nassau Grouper. It had to have weighed seventy pounds. Towards the end of our snorkeling, it started down-pouring. The sight of the rain hitting the ocean's surface above us was amazing. As we returned to Gerace, the next group of us were prepped and ready to go in our place. It's unlikely, but I hope we get to do this activity again. The ocean reefs are of a different world out there." -Brody, Senior
"Today we got the chance to explore the Three Keys, which are three small "islands" close to San Salvador. On our way there (on a boat) we got to enjoy the company of a small dolphin family. THEY WERE SO CUTE AND FRIENDLY! One of them swam next to us for a while as we headed to White Key - the island of the iguanas. We only got to see a few iguanas since it was a bit too early in the morning. We then went to Gaulin's Key and snorkeled in that reef. It was a gorgeous huge elkhorn coral for it's base. It has been the best reef by far this trip! There was long trumpetfish, colorful filefish, and giant Groupers! It was also fun swimming in the middle of the ocean while it rained a lot - seeing the rain drops hit the water seemed pretty and odd. Today has been my favorite day (:" -Vanessa, Junior
May 17th, 2019
Octopus Friend - Read an Entry From Sam
May 18th, 2019
"Waking up to a big thunderstorm and lack of sleep due to a night full of card games, I thought today was going to be a gloomy day, but today was one of my favorite days of the trip. We started off our day with a hike to North Point for a botany transect. The views from the trail were breathtaking and the memories made were priceless. I brought my camera with us, so I was able to take some really great pictures of the local flora and scenery. The lab work was difficult to concentrate on with the view behind us, but identifying plants and using the GPS was pretty fun.
After the hike, we went looking through tide pools for brittle stars and sea urchins for our lab. It was my first time seeing urchins and there were hundreds of urchins in the tide pools. Finding the brittle stars was a lot of fun because they like to hide underneath rocks with the urchins. We found some fuzzy chiton and a sea slug too. It was so cute!
When we got back from lunch, we went snorkeling at Rocky Point. Due to the vigorous swimming from scuba yesterday, I was not the ocean’s biggest fan so I was not into looking for fish today. But, I did get to see my first peacock flounder fish today. It was so ugly but cute at the same time. After getting my mask fogged up for the 40th time, Chris and I decided to look for sand dollars instead. We found about 15 of them, and I found a beautiful queen conch shell. The shell was huge and had vibrant colors- it was the shell I was trying to find to take home. But, when we got to shore I found a friend in it- an octopus! It was a little pygmy octopus that had used the shell as its home. I got a bunch of cute pictures and was ready to release the little buddy back into the ocean so I could take the shell home. There was only one problem: he didn’t want to come out of the shell. So, I made a decision to put the shell and the octopus back where it belongs in the ocean. There is an empty conch shell that has my name on it and is waiting for me to take it home. Maybe I will find it tomorrow." - Sam Cam, Junior
Read an Entry From Emmy - Our Queen of Silly Faces
May 19th, 2019
"I woke up, worked out (without Annie) at the beach, came back, ate breakfast, showered and then at 10:10 we went to church. The service was first Sunday school where some of us fell asleep a "little". Then the actual service started and we sang a lot of songs and the pastor was very passionate when singing and talking. We came back in time for lunch and then chilled for a long time because then after dinner and after checking on our brittle stars which had moved all to one spot in the tank we did our NIGHT DIVE! Going into the night dive - I was very scared to be in the pitch black water, but as fast as I walked on the beach that fear disappeared and was replaced with excitement. Aisha and I were swim partners today again and I think we were the only ones holding hands hehe... It was mostly because I didn't want her to miss any of the cool things I saw. Just a few minutes in we saw squids, donkey dong, sea cucumber, crabs, jellyfish, eels, shrimp, it was so so cool. I was so excited to see even the smallest things. We also ended up having a "laugh attack" because we kept saying "what?" without understanding each other HAHA :D! We went back to the lab to look at pictures and it turns out people saw octopus!! All in all a GREAT day! (: PS -> I also swallowed a fly today. Science rocks!" -Emmy, Senior
Watling's Castle, Grotto Bay, Owl's Hole - Learning is FUN!
Read an Entry From Tim
May 20th, 2019
"Woke up at 6:50. Breakfast: French toast, sausages, and oatmeal. We went to Grotto Bay in the morning. We saw Black Durgons for the first time today, and I saw some cool grouper. The sun was very nice today, and we didn't get rain (finally)! We visited the ruins of Watling's Castle. Watling was a plantation owner who became a privateer/pirate. Some of us also climbed down into a 25 feet deep cave by climbing down the tree that was growing out of it. There were a few stalactites and many, many more mosquitos. Lunch: packed PB&J's and lunch meat sandwiches. We visited Rocky Point again in the afternoon and played Marco Polo, which is significantly harder in the ocean, given the lack of border walls. Dinner: pineapple ham, fried rice, salad, and chocolate cake. Jon stepped on an urchin and got spine splinters." -Tim, Sophomore
Into The Void - On The Search For Sharks With Aisha
May 21st, 2019
"Our first snorkel today was at Bamboo Point. We swam out to the wall which then drops down to 50-60 feet. It was very blue and hard to see clearly. We were on the lookout for reef sharks but I unfortunately didn't see any. Some people who continued to swim in the deep end did see a few sharks very deep at the bottom. I saw black durgon, ocean triggerfish, yellow spotted ray, and finally a southern ray! When I swam back to the shallow I was playing peek-a-boo with a really pretty filefish. I think we were friends since he also never put his file up or swam away. On the beach I found the most beautiful queen conch! it is definitely a keeper". -Aisha, Senior
Stoked About Storrs - Read an Entry From Nyssa
May 21st, 2019
"Reaching one’s hand into a warm, murky, brown lake to pick up chunks of bacteria gunk isn’t everyone’s idea of good Tuesday... but for me it was nerd heaven.
I got to hold stromatolites from Storr’s Lake!!!
At this point you’re probably wondering what stromatolites are, and might be slightly concerned based on my intro paragraph, but hang tight- these guys are worth reading about.
What are stromatolites?
Essentially they’re layered, rock-like structures that are formed by bacteria and sediment floating in hypersaline water.
Some bacteria are able to form sticky layers called biofilms, where they can adhere to a surface, have access to nutrients and potentially pick up bonus genes from surrounding bacteria. When this happens in a body of water, sediment that’s floating around gets trapped in the biofilm too. The layers of bacteria and sediment build until we get a chunk of rocky, bacterial goodness like this.
Why do we care about these things?
So many reasons, but I’ll keep it to three.
First, they’re formed by one of the oldest living organisms: Cyanobacteria. For the sake of time, and you’re interest level, I’ll leave you to Google these bacteria (look for ‘The Great Oxidation Event’ and ‘Endosymbiont Theory’ in particular). Their role in the Earth’s history is pretty remarkable.
Second, stromatolites are rare. There are only a few known locations of live stromatolites left across the globe.
Third, the mechanisms involved in making these things are incredible. Trust me.
I was described as “having a moment” while standing knee deep in Storr’s Lake holding these stromatolites. I love Microbiology so naturally this was going to be an exciting experience. But, it was a little more than that. For me, it was a chance to hold something much bigger than me- microbes that have a history and impact larger than anything else I’ve ever touched. I stood in that weird, warm lake and felt centered in my passion." - Nyssa, Junior
Hear From Our Fearless Leader Himself! - Words From Dr. Rholl
May 22nd, 2019
I get seasick easily. I don’t like the way my skin feels after I swim in the ocean. I sunburn easily. So why am I happily on my fourth trip to San Salvador to teach Marine and Aquatic Biology?
Today we snorkeled down nature’s lazy river, a tidal channel called Pigeon Creek. These shallow estuaries, especially lined with red mangroves like this one, are the perfect nurseries for most of the fish we have been seeing throughout the island. As we cruised at 2 knots over turtle grass beds, 6-inch juvenile Nassau Groupers, nearly identical to their adult version we saw on open reefs (just 5 times smaller), looked at us from the cover of ledges. As an initial phase stoplight parrotfish darted into the thick grass to hide, I thought about their migration to deeper waters where the adults will lazily crunch coral. It amazes me that these fish will move around the island based on stages in their lifecycle.
After a short drive we were at Grotto Beach, floating in the clear water. I spent about 20 minutes there until I had sufficiently cooled down. As I walked up the white sand beach, I saw hundreds of yellow butterflies flying toward the water with the backdrop of a deep blue sky. At this point, I was a little wobbly from bobbing in the water, my skin was a little prickly from the salt, and my students made fun of me for being covered from head to toe in sun-protective clothing. But it’s all worth it.
I keep coming back to The Bahamas because I love being in nature, and there are few places in the world that are more beautiful or ecologically interesting. Working with students to identify and observe species is fun. Using the data to analyze variance of ecological communities is fascinating. Doing both at once is simply fantastic.
It’s tough work, but someone has to do it.
Around The Island in a Day + Taking Responsibility + Sea Grass Transect
Students spend two days exploring the entirety of San Salvador while also conducting a transect of the sea grass beds in Grahams Harbor and picking up trash along the way.
The Starfish Go to Pigeon Creek - Read an Entry From Olivia, Our Creature Queen!
May 22nd, 2019
"Today was probably the best day! We went to Storr's Lake which was super dirty. There was a huge amount of foam like soap bubbles. Then we went to Dim's Bay, where I found a crab and picked up another one of those goby things. I'm still not sure it was a gold spotted goby, thought. I tried to find the spot, but... Then we got to Pigeon Creek, where we had a lot of fun. My goggles were working somewhat properly, and I saw this massive barjack swim past me. There were a surprisingly large number of starfish when I had hardly seen them before. I finally saw a barracuda for the first time this trip! When we were done with that, we went to Grotto and had lunch, and then we just hung out there for a couple of hours. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the others. I think we're getting along pretty well. We went back to the GRC for dinner and then met up in the lab to debrief. I was doing research and I found a crab right in front of its burrow. I snuck up slowly, and I was able to almost touch it when it finally moved. But it didn't retreat all the way into the burrow! I thought maybe it couldn't fit in. I then spent a lot of effort trying to pry it out and eventually succeeded. I played with it for a bit, noticing certain behaviors, like how it seemed more interested in my nails than my skin. Today was really fun". - Olivia, Junior
The Ocean is No Home For You - Annie Talks Trash
May 23rd, 2019
"After completing the transect in Graham's Harbor we loaded into our trusty blue truck and drove to East Beach. We were greeted by the unwelcome and heart wrenching sight of miles and miles of trash lying on the beach. Imbedded in the sand where it will stay until the tide pulls it out into the open ocean... Or until people like us see it and take action! And that is just what we did. After filling the truck with unwanted amounts of plastic and other such things we disposed it at the island's central dump. I hope that students will remember the sight we saw today, and will choose to make our Earth a little better by changing a habit or two (or 20 ) in their day-to-day routine. Our planet has taken the beating, and if we don't start to take initiative in our daily lives then it will most certainly be too late." -Annie, 2016 Bio Grad (Marine & Aquatic San Sal 2015)
Read an Entry From Thalia
May 23rd, 2019
"Today was a great day, we really are enjoying our last days here! We started the morning off by visiting the Navy Dock to do a species transect. At the beginning I thought it would involve difficult tasks but once we started on our transect, we were able to work together as a team and were able to finish faster and with no problem at identifying each of the species found there. It was fascinating to see how my classmates were working together with Dr. Rholl to see how many fish they could get into the net to observe them closely, but the better part was that those fish were later released into their natural habitat <3 We then headed off to East Beach where classmates were working as a team again helping collect trash that was left or came up with high tide and was landing on the shore/sand. Each of them helped to clean the place and the bags of trash were later taken to the local dump and is taken care of by the Bahama's system. After witnessing this, I felt very happy and proud of all of my classmates, professors, and Annie, for doing the right thing on this island and for the environment. We also had time to swim for a while and we spent a great time talking and laughing with each other. I wish we could have more times like this back in Chicago; this is one of the things that I will miss from this island - the quality time that we spent with each other! <3" - Thalia, Senior