Today was our first DR day (DR = directed research). My DR project will be osprey conservation with three other students and Gustavo, the coastal ecology professor. Gustavo’s other project is the sea turtles, so that means we do everything together as a group of eight. Today was a turtle day, and we went out snorkeling in front of Puerto Magdalena, a really small fishing town on the barrier island across the bay from us. What were we looking for you ask? Dead turtles of course! Because consumption of the turtles is illegal, locals often dump the shell and any remains into the bay to get rid of the evidence. So we go looking for the shells, and if we find any we measure and photograph them. But we didn’t find any, just a lot of tires and crab pots. We spent an hour or maybe hour-and-a-half freezing for nothing, but I guess that’s a good thing. (I did see a puffer fish though which was really cool!)
On the way back we saw four sea lions resting on the base of a buoy, we shut the engine off and just drifted closer, and we got so close! Once we got to maybe 10 feet away, the male started barking and gesturing that this was his buoy and his girls and we better back off. So we did. But it was so cool. They all sat up when we got close, and they’d look you right in the eye and you knew they were watching you. It was amazing. After leaving the sea lions, we also saw a gray whale, maybe 30 feet from the boat, but it dove and we didn’t see it again so we headed back to school.
Today was also our first day teaching English classes for the town. I’m in the group that teaches the adults, which was slightly awkward with only two students and five teachers but hopefully more will come next week.
Teaching English! That’ll be perfect for San Antonio! Make some mental notes.
Also -whales and sea lions and no dead turtles- sounds like an amazing day.
yes
very cool experience
cool for the teachers… the student teachers… the students… the animals… and the environment
I recall going on bio labs with Chris Tanner when I was at SMC
but this
well… this is a whole nother level!
awesome
I am stoked for you and a tad jealous