July 25, 2005

Of course the list of wild animals at South Caicos is much broader than these three creatures, but I have had interactions with these three over the last few days.  On Friday, I went out sharking with Aaron and Marta.  This is something that they do almost every day but I just can’t stomach spending hours and hours sitting doing nothing especially when there are other things to do be done.  Sharking entails setting up nets in shallow water and then waiting indefinitely to see if a small shark swims into the net.  This has only happened once when I have tagged along and Friday did not add to the roster.  When one does catch a shark, it is necessary to contain it as quickly as possible so it doesn’t escape or get caught in the net and then the shark is weighed, measured and tagged.  The main target here is young lemon sharks but turtles, rays, and nurse sharks have also been included from time to time as bycatch.  The shark tagging I have witnessed involved a newborn little lemon shark- only about two feet long.  Oh, how cute!

The students have been working on their fish identification and tomorrow they have their test.  Marta and I are responsible for making sure the students know their fish so every day we go out with a small group of students and we point out important fish (when we can find them).  Generally one of the students will totally miss what we point out-because they were off staring at something else or because they simply zoned out- and invariably the fish will have vanished without a trace.  This is fine for fish that one sees frequently but it sure gets frustrating when it’s a fish that I have only seen once, or for that matter, never before.  It’s pretty cool though spending time in the water- especially early in the morning when the sun still isn’t too high in the sky.  One has to be careful in the water, however, as the current tends to be rather strong and there are plenty of nice things to run into if you don’t pay attention.  For example, the other day I smashed straight into some fire coral (a nice hydrozoan) right after telling the students to watch out. Oops.

Today I went out with Dave, our center director to catch and tag some barracuda.  So, Brooke is not a fisherman but the prospect of catching a meter-long fish with sharp teeth sounded kind of cool and I am glad I gave it a try because we caught some rather sizable fish.  I can now say I have caught a fish- I guess I caught a trout when I was five but I am not entirely sure that counts.  Now I can say I have caught a barracuda or two and that feels good.

As far as horses go, some of the locals here mentioned that they go riding every Sunday to a student and she passed the information on to me.  I love horses and haven’t ridden in ages.  I figured that riding around the island could be very nice and that it would give me a chance to know the locals a bit better.  Sunday rolled around and we headed off to one of the local hangouts- Trench town- to meet up with everyone.  Well, they weren’t ready yet so we sat down to wait.  As we waited we talked a bit about the riding agenda and it soon became apparent that the horses they ride are actually the wild horses that roam around the island.  The same horses that dust themselves in our volleyball court, poop on our front steps, and won’t let me get near them with a 10-foot pole. Hmmm, interesting.  How do they catch them?  They go and rope them from a car… Do they have saddles?  Nope, they ride bareback.  Ok, riding wild horses bareback could be a great thrill.  However, the responsible intern in me decided that perhaps this is an activity that can wait for awhile and my respect for the locals has certainly increased.

Well, the heat has returned.  We had some very rainy days last week but they have gone and we have blue skies once again.  I am working on putting together a talk on the geology of South Caicos and the Turks and Caicos for the students. I hope that they like it.  Well, that’s the news for now.  I hear that the US is on the brink of overheating.  Stay cool everyone.

Brooke