Center for Coastal Studies
October 9, 2007
Academic News
During the past two weeks, students have been analyzing and discussing a variety of topics related to the natural environment, the community of Puerto San Carlos, and how resources are used. During lectures for Economic and Ethical Issues of Sustainable Development, students learned about community development, the importance of behavior when conducting scientific research, and ethics of sustainable development. For the course on Principles of Resource Management they received lectures on management tools, management in Mexico, and natural protected areas. The lectures for the Coastal Ecology course include: bioremediation (of water pollution), scallops aquaculture and fisheries, and the effects of the local industries on the environment; most of these topics were reviewed during field lectures and exercises. Moreover, this wide variety of topics is interconnected with the present situation in this remote location of Baja California. Besides all that, students also started working on the specifics of the various topics that they chose for their Directed Research. Dr. Hector Perez Cortes M., Center Director
Student Reflections
Last Monday brought the successful start of our student-run English classes. Since our field station is situated only a few minutes from the middle of Puerto San Carlos we are able to pick up people from town and drive them over to the center. 
This way they get to come see what we're up to for a change, since they are always so welcoming when we come to visit them in town. It's a great experience for all of us because we get to practice our Spanish skills as they work on their English. We taught both a child and an adult class, so we could work on different material depending on what they thought would be most useful. At first, it was quite intimidating staring out at a room full of enthusiastic elementary school kids, but soon we broke up into small groups so that we could work more informally on basic conversation skills. I think we all know how tough it is to try to pronounce new words in front of a big group! Since most of us were just meeting each other for the first time, it seemed most practical to work on basic greetings. The English level varied widely depending on how much their different schools had already taught them, but everyone was able to practice something new! At one point, a girl and I just broke down laughing because we were trying so hard to have a conversation half in English and half in Spanish! Luckily, it seems that we all had a really fun time getting to know each other, so hopefully news will spread around town and we'll have even more people come next week! Emma Marsh, Vassar College
Last week we traveled to a small, private scallop fishery operated by a man named Fransisco. He has made sustainable aquaculture a priority for himself and he told us his story about learning ways to replenish the mollusk community around 
his home. After the lecture with Fransisco, during which he described his cyclical process of maturing, “planting,” and harvesting different species of mollusks, we climbed back onto the pangas and pulled on our snorkeling gear. We were split into groups of two, and Fransisco showed us how to pull the penshells from the seabed. Much like any new experience the first attempt was hard, but as we found more penshells we were able to harvest them more quickly. After about two hours we arrived back to shore salty and tired, but triumphant with our mesh bags full of penshells. We opened one up and Gustavo showed us the digestive and reproductive systems. He also showed us the muscle that holds the two halves of the shell together. Fransisco cleaned off the muscle and handed it to us, signaling for us to try it. Warily we nibbled on it and found that it tasted delicious and salty (which makes sense since it was just pulled from the bay). We ended up with around 11 of those scallops and they were added to a bowl full of onion, tomato, celery, and cilantro. After a few hours of swimming, the ceviche that was made was ravenously devoured by all of us. Educational, fun, and hands-on experiences have not been uncommon this semester, but it never stops being thrilling to interact with local people, learn new ways to respectfully use the resources that nature gives us, and in this case, enjoy fresh scallops on the edge of the bay. Billie Pellerito, Guilford College