The Center for Coastal Studies
October 20, 2009



Academic Update
The academic program is in high gear, along with the students! Martin, our new Spanish Language and Culture course faculty member, has students (and myself) busily studying vocabulary and Spanish grammar. Students found the Spanish course to be of immediate use as they have already spent two weeks in Puerto San Carlos talking to residents, health care workers, and fishermen to collect data for their qualitative research projects. Topics of interest include the effects of Hurricane Jimena on local residents’ economic wellbeing, family cohesiveness, and mobility, while another looks at the health care opportunities and needs of local women.

We recently returned from a two night, three day camping trip to Estero Banderitas, where students had the pleasure of trapping and tagging six green sea turtles, learning about mangrove ecosystems in the estuary, and snorkeling to explore marine life. Conducting research on sea turtles and staying up all night on the boats has its perks, as we had spectacular views of the Milky Way, Jupiter, and many shooting stars. Students are now preparing to give oral presentations on global climate change, write lab reports on scallop abundance in the bay, and finally meet with their Directed Research faculty advisors to begin their broader experiential field research component.
-Andrew J. Schneller, Ph.D., Lecturer in Economic and Ethics of Sustainable Development  

Student Reflections
To prepare for turtle monitoring, the staff members and alumni worked hard to get the food and camping equipment ready. On Friday early morning, as soon as we finished packing the boats, we headed off to “Banderitas,” a mangrove paradise. Here the water is cooler than at others parts of the bay, but the biodiversity of this estuary is also higher. As we snorkeled we watched fish of different species, sea stars, sponges, crabs, and stingrays. At noon the pangueros set up the turtle nets and from 8 PM until 6 AM students took turns checking the nets every two hours. The stars filled up the sky and coyotes howled nearby. Overall, six turtles were caught - four the first night and two on the second night. Turtles were identified, measured, and then set free. On Saturday we learned about cactus species and how they are used by locals as we hiked through the desert. We also had a lecture in the water to learn the importance and biological processes of the mangrove. With little sleep and lots of mosquitoes bites, we returned to the center on Sunday morning.
–Amanda Castillo-McCamant, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

So far we've been here for three weeks and I can safely say they are some of the fastest I've ever spent! I've lived my whole life in frosty Minnesota, so I knew Mexico would be a stretch. Sunscreen, bug spray, and quick reflexes for smacking mosquitoes have proven to be handy, and I am surprised how well-adjusted I feel already.

This past weekend we went turtle monitoring in Las Banderitas, a campsite in a desert habitat about an hour away from campus tucked into the mangroves. We set up camp and resumed normal business—lectures, meals, readings—until the evening. We drew slips to determine our shift for monitoring the nets set up to catch turtles, which were divided into 8 PM to 12 AM, 12 AM to 4 AM, and 4 AM to 6 AM shifts. Our group drew the 12 to 4 shift. By midnight we were in our panga, navigating through the mangroves with nothing but the rising moon and stars as our light. Our four hours in the boat didn't produce any turtles, but in the morning there were four green turtles in the pangas waiting to be tagged and recorded! Green sea turtles are beautiful—they have scutes that are blotched green and black, smooth scales on their flippers and head, and big gray eyes that watched our hands as we measured, weighed, and tagged them. It was a wonderful trip, that ended nicely with dolphins playing in the wake of our pangas.
–Allie Etter, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities