Fogel Makes it to Twin Cays and Back
Grad students have to paddle while Fogel takes gets tubed.
Prof. sings "Stormy Weather" as she goes.
Editor grouses about lack of pictures.
But finally shuts up and just posts the trip report.
by Quinn Roberts and Marilyn Fogel
Along with Marvin Vargas (Myrna’s student), Dan Thornton, and Isabel Romero.
Weather in Belize had been beautiful: sunny, moderately hot days, very little rainfall, and low winds. That is, until Marvin and I (MF) arrived on the 15th of October to Carrie Bow. We brought with weather from the North that included torrential rainfalls, up to 1 inch of rain each day. Marvin is an undergraduate working with Myrna Jacobson, and this was his first trip to Belize, his first fieldwork, and his first independent trip out of the country. Marvin had been thinking of switching his major from biology to labor law. (More about this later!).
Quinn Roberts, ex-Carnegie student intern and research assistant, is now a student at USC, where she is working on GIS presentation of the data from Twin Cays. Having enjoyed her first trip to Carrie Bow in January of 2001, it was not difficult to persuade her to take off time from being a TA to come down for a couple of weeks. In advance of my coming, she sampled bits of leaves and porewaters from all of the experimental trees at each of the 5 experimental plots (Dock, Boa, Lair, Weather Station, and Figlet). It has been since 1999 or before that these trees were sampled for isotopic composition in a thorough manner. We’ll be posting the data for both porewater and isotopes when completed.
Quinn and I attended to some sampling details at the Batfish site, that John mentioned in his earlier article on the missing treatment. We collected leaf litter and Batophora floc below our fertilized trees in order to separate out organisms like amphipods, isopods, and polychaete worms. After that Quinn and I consulted the glossy new aerial photo of Twin Cays that is hanging at Carrie Bow. We had very little data from certain regions of the East Island and decided to fill in some of our sampling gaps. Our first foray included a trip to Zabame’s Purslane Farm, the ramshackle establishment characterized by extensive clear cutting and old weathered buildings and a nice dock on the eastern shore of the island. No one was home, so we collected some mangrove leaves and mucked through some of the Grounds. If you think mangrove mucking is messy, AVOID this region. It was the least appealing place that I have been on the island. We left after getting stuck in questionable goo with only a few samples.
Our next idea was to firm up the boundaries of both islands for GIS spatial integration algorithms, by collecting data and leaves from the fringes of both islands. We began at the new Caretakers zone, which now holds two homes plus outhouses, and a spiffy boat dock. We sampled that red mangrove that is at the most southern extreme of the island. With the Whaler we touched into various spots along the shore, including red mangroves near Johnny Cakes residence. This spot is remarkable for its high density of canines. I am surprised that these dogs have not dragged down and eaten the errant caribou invading the island. At least 7 dogs, sat on the dock and watched Quinn and me as we sampled. They were quiet, so it was hypothesized that they hoped we would bring them food. I hesitate to imagine what would happen if a bag of Friskies was thrown onto the dock. Johnny Cakes and Co. have clear cut another swath of the mangroves north of his property all the way up to the Purslane Farm. Very sad to see this.
On another particularly windy day, Quinn piloted the little Whaler over to Twin in a thumping trip that took us 50 minutes. My brain, normally always a bit addled, was shaken, my rump was a bit sore, and both Quinn and I were relieved to make it to the Channel. Normally a haven from the winds, there were white caps in the interior that morning. Dauntless, we sampled the West and East Islands in the Channel. One thing we noted was some whitish, tan macroalgae growing on the blades of seagrasses in certain parts. HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS? Claudette helped us identify them as 2 species of brown algae. There appeared to more than on previous trips.
Our greatest adventure was trying to sample the East Pond. I had only been to the East Pond a couple of times, back in 1999 with Candy on the orientation trip, and perhaps with one of our original grid stations. We had a devil of a time getting to it. One morning we bushwhacked from Turtle Pond (in a circle-DUH) to the edges of Candy’s Pond and back. Another afternoon we made it to Gator Creek via the Lair site, an easy walk turned difficult by murky Gator Creek. Finally, in a driving rainstorm, Quinn and I followed the “stream” flowing from the Weather Station southward as it emptied into East Pond. Although by distance it was longer, we arrived there in almost no time. Candy and Karen will know this, of course. We were able to sample along the “stream” but the depth of the East Pond and the stinging hydroids made swimming and wading impossible.
With a flash of brilliance and a measure of goofiness, we thought of floating down the “stream” on inner tubes. Dan Miller had one purple, kid’s inner tube, wide enough for the spacious rump of a senior scientist. There was one small boogie board, which we figured would work for a younger scientist, who is able to swim easily from Carrie Bow to South Water. I donned a field vest loaded with disposable waterproof camera, prelabeled sample bags, and a rope. Quinn stuck on her fins at the start of the “stream” and off we went having way more fun than scientists are supposed to have. The sampling scheme worked a treat, with Quinn taking GPS measurements at each station.
I believe there is real potential at the East Pond for Extreme Dining possibilities. We thought of a raft or a flotilla of inner tubes would be nice. East Pond is, to me, one of the prettiest and most natural spots on Twin Cays. We hope our science and hypothesis testing goes as well.
During Marvin’s first escapade to the mangroves, he stepped into one of those huge holes on the way to the Dock Fertilization site. That ended his fleeting love of mangroves, and I think confirmed his interest in Law School. Marvin did enjoy the vegetarian cuisine on the island, and even managed to snorkel on the last day.
One final note, when you go down to Carrie Bow this winter, you’ll be asked by the Station Managers to fill a bag with sand to help shore up the island. On our last day, all of us took turns using primitive scooping tools to fill many bags from the sand in the seawater area. It was a peaceful job, required little brain work, and helped keep the island stable for the next couple of months.