After much anticipation, we got the call! The cobia fingerlings had a long journey from The University of Miami’s experimental fish hatchery at RSMAS to the Cape Eleuthera Institute. We spent the day preparing the tanks for the fingerlings…scrub, rinse, soak, drain, scrub, rinse, fill! Marie and Josh took the truck to pick up the 13 boxes from the Rock Sound Airport Friday afternoon. It was like Christmas morning when the truck finally pulled up. We put the bags in the tank to acclimate the cobia to their new home. After, we opened each bag and carefully let them free! The fingerlings will be used in an upcoming feed trial. The new food is specifically designed for the cobia species and it has a lower percentage of fish meal than the typical generic aquaculture feed. We will study the growth rates of the fingerlings for a month and after that time we will transfer the cobia into a nursery net, housed in the off-shore cage, with it’s new shark resistant netting, and will be monitored daily. This is the first time fish will be stocked in an offshore cage with shark resistant netting.

“To better understand these issues, we conducted field research and interviews with restaurants, farmers, government officials, and high school students. Shaun Ingraham was instrumental in helping us set up interviews with high school students, and it was really interesting to hear first-hand why many teenagers aren’t interested in farming. One of the paradoxes we discovered was that almost no students were interested in farming as a career, but many reported eating local food and expected food production on the island to stay the same.

We also toured farms around Eleuthera.  One of the main issues with farming on Eleuthera is that many farmers use a lot of fertilizers and herbicides while removing organic matter from their fields, which prevents the creation of new soil.  Josh Shultz at CEI has been working with local farmers, trying to spread knowledge of these practices—a crucial step to improving agricultural productivity.

Ironically, many of the traditional practices on the island work better than the current, chemical-dependent practices. For example, Joseph, who gardens at The Island School, uses pothole farming, which effectively traps water and nutrients and also makes bananas easy to harvest. With these techniques, he’s able to get good crop yields without chemical inputs. Josh has also been working on developing organic fertilizers from the byproducts of aquaponics, which he distributes to farmers to help reduce their dependency on chemical inputs.

We also researched expanding markets for farmers on the island, speaking to numerous chefs and restaurant buyers. We also spoke with Emery Long, a new Island School cook, who’s hoping to increase the Island School’s local purchases. We were all very impressed with his pumpkin soup made with pumpkins grown on the island. It was great to see how our recommendations for buying could actually be put into action.

But this isn’t to say that we had all work and no play. We participated in Island School morning exercises and surprisingly, we (most of us!) managed to drag ourselves out of bed every morning to go running, biking, or swimming – something that we’re pretty sure our classmates at Williams won’t believe. Josh, who co-led our group, had great ideas for fun afternoon activities, ranging from snorkeling to cave exploring.

We also got to meet many of the CEI staff, as well as the other groups doing research at the school. Another cool part of staying at The Island School was learning about sustainability by living it. Williams has sustainability as one of its goals, but hasn’t made nearly as many strides as The Island School. Living simply on Eleuthera helped us appreciate more fully the benefits we have at Williams, as well as showing us that sustainability isn’t as difficult as it first seemed.

Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience. We mostly loved meeting Eleutherans and talking with them, and learning so much about agriculture and how the system could work better for everyone: farmers, restaurants, markets and residents.  Our final report and PowerPoint and film will be linked to the CEI website.  Hopefully we’ll see some of our recommendations implemented – it’s a great excuse for us to go back and check!”

To learn more about Williams College and their Center for Environmental Studies, visit their website here.

The next Admissions Reception event is in Easton, Maryland on Tuesday, January 31 from 6pm-8pm. It will be held at the Koch Home:

28299 Old Country Club Road
Easton, MD 21601

We hope to see you there!

Highlights of the week include:

• Intimate workshop experience with veteran writer, Richard Bausch
• Individualized feedback on a manuscript
• “Exploration time” to enjoy the beaches, waters, and Cape Eleuthera
• All-day “Sense of Place” writing retreat at Lighthouse Beach
• Optional afternoon activities, including SCUBA, snorkeling, and biking
• Accommodations in the new state-of-the-art Hallig Lodge
• Variety of evening social and literary events, including sunset cruise, “book club” with author, and catered final banquet

To learn more about the workshop, please click here.

CEI’s aquaculture manager, Marie Tarnowski, presented on the development of the Sustainable Aquaculture Program at CEI and Annabelle Brooks, Research Manager at CEI, presented findings on lemon shark abundances in mangrove creeks around South Eleuthera. CEI’s Flats manager, Liane Nowell, presented a poster that focused on bonefish handling practices and the bonefish tagging program while Josh Shultz, Aquaponics manager at CEI, presented a poster that focused on developing aquaponics in The Bahamas. This was the first time anyone from the Cape Eleuthera Institute had presented at the Abaco Science Alliance. All attendees from CEI had a great time not only learning about other facets of research in The Bahamas, but also sharing our own novel research and making great connections. Representatives from CEI look forward to attending future Abaco Science Alliance Conferences.

Students from The Maine School of Science and Mathematics departed this morning, having completed two weeks of research and experiential learning here at The Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute. During their time on Eleuthera, they worked closely with CEI researchers, while learning about the importance of conserving resources, exploring the surrounding tropical ecosystem, and discovering some of the many hidden treasures of the island. They reflect on their experiences:

“One of the main goals for coming here was to conduct research meaningful to the place in which we were living. We were divided into two groups for our program-long projects, one collecting data on the diet of invasive lionfish via dissection and analysis of stomach contents. This group dissected over 100 lionfish and went free diving among the coral reefs to see them alive and swimming. The other group worked diligently to find the maximum temperature at which certain species of fish can survive, while exploring the abundant flats ecosystems of Eleuthera. This included seine netting for Checkered Puffers, Yellow Finned Mojarra, and Schoolmaster Snappers, resulting in a single catch of 91 fish! We then measured the respiration patterns of the fish as the temperature of the water was increased. Yesterday we presented our findings to a large portion of the campus, which proved to be a great success.

Aside from our research projects, we have also learned an incredible amount about the importance of conservation and sustainable practices. On one of our first days here, we were able to tour the campus and see the many different ways that The Island School lives sustainably, including water cisterns, solar panels, the resource center, composting, aquaponics, and solving the problem of overfishing. More importantly, we have experienced this sustainable lifestyle firsthand by actively conserving water and composting—we all now know what a navy shower feels like!”

We send the students of MSSM off with the intention to do good work back home and in their school, and we hope to see them all again at some point in the future!

To read a first-hand account of Canterbury’s adventure in The Bahamas, please click here.

As a collective alumni community, we reached 33% participation and raised over $110,000! Way to go! While we did not meet our goal of 45% overall participation, we did see much improvement from last year’s CONCHtribution campaign. 2010 recorded 32% participation, or 294 alums, raising $103,000. This year, 368 alums donated, which is over 70 more than 2010! We also raised $7,000 more than we did last year! Thank you to all who “Donated Once and Gave Back Twice!” We appreciate your support of The Island School.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
6-8pm

The Maroni Home
220 Clyde Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
6-8pm

The Florio Home
129 East 95th Street
New York, NY 10128

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
6-8pm

The Koch Home
28299 Old Country Club Road
Easton, MD 21601

*Alumni–if you join us, please bring a friend who is interested in The Island School!

RSVP to Hannah Mauck at hannahmauck@islandschool.org