Sunrise on Eleuthera

   I stepped out of my room this morning to the sight of a beautiful sunrise. The island of Eleuthera bends around like a fish hook. I am on the western point of the hook. The sun rises in the east so we look back towards the main part of the island. I went for an early morning run to check out the rest of the point.

   The first thing that I saw was a sign for a lionfish drop-off. This exotic fish is threatening the local fish population. Many people are working hard to stop their invasion of the coral reefs. The Institute pays local fisherman for any lionfish that they catch. The spines have poisonous venom, but the body of the fish is good to eat. They are also encouraging locals to make jewelry out of the dried spotted spikes. The local economy gets a boost and more lionfish are removed from the reef.

http://www.ceibahamas.org/research/lionfish/

    Cape Eleuthera Institute hosts many marine biology scientists to do their research here in the Bahamas. We got to hear about some of their projects and see the fish involved. Petra is studying boldness vs. shyness. She looks at the oxygen levels of a set of fish in a normal environment and when shark water is introduced. Matt is studying bio-acoustics. He records the noises that fish make and determines the meaning. He hopes to determine the health of a reef by its acoustic recording.

 

     Now I am heading to breakfast across a grove of mangroves. The mangroves are nature's nursery. Many types of juvenile fish live among the branches of the mangrove. If you stay really still, you can see them. Herons and egrets have figured out that this is a great place for lunch!