Today’s class was structured a little bit differently than before. We started out talking about the trip a little more and getting some more details. I can really see the change in everyone’s attitudes and I can tell everyone just wants to get out of the classroom portion and down to the BVI. I have to hand it to Doc and Mr. Kirby though because they really have made this a very enjoyable class. And I have learned so much more than I expected in these past two weeks. After talking about the trip we went straight to the lab and finished our dissection from yesterday on the Dogfish shark. It’s been really interesting to dissect this shark because it looks much different inside than I assumed previously.
We then went back to the classroom and discussed the articles we read the previous night. The first, by Sean and Arturo, was about the echolocating that porpoises use to find and obtain their prey. This was a very interesting article to me because I thought only bats could do that but I was proven wrong. The second by Connor Beach and Hector was probably the most important for the class to understand because it is very similar to what we will be doing in the BVI. It was about how larval species of coral can not live in environments just a couple degrees hotter than the normal temperature. This is the cause for a lot of reef damage. We will be studying damaged reefs in Virgin Gorda so it is crucial that we understand this. One more class day and one more day at work until I’m in the Caribbean!
