Today we went through what would be the last day in the classroom part of this journey, with all of us barely keeping still in our seats as we imagined ourselves standing on the perfect tropical beach that is BVI. For a good chunk of class, Mr.Kirby and Doc went over again what we will be experiencing there, the parameters of what we’ll need, and the high behavioral expectations that we have in front of us. With travel info mostly clear with all of us, it was time for the last edition of article discussions in which it was finally my and Brody’s turn. We kicked this off by taking about our article explaining the evolutions and effects of a fish called the leaping blenny that has adapted for the conditions of a land environment by developing a coat of highly vascular skin and a unique tail-twisting motion that allows it to the hard ground efficiently. For those of you who forgot, highly vascular skin is skin that has many more blood vessels sitting in its layers so oxygen can more easily diffuse into the bloodstream by going right through the skin. This keeps the blenny alive because naturally it has only gills. During it Brody also did a good job of keeping the class in the discussion by pointing out more of the general, important facts. Then following us was Gabe and Will’s talk about the invasions of the Indo-Pacific lionfish across the US Atlantic coast. I felt I got along with this article well and was able to really dig into it. After this we had our group presentations of the notes we put together yesterday. The subjects discussed were bony fish, cartilaginous fish, marine turtles, marine mammals, and marine plants. Our group’s subject was the mammals and I enjoyed learning about their adaptations for spending many hours underwater with lungs as a breathing system. It was a nice way to end this part of the course and transition into the next one. BVI here we come!
