Bahamas Field Study Blog 2024

Wittenberg University's Marine Science program offers many opportunities for field study, which are practical, hands-on experiences that often lead to more extensive collaborative research projects with faculty members. One of the most popular field study experiences takes place in The Bahamas.

Clouds impinge on a beautiful beach day
With today being the final day of activities, the Bahamas crew started the morning off by drying off all our snorkel gear. Today was the dreaded final exam – 50 identification questions.
nurse shark resting on the bottom
We started our day with one of our favorite breakfasts: pancakes and sausage. The original plan for the morning was for both groups to snorkel.
Sponge Hat Crab
Well, here we are. The end of our last full week here at San Sal. Today was actually pretty fun, and much better than yesterday where we lost 2 hats on the truck. Before we even left the GRC, we got an !ALERT!
an octopus in its hole at snapshot reef
As we wind down our last 4 days here on San Salvador :-(,  we woke up to our favorite breakfast of pancakes and bacon to start our day here at the Gerace Research Centre.
Lady Francis Mailboat
This morning, we woke up to clear skies and French toast for breakfast, which continues to be a fan favorite.
Students in Lighthouse Cave
As our trip enters its last week, we wake up to a bright, hot, morning and head to breakfast.
Coral Reefs
Morning breakfast came at its usual time, 07:30, we smelled the bacon before we even go through the doors! This was a much-needed breakfast after the power going out for about an hour last night, making the rooms a bit hotter than usual.
Barracuda
Today, as per usual we woke up at 0700, ready for a filling breakfast of scrambled eggs, grits, bagels with cream cheese, and of course the delicious orange juice.
A group photo of the snorkelers while out at the drop off
We started the morning out with usual breakfast at 7:30am. Today’s meal was French toast, oatmeal, cereal, and sausage. Once breakfast was over, we all had to get ready to head into town.
Brittle Star
With our exam finally over, we can now get back to some cool things… like sleeping in this morning! Since we didn’t have anything planned for the morning, our professors graciously allowed us to sleep in, which was much appreciated.
Stingray Bottom Ocean
We started our day today as usual rolling out of bed itching new bug bites, just in time for breakfast, and to our wonder and amazement it was pancakes and bacon day.
Wittenberg Students Hiking Bahamas
Good morning, Tigers! We started off our morning with delicious French toast and sausage…one of our favorite breakfast meals! After breakfast, we were fortunate enough to get a break and to rest up for a long day ahead of us.
Triggerfish
Today at the good ol’ GRC we woke up at 0700 for our first double snorkel day at two different new reefs.
Flamingo Tongue
This morning, we went to breakfast at 7:30 and this morning had some good eats! Pancakes, bacon and some coffee helped us start our day on the right foot. After breakfast, we loaded up on the truck and took a little drive to Monument Reef.
Medusa Worm
This morning, we woke up to the loud sound of thunderstorms. These storms began in the middle of the night, waking us up to more bugs and bright flashes of lightning. This carried on throughout the night and until after breakfast time.
Closeup of Halimeda, a green calcareous algae
Today we started our day here at the Gerace Research Center by learning about how the research station gets its water source.
A green turtle welcoming our group to the government dock
Now that our luggage finally arrived, we were able to start to fully enjoy all the critters and sights below the water’s surface.
Beach Fun
Well,  Bahamas 2024 is successfully on San Salvador with all of our students and faculty and all of our luggage.  It took three days, but we made it.  There were lots of contingency plans (plans C, D, … maybe J?) along the way pot
Equipment
We’ve got passports all checked and are packing our bags for Bahamas 2024!
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