On the ridiculous things I do in my research

    Hello again to anyone crazy enough to still be reading this blog. I figured now was a good a time as ever to relate some of the ridiculous things I get to do for my job and research that I never in a million years would ever dream of doing. Hopefully it will be somewhat enlightening and amusing. We'll see what happens.
     So this week I spent the majority of the week throwing myself off boats with a giant canister on my back. Pretty ridiculous sounding when you think of it, throwing yourself off a boat with a ton of equipment and literal weights around your waste. I went diving a total of 10 times this week all around the west end of the islands in areas as shallow as 25ft to as deep as 60 ft and saw all sorts of beautiful underwater life and (yeah!) even a few turtles. Me, as the crazy person I am, spent a whole 30 minutes just recording the behavior of one turtle. Saw a spotted eagle ray in one dive (Aetobatus narinari) and a spiny lobster (Panulirus arguso) on another dive, along with myriads of colorful corals and sponges. One time to get out to a dive site further out we took a boat for a 30 minute grueling ride through rain and wind. It was the first time in my life where it was actually warmer underwater than above.
     In addition to the diving we also got to help out with a "save the turtle egg expedition" (and yeah I totally made that name up) which was equal parts hilarious and disappointing. Apparently one of the locals had found some eggs on the shore which they thought were turtle eggs, so they naturally called the Roatan Marine Park, and I with my fellow students jumped in the back of a Marine park pickup and headed to the beach (and the supposed eggs). Upon arriving and digging up the already moved eggs, we noticed something odd about the eggs. First there were only 16 of them, whereas a typical hawksbill turtle clutch will be over 100, second the eggs were way too small and entirely the wrong shape. A turtle eggs is typically leathery and round, these eggs looked like miniature chicken eggs. Upon closer examination and help from some of the locals, we finally identified the eggs as iguana eggs. Slightly disappointed that they weren't turtle eggs, we nevertheless moved the eggs to a safer location and buried them. Iguanas, like hawksbills, are also poached for their meat here in Roatán, so perhaps we helped save a few from the soup bowl.
     On other thing I did this week, was watch Honduras play in the FIFA World Cup. As most of you know (or some at least) I am not a huge sports fan and rarely if ever watch games on the TV, but I made an exception for this. It is one thing to watch a random soccer or football game on the TV in the US, it is an entirely different thing to watch Honduras play int the World cup while in Honduras. It was pure chaos. Stores were closed, church services canceled, bars full to the brim to watch the game, and everyone wearing the team colors. Much yelling occurred, often directed against the refs, but overall it was quite an enjoyable experience. Honduras unfortunately lost twice, but they play again Wednesday against Switzerland. We'll see what happens.
     Such are a few of my ridiculous stories of random things I end up doing in Honduras. If you enjoyed them good, if not, sorry to disappoint. Sorry no pictures. I'll have a few in the next blog post.
Adios,
Christian