Tuesday, July 29, 2014

A remarkable but haunting poem

   
     I read this poem today and the words struck to the core of what it means to hate and love. May we always choose to be people of love rather than hate.

Hate has no world.
The people of hate must try
to possess the world of love,
for it is the only world;
it is Heaven and Earth..
But as lonely, eager hate
possesses it, it disappears;
it never did exist,
and hate must seek another
world that love has made.
-Wendell Berry in a Timbered Choir

Sunday, July 27, 2014

A brief explanation about the purpose of my research

     I realized today that despite the numerous posts I have put on this blog, I have been pretty terrible about actually explaining what in the world I am hoping to accomplish during my time down here in Roatan, Honduras. Despite what it may appear, most of my days are not full of gibbering monkeys, cawing macaws, and crazy food. Rather I spend most of my time diving, getting ready to dive, organizing data collected from diving, and scheduling dives for the next week. The goal of my research in Roatan (Which I somehow utterly failed to mention at the start of this job) is to determine the effects (if any) of scuba diving on hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) behavior. Scuba diving has been expanding rapidly in the Caribbean over the last 64 years, but little research is being done to determine how this increase in diving is effecting large marine organisms that divers interact with. During the brief 2.5 months I am down here, I am conducting daily dives to observe hawksbills both in the presence and absence of divers to determine if the substantial amount of diving that occurs off this island (The entire island is ringed by a beautiful fringing reef) is negatively effecting turtle behavior. I am working with ProTECTOR, an NGO set up by my advisor, Dr. Stephen Dunbar, for the protection, and conservation of turtles in Honduras, and the Roatan Marine Park, a local NGO here on the island. I won't go into all the specifics of my research here, but suffice to say I am doing a lot of diving and staring at sea turtles while writing underwater. Typically I spend about 4 hours a day moving equipment, 2 hours a day diving, and the rest of the day analyzing data and eating food. Needless to say it is quite a tiring job but I believe the results will be worth it. From the data I am collecting here, I hope to create guidelines for how scuba divers should interact with turtles in Honduras and marine protected areas around the world. Additionally I plan to publish my work in a peer reviewed journal to make my research available worldwide. My goal, personally, is to graduate from Loma Linda University this coming Spring with a Masters of Science in Biology and continue following my passion  for God's world and conservation wherever God may lead me. If that means going on to get a doctorate then so be it. I'm open to suggestions (anyone?).
       Now for you people that don't really read these posts and just want to see some fun pictures here you go (I have thrown a few random ones at the end that have absolutely nothing to do with research, just for your enjoyment). In addition to the diving and random pictures, I have also put in some pictures from our recent tagging and release of three turtles (2 hawksbills and 1 green) that were rescued from a local restaurant and let free in the bay (I apologize for not donating an entire post to the occasion but at this point I simply don't feel like it. For more info on the event take a look at the protector facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ProTECTOR/199247040225339)


Enjoy,
Christian Hayes
 Me in full scuba gear

 Hawksbill framed by brain coral

 The research team doing habitat transects

 Striped (Basiliscus vittatus) (Note: not the mythological snake that turns you to stone) outside our lodge
 Banana fritters I made (I told you there would be some random pics)

Green Anemone (anyone care to ID?)

 Juvenile hawksbill we rescued, tagged, and released

 Taking carapace samples from juvenile hawksbill to test for heavy metals

 Juvenile hawksbill mugshot

 Tag we put on a juvenile hawksbill we rescued (Note the red around the tag is iodine, to prevent inflection and not blood)

 Releasing a juvenile sea turtle we rescued

Dustin and I measuring a green turtle we rescued

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Gumbalimba time

       Well today I took a break from diving for turtles (A never ending task it seems) and instead went zip-lining down the island at Gumbalimba park. We started at the top of the island from where you can see the shore on both sides (it's a rather narrow island shaped like a chili pepper) and made our way down from platform to platform all the way down to the water (I sort of wished it had dropped us directly in the ocean but for fairly obvious reasons it did not) at speeds ranging from 9-35 mph. Needless to say it was quite exhilarating. After the ridiculous amount of diving I have done already, however, it really wasn't all that scary. :) Anyway all along the route we saw beautiful iguanas (Two species: the green and black), a few leaf cutter ants, and the occasional spider. Upon reaching the bottom, we followed the tour guide (And yes on this particular day I was a bonifide tourist, albeit one with a more comprehensive understanding of the island and its biota than the typical tourist), into a rather extensive mounted insect collection from around the world, and a pirate cave hosting a scattering of assorted pirate and Mayan memorabilia (which may or may not be at all related to the island). Upon leaving the cave we journeyed past the iguana nest where the park rangers were feeding island iguanas lettuce and bananas. These creatures are truly marvelous, but rather than attempt to describe them I'll simply let you peruse the pictures below. After our brief iguana stop we journeyed over a rickety suspension bridge (which of course had to be called the "pirate bridge" for no discernible reason) and on to the birds. We were greeted by a park employee and invited to take pictures with a beautiful (and very well trained) military macaw (Ara militaris) who posed obediently on our shoulders and occasionly cawed very loudly in our ears. We also saw several vibrant scarlet macaws and a few of the local cowbirds lurking about (the equivalent of our North American Crow). We journeyed on from the birds to meet the capuchin monkeys (Note: they are not native to the island), and boy were they adorable. We probably spent 10-15 minutes just letting them run around and over us, munching on sunflower seeds from the keepers hands. They would grab just about anything you had that was shiny, including your water bottle, hair, sunglasses, and camera, and would leap several feet from person to person. Alas, as with most awesome things, we eventually had to leave. On the way out we saw a few Agoutis (probably the widespread Central American Dasyprocta punctata rather than the endangered Dasyprocta ruatanica that is endemic to the island), and passed by the iguanas again for one last goodbye, then headed home. As we headed back to West End over the crest of the island we could look down  either side and see the Caribbean waves lapping peacefully at the shore. I have posted a smattering of pictures from the experience below for your perusal.

 Some of Jimmy's (A friend of ours on the island) family who we went with us

 The turtle team about to start the descent

 A beautiful spide (Any entomologists want to take a shot at IDing it?)
Close up of same spider

 The Roatan Spiny Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura oedirhina) an endangered species

Close up of the spiny tail (hence the name) 

 Leaf cutter ants coming down a tree (look closely)

 The zipline through the canopy

 Large male Iguana (not the spiny tailed variety)

 Weird historic pirate cutlass/pistol weapon 

 Green iguana

 Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

 Me with the Military Macaw (Ara militaris)
 The Aquoti

 Some Capuchin monkeys on Dustin

 Some Capuchin monkeys on me

 An inquisitive Capuchin

Monkey Mug shot






     

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Turtles, more turtles, and cooking (Note I am not cooking the turtles)

     This week (as with every week down here) I have been daily throwing myself off boats and diving into the deep to look for turtles. I found and observed four hawksbill sea turtles this week and completed my 50th dive since being down here. Needless to say, I am a tad tired today from the weeks exploits. In other news, I successfully made a giant pan (And I do mean ginormous) of lentil stew with sauteed onions, garlic, rice which was by all around a roaring success and will probably last till tomorrow. For some reason, it's always while I am in Honduras that my creative cooking juices start flowing. Currently the rain is pouring outside in a small tropical storm, and the thunder is booming occasionally, so I will leave you with a few pictures of my diving adventures and sit outside in my hammock to watch the rain.

Adios,
Christian


 Me, Marsha (A volunteer working down here), and some other divers forming a pyramid
(Photo courtesy of Cristobal)

 Hawksbill mugshot (Dunbar)



Tube worm (Dustin

 Hawksbill mugshot (Dunbar)

Hawksbill taking off for deep water (Dunbar)

Reflections

     This morning I spent about 30 minutes reading my Bible, reading some poetry by Wendell Berry, and watching geckos attempt to snatch insects off of giant banana leafs and other assorted vegetation. Every so often I would spy a gecko make a daring leaf from a precariously thin leaf to another equally precarious perch. Never once did I see one fall. These remarkable creatures, are truly gifted by God with their remarkably adhesive toe-pads that employ Van Der Wal forces and friction to cling to incredibly smooth surfaces (If you are wondering about the exact mechanisms of how this works I recommend the article http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/6/1081.long). Anyway, as I sat in my chair reading Galatians and watching the Geckos, I pondered, as did Paul before me the glory of our freedom to be found in Christ. No more are we as Christians bound to the law, but we are set free that we might follow the Lord in love. "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1).
      After reading through the rest of Galatians and marveling at the totality of what Christ accomplished on the Cross, I turned to read the musings of another of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry. One of the poems in particular caught my eye as it also dealt with slavery and freedom though from a different context. As I read the poem my mind went immediately to the slavery of apathy (both spiritual and physical) we so often impose upon ourselves. "To not to choose" as Dr. Brown (Previous President of Cedarville University) often says "is to choose". To refuse to deal with our sinful desires, wanton waste, and debauchery, is to inevitably condone them. By remaining apathetic we condone the wastage of life, this earth, and our very souls. Our call is to remembrance and repentance.
      For your consideration I have copied the poem below for your considerations. Let me know what your think int he comments below, and yes there are multiple ways to interpret this poem (I realize this post is rather random and has yet to give an update on what I'm up to down here. I'll do that in the next post later on today).


After the slavery of the body, dumbfoundment
of the living flesh in the order of spending
and wasting, then comes the enslavement
of consciousness, the incarnation of mind
in machines. Once the mind is reduced
to the brain, then it within the grasp
of the machine. It is the mind incarnate
in the body, in community, and in the earth
that they cannot confine. The difference
is love; the difference is grief and joy.
Remember the body's pleasure and its sorrow.
Remember its grief at the loss of all it knew.
Remember its redemption in suffering
and in love. Remember its resurrection
on the last day, when all made things
that have not refused this passage
will return, clarified, each fully being
in the being of all. Remember the small
secret creases of the earth — the grassy,
the wooded, and the rocky — that the water
has made, finding its way. Remember
the water flowing under the shadows
of the trees, of the tall grasses, of the stones.
Remember the water striders walking over
the surface of the water as it flowed.
Remember the great Sphere of the small
wren's song, through which the water flowed
and the light fell. Remember, and come to rest
in light's ordinary miracle.

-Wendell Berry from "A Timbered Choir"


Saturday, July 5, 2014

The Odyssey

      Well this week involved, as usual, a lot of diving and searching for turtles. Particularly standing out this week was an opportunity I had to help Nick (a worker from the Roatan Marine Park) help move a dive site buoy from one end of a wreck to the other. The Odyssey is a huge 100 meter cargo ship that was sunk in 2002 specifically for coral to grow on and divers to explore. The experience as a whole was highly epic and more than a tad spooky. This large hunk of steel, a relic of human endeavor and might was sunk far below the waves and overgrown with by nature. Possibly a lesson in humility can be learned from this mighty vessels tale but will we ever learn it? I have attached below a video of the wreck and a picture of me beside the stern (to get an idea of scale).


Video of the full length of the Odyssey wreck (Dustin Baumbach)


Me beside the Odyssey stern (Dustin Baumbach)