Young Ocean Authors

We just finished the first week of Peace Camp 2009, and what a great week it was! We learned all about interactions in the ocean, improved our teamwork skills while playing fun games, drank hot chocolate, and collaborated on beautiful works of art. Campers were also given Rite in the Rain journals (the waterproof notebooks that scientists use in the field), and they wrote about topics relating to our lesson each day. In addition to dunking their journals in the ocean to prove that they are indeed waterproof, campers pondered and journaled about things like what they would do if they were invisible, drew fabulous sea creature sketches, and used their creative skills to write ocean poetry and ocean carols. At first, some campers were skeptical about the idea that writing can be fun, but by the end of the week everyone began to enjoy their journal time, finding sunny spots in the yard or cozy corners in the building to think and write. At the end of the week, we asked campers to choose their best work for our Young Authors blog, and we were highly impressed by their talent. Here is what they picked to share with you:

Beach Poem By Casey Mason

I went to the beach
Picked up a starfish
And set it free.
I saw a dolphin
And shouted out with glee!

My Poem By Zofia Costa

I went down to the sea
And I saw an anemone
I played with my father
Down by the water

Mutualism By Eve Plank

My example of mutualism would be a shark and a remora. The shark provides food for the fish, and the remora fish cleans the shark!

If I Were Invisible…. By Audry Paul

I sometimes think about what it would be like if I were invisible. First off I would play hilarious pranks on everyone! I could turn my sister’s shower cold without her even noticing, and I could sneak on airplanes and go to Hawaii. Oh the endless possibilities! Sometimes I would be sad though. My mom couldn’t see me, and nobody would want to play with me. What an interesting topic!

Pompano Artwork By Audry Paul

The Blissful Night: An Ocean Poem By Chase Desiderio-Taub

The night is blissful and not even the ocean is scurrying.
The night was dazzling with beauty.
The sunset was descending slow and gracefully.
The blissful night.

Dolphins, Dolphins, Dolphins An Ocean Carol by Kaelen Jurek

(to the tune of Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel)

Dolphins, Dolphins, Dolphins
They love to splash and play
And when the sun comes out
With dolphins we shall play!
Hey!

An Example of Competition in Nature Artwork By Jaime Gustafson

Mutualism in My House Writing and Artwork By Campbell DiCarlo

I love my doggie, Bailey. I feed her and she lets me lay on her in return.

Crashing Waves By Grace Paul

The waves crash
Disturbing the shells
The ocean is peaceful
All is well
What happens in the depths is hard to tell.
The ocean is peaceful
All is well

Surfing Writing and Artwork By Austin Desiderio-Taub

I like to go surfing at the beach when everyone is watching where I’m the star of the whole entire beach.

Fish By Anonmymous

Fish, jumping swimming
Shining scales on sleek bodies
Shoot through calm sea waves

Limericks By Emma Neill

Surfing in the Waves
Snorkeling in some caves
Water could be warm
Jellyfish in a swarm
I love Sea School all the days.

The sun is hot
The water is not
The water is cold
Some people are bold
They dive in the water
And show you what they’ve got

If I Were the Sea By Rachel Wexler

If I were the sea
Not a whale or a bee
I would roll on my back
And the gulls would scratch me
If I were the sea
I would find the key
To being the most perfect sea I could be

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Chase Desiderio-Taub is nine years old and lives in New Jersey. He likes the ocean and helping people.

Austin Desiderio-Taub is a seven year old from New Jersey who loves to surf.

Kaelen Jurek is a nine year old who loves to surf and make macramé bracelets.

Jaime Gustafson is a seven year old from London, England. He likes to ride his bike and play in the park.

Casey Mason is nine years old. She loves playing with her dog and collecting cheese hats, because she is a Green Bay Packers fan.

Zofia Costa is six years old and lives on Sanibel Island. She likes to draw and play on the beach.

Eve Plank likes to eat good food and draw.

Campbell DiCarlo loves her dog, has brown eyes, and is allergic to wheat.

Audry Paul is eleven years old. She plays the trumpet and loves bulldogs and the color red.

Grace Paul is twelve years old. She is an athlete and enjoys running, basketball, football, soccer, and softball! She also loves the ocean and all animals.

Rachel Wexler is twelve years old. She loves to have fun and enjoys animals.

Emma Neill is ten years old. Her favorite animal is the sea turtle and she likes surfing.

Peace Camp at Sanibel Sea School

What a great week we have had at Sanibel Sea School. This week and next, we are having a Holiday Camp and this year we have called it Peace Camp. We have latched on the most salient point of our Holidays Season – the message of Peace.

In traditional Sanibel Sea School style, we are teaching peaceful and some not-so-peaceful relationships in the sea. During these two weeks, we are examining and exploring symbiosis. To biologists, symbioses are long-term and meaningful relationship between two species of organisms – and they may not always be peaceful. On each day, we study a new type of symbiotic relationship.

We have explored mutualisms where each individual benefits; we have explored competition where each is negatively impacted. We have dived into the depths of camouflage to examine the hide and seek games that can exist between predators and prey.

And, today our topic is altruism, when we will learn about giving of ourselves with no expectation of immediate returns – our human example of altruism is stewardship.

Our stewardship today includes a trip down to Bailey’s Market to sing Sea Carols to our friends, neighbors and island visitors. We have written Sea Carols - lyrics to the tunes of many popular Holiday songs and we will serenade our fellow islanders with no expectations for our efforts.

Pretty amazing stuff, this Ocean Love.

Why So Many Seashells?

Olivia Frejka searches for treasures at Lighthouse Beach.

Sanibel Island is world-renowned for its abundance of seashells, and if you look hard enough on any day of the year you are bound to find a few good-looking gastropod specimens. Our island’s curved shape causes it to act like a shovel, scooping up shells from the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, Sanibel Island is the result of thousands of years of accumulation of ocean deposition. If you’ve strolled along the beach on Sanibel over the last few days, you probably noticed that there is an even higher than normal abundance of usually hard-to-find shells. It’s tempting to write this plenitude off as an early holiday gift from nature, but we biologists are always looking for more plausible answers.

So many seashells.

Often, shells accumulate on the beach in large quantities after large-scale natural events like harmful algal blooms and hurricanes, but shell pile-ups can also occur in the wake of a typical winter storm. Mollusks in the ocean die from predation and other natural causes, leaving their exoskeletons behind. These exoskeletons accumulate on the ocean floor, and when storms blow across the Gulf, the shells are washed up on the beach from far out at sea. Biologists dub these deposits “death assemblages” – a fairly morbid name for such a treasure trove from the depths. When there is a long time period between storms, more shells accumulate, waiting to be pushed to shore. Before Saturday, Sanibel hadn’t seen heavy wind and rain for many weeks, so to the delight of beach-combers, collectors, and ocean enthusiasts, the storms brought in piles of fabulous Lace Murexes, Alphabet Cones, Fighting Conchs, Olives and Turbans among other bivalves and gastropods.

This week, we have had an incredible Holiday Peace Camp. All week long, excited campers have returned from Lighthouse Beach with pockets, nets, hats and buckets full of spectacular shells. We gathered 28 gallons of the beautiful white Lucine bivalve to use in art projects during camp and throughout the year.

Our Lucine Mosaic.

If you haven’t visited the beach this week, you should grab your shell bag and head for the nearest access. You’re guaranteed to return with a wealth of great seashells, and this is an excellent opportunity to find that long-coveted Junonia. Happy shelling!

Fabulous finds.

Green Giving

Are You Making a List and Checking it Twice?

As the holiday season is again upon us, we would like to remind you to keep our environment in mind while doing good for others.

Many companies are turning to “green” advertising as a way of marketing their products to the public. While perusing the internet, I found gift ideas ranging from the practical (nice reusable shopping bags) to the absurd (“eco-friendly” snow-globes and organic aftershave). I think that during the shopping bonanza of the holidays, it’s important to keep in mind which purchases are necessary, or at least which are the best.

For example, your clownfish might really appreciate a new toy, but if you really want to do something for a fish, why not help many sea creatures in need by donating money to the cause of ocean conservation?

At the Sanibel Sea School, we believe in the spirit of giving, and we know that gifts can be obligatory and that giving is just plain fun. This holiday season, we encourage you to give wisely by choosing meaningful gifts for friends and family instead of just “things.” We invite you to join us in finding creative ways of giving that provide meaning, reduce waste and make the world a better place, and we created this guide to help you!

First Things First

During the holidays, our mailboxes are stuffed with catalogs, many of which end up directly in the recycling bin without a glance. Between the trees required to make the paper, the chemicals used in printing, and the fuel used for delivery, catalogs are very draining on the environment. These days, nearly every major retailer has a website, so why not be more efficient by ditching the catalogs and doing your holiday shopping online? The Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service allows you to control the junk mail you receive. You can cancel catalogs and those annoying credit card offers. I registered with this website last year and it takes a few months to start working, but it is definitely effective.

While we’re on the topic, another way you can save paper (and money!) is by finding alternatives to store-bought wrapping paper. Black and white newspaper looks great with a red ribbon, and the comic pages are a fun wrapper. You could also have your kids decorate brown paper grocery bags to use as gift-wrap. Their art will be more meaningful to family than store-bought paper.

If you plan on purchasing magazine or newspaper subscriptions as gifts, consider an electronic subscription. It’s environmentally friendly and usually cheaper than the paper version.

The Gift of the Outdoors

Instead of video games or clothing, set your family up with an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. An annual pass to all of the National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands in the United States is an inexpensive gift that the whole family can enjoy. If you don’t live near a national park, check out local wildlife refuges (Sanibel’s Ding Darling offers a duck stamp that permits access to the wildlife drive for a year).

Glacier National Park, Montana

You could also consider giving a gift certificate for surfing lessons or taking a snorkeling trip. These activities will foster an appreciation of the natural environment and help your family stay healthy and active.

Another idea is to save fuel by giving your family a trip to a nearby destination. Rather than traveling long distances to relax and explore, pack up the kids, the dog, the grandparents, the parakeet – whatever your unit is – and head down the road for a long weekend of exploration to some out of the way, but nearly local place. You will have a great weekend and the whole family will enjoy the anticipation and planning of your mini-vacation.

The Gift of Learning

Try to remember what your friends and family have expressed interest in over the past year. If your mom has been glued to the Food Network, now would be a good time to buy her a series of culinary classes. Many such classes are available online.

If your kids love the beach, sign them up for a program or two at Sanibel Sea School! It’s fun to get gifts that last past the holidays, and gifts of learning often lead to a lifetime of enjoyment.

Anna Schuster enjoys a day of learning at Sanibel Sea School

The Gift of Livelihood

Last year I received a goat for Christmas from Heifer International. My landlord would have lost his mind if I started keeping livestock in the backyard, so it worked out perfectly that I never had a chance to meet my ruminant. Heifer is an organization that allows you to purchase livestock and have it sent to people around the world (domestically and abroad) who are living in hunger and poverty. You can give the gift in a friend’s name and they will receive a thank you card with a picture of their animal and an explanation of the organization’s work. The Heifer organization delivers the animals in breeding pairs and provides training to the recipients about how to make the most of their new livestock. Instead of eating one goat, the community is taught to breed their pair of goats until they have a herd, then collect milk, make cheese, and start businesses to sell the goods. I love this idea because I think it really encompasses the spirit of meaningful giving. Personally, I would much rather have a donation made in my name to Heifer than receive one more pair of slippers.

A Tanzanian boy enjoys a gift to his family from Heifer International

Truly Blue Giving

At Sanibel Sea School, we like to think blue instead of green. After all, 70 percent of our planet’s surface is covered in water. All rivers lead to the sea, so all of our choices and actions ultimately affect the ocean. And, environmentalism is really about ocean conservation – so remember that blue is the new and true green.

If you’re shopping for that granola friend who wants to save the planet, and you want to buy her a tangible, eco-friendly gift, buy something that the recipient can actually use to make her lifestyle more “blue.” Avoid buying things labeled “organic” or “green” just because they seem to be an environmental answer. Always remember: your goal is to give a lasting gift that truly warms the recipient’s heart.

Some good presents for the eco-people in your life: a Brita filter paired with reusable bottles for the whole family. Buy a set of paint pens and take the time to decorate and personalize the bottles, so your friends will enjoy it every time they take a sip. Many companies make nice reusable shopping bags – there are beautiful girly patterns available as well as more rugged styles for men.

An indoor plant or herb garden is a useful gift that will help improve air quality, and people usually love a good bottle of organic wine. Try to find unique locally grown products; in SW Florida, we have mangrove honey, which is a truly exotic gift for your snow-bound friends.

If you’re shopping for clothes, Patagonia makes high quality clothing that will last for years. They also donate a percentage of their profits to a variety of environmental organizations.

There is also a great program through World Wildlife Fund that allows you to adopt an animal in a friend’s name. Your friend will receive a stuffed animal and some information about their new adoptee, and the money helps support conservation efforts for that animal in the wild.

The Gift of Service

Many of us have enjoyed a gift from a spouse, child or friend that was truly about giving. It can be a pass to sleep-in late, an IOU for a foot rub, a back-rub, a morning coffee at the local coffee shop, a promise to mow the lawn, or day of dish washing. With a few 3×5 note cards, a couple of colored pencils and some imagination you can produce a gift that is sure to be enjoyed.

Time is our most valuable commodity, and if you give someone you care about the gift of your time, you will find that you both enjoy it more than a box of chocolate – well, maybe not a box of chocolate, but at least you won’t have to work it off at the gym.

Shop for Good

Regardless of which gifts you buy, you can add meaning by using GoodShop. It’s an organization that allows you to shop at the stores you already frequent online, but a percentage of your purchase is donated to a charity of your choice. Choose Sanibel Sea School or another worthy cause as your organization, and you can make contributions as you purchase for the people on your list. This can really add up over time, so make a difference by making GoodShop your shopping venue!

Most importantly, remember to give of yourself this holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

Decoding Sustainable Seafood Decision-Making

Seafood is a delicious source of lean protein, rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and other important nutrients, but due to pollution fish may also contain dangerous levels of toxins such as mercury and pesticides that can have serious health repercussions. The popularity of seafood consumption around the world is also leading to environmental problems as we turn to the seemingly infinite ocean as a source to feed our ever-increasing world population. This illusion of plenty in the vast blue sea is comforting, but the reality is that the ocean is quickly approaching its limit. If we continue consuming seafood at our current rate, many species of fish will become unavailable within the next half-century.



As consumers, we want to make choices that are both healthy and environmentally responsible, but poorly labeled products and overwhelming amounts of contradictory information make it difficult to do so. According to my wallet-sized sustainable seafood card, Mahi-mahi is a “best choice” AND a “seafood to avoid.” Pacific cod is an excellent choice, but Atlantic cod is a no-no. The discrepancies are enough to send me screaming back to the vegetables, where I am sure that a local organic orange is better than a non-organic one from South America. After a particularly frustrating trip to the grocery store that included a military-level interrogation of the seafood man and an argument with my mother about flounder, I decided to do some research. I learned that there are some very helpful online resources and a few simple rules that can increase your confidence as a sustainable seafood consumer, allowing you to help the ocean while still enjoying seafood.

1. Increase your verbal score. Take thirty minutes to learn about fishing industry terminology and fishing methods. This will help you understand seafood labeling at the store - if you know that longlining, bottom-trawling, and gillnetting are non-sustainable fishing methods that harm other species, you can immediately eliminate products with these labels. Knowing the lingo will also help you to make sense of your sustainable seafood card. Monterey Bay Aquarium has a great website for improving your sustainable seafood vocabulary.

2. Carry a card. Print out a sustainable seafood card and always keep it in your wallet. These cards make at-the-counter decision-making relatively simple, as long as you have a basic knowledge of the terminology. Monterey Bay Aquarium provides region-specific cards and they even have a card just for sushi. However, I prefer the Natural Resources Defense Council’s card, because I think the format is straightforward and easier to understand.

3. Buy local. If you can buy directly from the fisherman, do it. If not, try to find seafood from as nearby as possible- it’s better for you, the local economy, and the environment. Local seafood is healthier and tastier because it is fresh, not frozen for long periods of time during shipping. It is environmentally friendlier than imported seafood because it is not shipped over long distances and local fish is likely to be caught in smaller batches. If you don’t have the luxury of buying from your backyard, US-caught or farmed fish is generally best, Europe and South America are okay alternatives, and Asian imports should be avoided. The US has stricter fishing and aquaculture regulations than other countries, while Asia is notorious for pollution issues and severe overfishing.

If you’re in our area, Andy’s Island Seafood has good sustainability practices and carries some locally-caught seafood that varies from day to day. Their main store is on Matlacha, but they have a mobile market on Captiva Tuesday-Thursday (look for their teal truck on Andy Rosse Lane). Ask what is local and fresh.

On Sanibel, The Timbers provides some sustainable options, like seasonal stone crabs and rope-cultured mussels. Ask if their latest shipment of Tilapia is domestically farmed.

4. Know your source. Identify a seafood retailer in your area that is committed to providing sustainable seafood options. Become a regular customer and get to know the “seafood guy.” If labeling or packaging information is unclear, ask questions- if the person behind the counter can’t answer your questions, you shouldn’t buy the product. As an added bonus, if you make friends with the seafood person, they might be willing to take special requests. Solutions for Seafood and Greenpeace have evaluations available that can help you find a retailer that stocks sustainable products.

5. Plan ahead. Before you shop, know what you are looking for. Have a couple of sustainable alternatives planned in case your first choice is unavailable. This will help you to avoid buying “whatever” just because you can’t find your sustainable option.

6. Know what’s good. Look for smaller fish species, which are generally healthier for you because they are lower on the food chain and accumulate less toxins. Small fish species often come from large populations, so they are more sustainable than larger, rarer species. When buying farmed fish, choose products from the US, and choose herbivorous species such as tilapia, catfish, oysters and clams, which can consume grain and do not require feed sourced from wild stocks. When purchasing wild-caught fish, pole/troll caught varieties are best. Wild Alaskan salmon is usually a very good option.



7. Look for a seal of approval. The United States is currently working on a standardized labeling system for identifying sustainable seafood, which will hopefully be implemented in the next few years. In the meantime, the Marine Stewardship Council gives its seal of approval to certified sustainable seafood products. Their website provides information about which certified products you can find at various retailers.


Of course the best way to help sustain wild fisheries stocks is to cut back on the overall amount of seafood that you and your family consume. I am not suggesting that you stop eating seafood altogether- my general rule is moderation, not deprivation. If you really want to make a positive impact on the environment, try replacing seafood with a vegetarian dish every once in a while instead of a different animal protein. Vegetable proteins like beans, tofu, and tempeh are delicious, but often overlooked. For healthy and very flavorful vegetarian recipe ideas, I’m a fan of http://www.fatfreevegan.com. As an added bonus, if you reduce your seafood consumption, you will enjoy fish even more on the occasions that you do eat it.



When you choose to eat seafood, you can act sustainably by making your portion sizes smaller. A serving of fish should be similar in size to a checkbook, but we have become accustomed to eating fillets equivalent to four or five servings in restaurants. Instead of replicating restaurant seafood portions at home, serve extra grains and vegetables with a small piece of fish.

If this all seems like too much information, don’t be overwhelmed- just start small. Follow a few of these rules each time you purchase seafood, and pretty soon you’ll be a savvy seafood sustainability expert.

Additional Resources:

The Blue Ocean Institute provides detailed information about individual seafood species.

NRDC provides guidelines for purchasing some of the most popular seafood in America.

If you are interested in learning more, I would recommend reading The End of the Line by Charles Clover.

SX3 Says No to Bottled Water

Beginning today, no bottled water will be allowed to cross the threshold of Sanibel Sea School. We have always discouraged our students from drinking bottled water, but we’ve been known to let it slide in the past. However, we recently reconsidered our lax approach to enforcing the “no bottled water” rule. As an organization, our mission is to promote good stewardship of the ocean, and bottled water is simply bad for the ocean- really bad. And so we must prioritize taking a stand against it.

Bottled water requires enormous amounts of energy to produce and transport - in fact, it takes 2000 times more energy to produce a single bottled water than it does to fill your reusable water bottle from the tap. With oil, gas, and coal as our leading domestic energy sources, an enormous amount of pollution is produced in the bottled water manufacturing process, and chemicals such as mercury, nickel, and benzene end up in the ocean. This poisons marine life and contaminates our seafood. If everyone stopped drinking bottled water, it would remove almost a billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere- that’s like taking 100,000 cars off the road. The manufacturing of bottled water also wastes water. It takes up to ten times more water to manufacture a bottle of water than actually ends up in the bottle. The water used in manufacturing must then be treated at a treatment facility, which requires energy and leads to even more pollution.

You may be thinking, “but what if I recycle my bottled water?” Recycling is great for materials like paper and some metals, but the process of heating plastic releases dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere and ocean. And while recycling is not a bad idea, the reality is that 80 to 90 percent of plastic bottles end up in the trash or as litter - that’s about 22 billion bottles per year. If you have ever walked along Sanibel’s shoreline, you’ve seen the battered plastic bottles that frequently wash up on the beach. If your great-great-great grandchildren are in the right place at the right time, they might see the same bottle, because it will still be bobbing around in the sea 500 years from now. It can take a plastic bottle up to 1000 years to decompose, and as the plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, it resembles common food sources for many sea creatures. Sea turtles mistake plastic for jellyfish, and shorebirds mistake it for small invertebrates. These animals often end up on the beach, sick or dead with stomachs full of plastic particles that they are unable to digest. “Synthetic Sea” is an eye-opening short documentary that brings attention to the shocking amount of plastic in the ocean and its effects on marine life.

Eliminating bottled water from your life is not only good for the environment, it’s good for you. Financially, bottled water is a rip-off, sold at up to 100 times the cost that companies spend to produce it. A gallon of Evian is more than double the price of an expensive gallon of gasoline, so next time you think the oil companies are robbing you, you may want to reconsider. The “Price of a Gallon” website lists other fun comparisons.

From a health standpoint, it is a myth that bottled water is healthier than tap water. Bottled water safety regulations are far less stringent than regulations regarding the tap water that comes out of your sink. In fact, many bottled water companies bottle their product directly from the tap. Studies have found microbes and chemicals in many common brands of bottled water (more info). Also, the plastic used in bottle manufacturing always leaches small amounts of synthetic chemicals into the water, and the health effects of this have not been closely studied. Your tap water is safe to drink directly from the faucet, but if you can't stand the taste, a filter can make tap water taste fresh and pure. Just make sure you clean or change your filtering system frequently so harmful bacteria doesn't grow in it and make you sick.

Next time you’re out shopping, resist the temptation to purchase bottled water, and instead buy stainless steel reusable bottles for the whole family (At SX3, we’re fans of the Klean Kanteen) – it’s a great holiday gift idea! You’ll save the environment, save money, and be healthier. When you stop by the Sea School with your environmentally friendly hydration gear, we will welcome you with open arms and gladly refill your bottle.

Sanibel Sea School’s campaign to eliminate bottled water from our campus is made possible through a partnership with the Plank-DiCarlo Family Foundation and Klean Kanteen. If you do not have a reusable water bottle with you when you visit the Sea School, we offer loaner bottles, or you can purchase a Klean Kanteen and the profits will help us achieve our goal of saving the ocean, one child at a time.