Summer Starts With a Blast - Gopher Week

Sanibel Sea School launched Sanibel Skills summer camp last week, the first of eleven weeks for the 2007 season. It was Gopher Tortoise Week and campers were treated to all sorts of reptile experiences. Elke Podlasek of the Island Cow brought in some of her daughter Amanda’s private reptile collection. Campers got to see and hold a range of tortoises and bearded dragon lizards. They also got to see the iguanas that normally reside at the Island Cow. Among the beautiful tortoises of all shapes and sizes, campers got a rare opportunity to see a young Galapagos tortoise that the Podlaseks are fortunate to have a permit to raise.

Campers also got to visit our own Sanibel Island Gopher Tortoise burrows with Dee Serage-Century of Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. Under Dee’s guidance they planted some native plants for foraging tortoises. Campers were then invited to see the reptile drift fences in the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge where biologist Cheryl Parrott told the students about an ongoing reptile study. She showed campers how snakes are measured, how their gender is established before releasing them to the wild. And then campers built Sanibel Sea School’s own little drift fence.

Sanibel Sea School’s snake Pepper grew a bit over the five days and all the kids got to watch him eat up close. But it wasn’t a reptile that stole the show this week. A pregnant male seahorse decided it was time to have babies Friday morning at about 9:30 a.m. and much to the amazement of staff and campers, the male began to give birth to tiny seahorses. Everyone got to see this wonderful event before dad and babies were released to the wild. If this writer were truly reporting from a Sanibel Sea School summer camper’s perspective though, she must confess that surfing and surfboard paddling were the best part of Sanibel Skills camp. When all is said and done, kids want to come out of the water and dry off so they can see and learn amazing things and then as quickly as possible go in the water again! Thank goodness for islands, these wonderful ecosystems surrounded by ocean with so many amazing things to see and learn about.

Thank you to everyone who made Gopher Tortoise week a success: Marcel Ventura who gave us a paddle board, Francis Bailey who donated backyard picnic tables, Billy Kirkland and Richard Johnson who hauled the tables back to the island, Pat MacIntosh and Costco who also gave us a backyard dining table, the Plank-DiCarlo family for the large screen monitor that allowed us to see Pepper eating so well, Ann Moran for the digital ocular camera that captured Pepper’s image, Cheryl Parrott of Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge for letting us take a look at the drift fences and snakes, the Podlasek family for an experience with the most beautiful tortoises and lizards any of the staff had ever seen and some delicious muffins, Ralph Woodring for the opportunity for Dr. Bruce Neill to round up the seahorses on a late night expedition, Dee Serage-Century and SCCF for a look at gopher tortoise habitat, Roy Massey of Ace Performers who donated old sails for the backyard sunshade canopy and used windsurfing boards to paddle, Dick Meunch for a donation of hotdogs and lastly, the intrepid gopher tortoise who decided a month ago to build a burrow in the Sanibel Sea School backyard just in time for summer. She or he is happily unmolested and still a backyard friend.

To all Sanibel Sea School campers from last week, guess what was finally caught in our drift fence this weekend after you left? A black racer snake! Yarrrgh! Nature just won’t be rushed, will she? Next we’re going to be talking about fishing and snook! For more information on Sanibel Skills Summer Camp call 472-8585.

Can You Take Your Sea School Experience Home With You ?

Holly Bloomfield took what she learned from Sanibel Sea School back to Ontario and made a second grade science fair project about mangroves. Her project was selected to be among the winners for her region in Ontario. Congratulations Holly!

Is That a Snake on the Beach???

This time of year, we get that question a lot at Sanibel Sea School. And yes, perhaps if you are prone to see snakes, or even a little fearful of snakes, one might think this specimen to be a snake. But snakes are not really all that common on Sanibel Island's beaches.

These are really strings of egg cases from the gastropod mollusk, the Lightning Whelk. Gastropod mollusks are those invertebrate animals that form a single shell in which they live. They increase the size of the shell as they grow; they are sometimes called univalves. Lightning whelk females create these strings of individual egg sacks and attach them to the bottom of the ocean. The developing animals within them make a small shell known as a protoconch and when they are ready to be out on their own they crawl out a small hole in the egg case and into the sandy bottom where they live and grow into larger, juvenile lightning whelks.

The egg cases become dislodged from the substarte and wash ashore this time of year.

Unfortunately, some of the egg cases wash ashore before the young have had an opportunity to crawl out of the egg cases. When this happens we are blessed with the opportunity to dissect the individual egg cases and collect the tiny protoconchs. Often each egg case has between 20 and 35 protoconchs and many strings of egg cases have 50 individual egg cases. This tells us that mnay of these females have between 1000 and 1750 offspring!

So, go ahead and pick up that egg case, look to see if you can find one with dried protoconchs. You might just be blessed with another treasure from the sea!

Who Says a Bus Ride Can't Be Fun

Often times, we cruise the island of Sanibel and Captiva while exploring the natural sresources of our islands. It gives us an opportunity to check out new places and seem more interesting things.....oh yeah, and have some fun along the way. Conner and Emily Button and Max Fontaine monkey around between stops aboard the bus.

It is not Just the Sea

Barbara has en early morning encounter with "Spot", a leopard gecko that lives in Sanibel Sea School. Following that encounter, Barbara was off to the field to better understand and appreciate the history of Sanibel Island and importance of mangroves to our island ecosystem.

Who says Grandmas don't like to pet the reptiles??

And Somtimes we have Some Fun !

Today, we had a mermaid at Sanibel Sea School, she is Eve Plank, also known as MP - the mermaid princess. She and her brother, Jesse "Ventura" Plank took a little break from all the hard field work and learning to pose for some pictures. In the morning, a long hike on the Baily Tract led these young detectives to realize that the plant communities on Sanibel Island are ADAPTED to fire. They even thrive on fire. And, not only are the plants adapted to fire, but many of the animals as well.

And for fun, we watched several alligators enjoy the freshwater environments of Sanibel Island.





What happens when kids are hungry?




At Sanibel Sea School, we feed them a good, healthy lunch and magically they change back to the ever-so-wonderful kids that we knew from the morning.


Now, out to open some coconuts and then back to the field to study Lightning Whelks and their egg-cases.




The fun never stops on a field trip!

Seeing Nature Eye to Eye

Sometimes if you creep up nice and slow, you get an opportunity to view nature up front and in a personal way. Recently, Doc Alice Pittman and George Weed had a personal encounter with a Great Blue Heron at Blind Pass. It was hard to tell whether we were more interested, or if the heron was more interested in us. Either way, we had a great visit with the bird out on the flats on a warm sunny day.

Then back to Sanibel Sea School for some serious art as we continue to talk about estuaries and the amounts of salt in estuary waters.

And, what lunch would be complete without visiting the corn snake, Pepper? We all enjoy a chance to feel his smooth, cool skin. There is just something about a snake that kids (and most of us adults) just can't resist.

Followed by the freshest coconut in the world. Just the right combo to fuel young minds for an afternoon of exploration.

Sanibel Sea School because Every Day Should Be a Field Trip.

Doing the Quadrat Hula

Who says we don't have fun on research days at Sanibel Sea School. However we now know what Hula Hoops are round and light-weight. There is a special challenge to making a 0.5 meter pvc quadrat fly around your waist; and when you fail it is often a little hard on the toes.

Yesterday was our bi-weekly sampling of a small bivalve mollusk, Donax, also called coquina. At Sanibel Sea School, we monitor empty Donax shells to help better understand the population health.

And after counting tiny little shells on the beach, most of us have some extra energy that we just have to get out of our systems. Energy, creativity and pvc quadrats makes the perfect combination for quadrat hula hooping. And, who says hard science can't be fun?

Later that day, we took a hike on the Bailey tract and were luck enough to find three alligators along with countless other creatues.

Mud Forests

Mangrove forests are integral parts of the marine ecosystem. In some partrs of the world, they are called forests of mud. Here we pay homage to the spirits of the mud forest, or at least we appear to as we listen for the sounds of the mud flats.

Mrs. Pollard's 4th grade class from Canterbury School had a blast discovering the mud flats, and finding out just how sticky they can be at low tide. Easy way to loose a croc. Better a croc than a student. We also delighted to learn that sea horses share that rich habitat. And, we became trackers to discover what creatures had been here before us, including racoons and several species of wading birds.

And what better a way to relax after lunch and show our island lifestyle than making some shell jewelry? We tied hemp fibers into braclets, chokers and anklets adorned with some of Sanibel's famous bivavlve shells. The toe is the very best place to hold the fibers while tying up a bunch of knots.

Not a bad way to spend the last day before winter break, or for that matter any old school day. There is just something about a field trip. Makes everything fall in to pace. Easy to remember the fun, hard to forget the facts and way to learn about the ocean.

A Cold Day at the Ocean Always Beats a Day in School

Ms. O's fourth grade class from Canterbury School braved the winds and rain of winter weather of Florida to spend the day at Sanibel Sea School. Their efforts were rewarded with many great and exciting island adventures.

We tasted mangrove leaves, slipped in mud flats, found fiddler crabs, honed our skills of observation, added some new vocabulary words...was that ephemeral?

And in the seine, in the rain, we were lucky enough to catch several magnificent sea horses.



Mr. Murphy found a strange new creature never before seen to science and delighted us all with this important scientific discovery.

Sometimes it is easier to pay more attention on a field trip, in the field, in the cold, in the rain rather than sitting in a desk in a warm classroom on a wintery day. Go Figure.

At Sanibel Sea School, every day is a field trip.

A Cold Blustery Day in Florida

Yes, even in SW Florida we have cold blustery days. But at Sanibel Sea School, our intrepid adevnturers go out to learn about and explore our natural bounty. Yesterday, the Robbins family of Carbondale, Illinois braved the elements to explore the mangrove communities on the north side of Sanibel. One of the things we learned is that mangrove forests, which grow in the intertidal zone are a great place at low tide to escape the howling winds and have some importnat, serious fun.

We also leaned that mangrove forets support a plethora of other organisms, ranging form worms to molluscs, crabs, fish, birds and even racoons.

And sometimes different species of mangrove trees can be told from one-another based on the taste of their leaves! Black mangroves secrete salt from their leaves, while red mangrove's leaves are not as salty.

Jany Robbins demonstrates the leaf tasting procedures.

The Wonders of a Seahorse

Early Thanksgiving morning, a group of intrepid adventurers set out on the East End for a Sanibel Sea School early morning beach walk. One of the great things about a beach walk is that the rewards are directly related to the effort – the more you look, the more you find. And let’s face it, these days, few things in life are so simple and so direct.

And so we set forth, sleepy and cold to discover what the sea held for us. It was an unusually low tide and many sand dollars were evident just beneath the sand on the outer bar and there were other fascinating things, but mostly everyday stuff. When all of sudden, the kids let forth shrill, brilliant screams of delight. There amongst the red algae, in the moat between sandbars, they found a seahorse. A spectacular specimen – beautiful brown with long stripes – appropriately enough, a Lined Seahorse; this one was nearly five inches long.

Seahorses are fabulous animals. They, of course, are fish and while mostly overlooked, they are not really all that uncommon on Sanibel. They prefer seagrass meadows and mangrove habitats. There are about 50 species worldwide; we have two. And as a whole, they are not well known to science, but what we do know is that they are pretty amazing.

Most fish are broadcast spawners. They release eggs and sperm into the water to be fertilized, and the fry to fend for themselves, from the moment of conception, with no parental care. Some fish make nests and tend their eggs, and others actually carry developing eggs in their mouths. But in seahorses, the male literally becomes pregnant - a female deposits her eggs in a special pouch on the abdomen of the male. He fertilizes the eggs and seals the pouch until the eggs hatch and the young swim away. As they develop, the male provides nutrition and oxygen to the embryos, and he regulates the salinity of the pouch. The eggs mature in two to four weeks, and then the father goes into labor and squeezes out the 100 or so young. At that point, they are on their own.

And, most seahorses appear to be monogamous; they become pair-bonded and repeatedly mate with the same mate; some for a season, and some perhaps for life. The female comes around once or so a day and checks in with her mate. They dance for a few minutes and then go their separate ways until the next day. And usually within hours of the male releasing his brood, they undergo ritualistic mating dances lasting up to eight or nine hours. Their gyrating dances culminate with the female depositing more eggs to start the cycle again.

Fascinating stuff, but, early that blustery November morning, all these facts are lost; as well they should be, to the sheer joy of discovery of a great big old seahorse alive and well, in the moat between the sandbars, in the shadow of the Sanibel Lighthouse. One of the many things to be thankful for on our Sanctuary Island.

A litte coconut husk hat fun at lunch. A great way to have a little fun.

A Roseate Spoonbill glides over Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

A Great Day for Learning, Fish and Fun

Today was one of those perfect days to be in the field in SW Florida. This Little Blue Heron posed for us on Wildlife Drive in Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Then we saw a large group of White Pelicans. White Pelicans winter here and spend their summers in the Rocky Mountains. It is great to see old friends return to the Refuge. White Pelicans are much different than our beloved residents, the Brown Pelican. It is nice to see them side-by-side. We also got a peak of a nice little American Alligator.

Then we were off to the beach for some beach ecology lessons. We were had a nice day of seining at the beach. Katie Schroll, of Medina, OH is shown here showing off some of the many fish we were able to seine off the beach. The weather here was a little warmer than back in Ohio.

Our Gulf waters are alive with baitfish this time of year and it is great to see these little creatures first-hand. We were also able to catch a large number of sand fleas in our seines.

And, of course, what would a field trip be without a little plain old fun?

Living on an Island in an Estuary

Most of us love living on an island, but let’s not kid ourselves, we really live in an estuary. Yes, on an island, but an island in an estuary. We are not a sentinel island standing alone in the sea. We are part of a magical place where continents, and the fresh water draining them meet the ocean. Estuaries are places of transition from one world to another, a cauldron of admixture, and in many ways a place of birth, reunion and rejuvenation. The most powerful forces on Earth, colliding.

If you’re like me, you feel a release, the moment you hit that bridge – west bound and home – to our little island. I’ve noticed the release comes when I first hit the bridge (the estuary), not always crossing to the island.

Estuaries are among the richest environments on Earth and oddly this richness blooms amidst eternal change. The fresh water brings with it a rich mixture of nutrients and materials from the continents – nutrients for marine plants to grow and flourish, which in turn provide the energy for vast and far-reaching ocean food webs.

Estuaries change – they vary in temperature, salinity, depth, nutrient levels, and the amount of sediment in the water. And, the pace of their change is rapid. They change with the tide, they change with the seasons, they change with the weather, and even the arc of the sun. To record environmental conditions of estuaries, scientists take measurements on a scale of minutes. Longer intervals allow changing conditions to go unnoticed. Electronic instruments that record various environmental parameters every several minutes are allowing us to better understand estuaries.

We are facing tough environmental challenges on our island. And rightly, many of us are at best, bewildered about our future. How we can help and what we can do to make things better – these issues perplex us. Often we are inundated by the onslaught of problems we face – what can we do? A first step is to recognize that our Sanctuary Island is not just an island, but part of an extensive estuary system. A system reaching from Gasparilla Island to our home here on Sanibel, and eastward into the middle regions of Florida. Estuaries are where rivers meet the ocean. The entire land region drained by a river is known as its watershed. So, really we are a part of the watersheds that are drained by the rivers that feed our estuary. Watershed management influences our environmental harmony.

A sanctuary island in an estuary that drains a watershed. Great, so how does this help us face our problems? We need to remember that we are not alone; we are a part of a system with shared problems and we will find shared solutions. It also helps me to realize our environmental problems are not acute, but chronic ones – we’re not running a short dash, but a marathon. We need to pace ourselves and make the appropriate choices to help conserve our island sanctuary in an estuary.

Most importantly, remember that we can solve our problems. If in doubt, just go to the beach and count the number of Brown Pelicans and compare that to what we saw thirty years ago. Once we recognize a problem and become dedicated to solving it, we can.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be discussing our estuaries and small things you can do that make a cumulative difference. Until then, start to look at the big picture of estuaries. Find leaders who share your concerns and support them. Let’s walk through our environmental challenges with a clear eye and the faith that a positive outcome is possible.

It's Not Always a Photo Op Day

Field biology is often full of great photo moments. On other days, it is a lot of hard, uncomfortable work. Today was one of those 'work' days. We spent the better part of the day installing drift fences on the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Drift fences are a sampling device used to sample terrestrial vertebrates. The one we installed today is a series of sediment fences that have conical traps at the terminal ends. The idea is that small animals encounter the 'wall' and turn to travel parallel to it until they walk or crawl into the trap at the end. The traps are monitored two times a day to see what has been caught; it is identified and then released unharmed. Drift fence sampling is a way to accurately describe and monitor small vertebrate populations in terrestrial environments. We were creating these sampling devices to monitor populations of Indigo Snakes, and endangered species on Sanibel Island. So, today it was a lot of sweat, blisters, thorns and poison ivy...just another day at the office. The best job in the world.

A Crocky Day in Paradise

Team crocodile endured a long, hot 3-mile hike today on the Indigo Trail of Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We were rewarded by a close up look at a 12-foot American Crocodile. The photo above is not her, but an alligator we saw on our way to see her. Read more about it below. Wow, what a great way to start off the week!

We also saw Anhingas, a Bald Eagle, a 5-foot yellow rat snake, and a close-up look at a 9-foot Alligator. The alligator was missing it's right front forelimb. Check out the photo we got of it. In this photo you can see that none of its bottom teeth protrude above the upper teeth - one of the ways to tell crocs from alligators.

It was a giant relief to wade into the estuary, cool off and find oysters, horshoe crabs, and a young starfish after that long hike. Wading, and the "ice in the back of the shirt trick" was the perfect end to a long, hot, animal-packed hike.

Here's to you Stevie, and the crocs we all love. Another Day in Paradise.

Time Flies

"Another day in paradise" is a popular expression for the consistency of island life. In tropic and subtropical environments, time progresses but seasonal transitions aren't always so obvious. Sure, at some point it is cold here in SW Florida, the days get shorter and the rains taper off, but those crisp chilly mornings that remind so many folks of the waning of summer are not a part of our transition. Here on Sanibel, we are reminded of the passage of time by the composition of our birds. Wading birds aggregate in shallows, and small confusing warblers flock to our mangrove trees. In the photo above, an endangered Wood Stork arrives to the flats of Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge as Double-Crested Cormorants take a break on an exposed bar. Not a bad deal, marking the passage of seasons by the 'bird calendar'; of course if you're not watching birds, watching the Gators on Saturday afternoons might just remind you that somewhere the mornings are crisp and the leaves are turning colors.

Where the forest meets the sea.

Habitats that lie within the intertidal zone are tough places to make a living. They are constantly changing. An environment that embodies that adage that nothing is consisten, but change. In the intertidal, water levels change, the salinity of the water changes, the presence of high energy waves, variable temperatures and with it, changing amounts of oxygen. All of these variables present special challenges to living things. In the face of such adversity, a group of woody plants has evolutionary risen to these challenges and marked sandy tropical and subtropical intertidal zones as their home turf. We call these spectacular woody trees and shrubs occupying the zone ever shifting between land and sea, mangroves. That habitat they dominate, we call mangals. There are approximately 54 species of mangrove trees throughout the world which belong to 16 different plant families. On Sanibel, there are technically four species of mangrove. We most commonly think of three species, the Red Mangrove, Black Mangrove and White Mangrove. And although not commonly thought of as such, the Buttonwood Tree is also classified as a mangrove.

This photograph is a red mangrove (Rhizophora mangal). This species is characterized by its highly developed system of aerial roots. These roots provide stability for the tree while allowing the roots to not penetrate deeply into the oxygen-depleted muds in which the tree grows. The labyrinth root system provides a structural platform for a myraid of sea life. Coon oysters (Isognomon alatus) commonly grow on aerial roots, and are thickly covering the roots in this picture. Lore has it that these little oysters are so named, because racoons can easily eat them at low tide. In addition to oysters, numerous other species of invertebrate live on and among the roots, including sponges, tunicates, and many crustaceans. Thanks to this structure and many invertebrates, small and/or juvenile fishes are also common in mangal communities... and where there are small fishes, big ones are surely close by, waiting to step up and do their part in the intricate food chain of the inetrtidal.

How lucky that woody trees have been able to slove the problems of living in tropical inertidal zones. They are the foundation of a series of food webs that create the magnificent ecosystems of near-shore marine environments. So, the next time you get a crunchy fried grouper sandwich take a moment to thank a mangrove.