This weekend I had the best biology lab of my life! I got to geek out the entire weekend about biology and animals. We took a 2-day field trip to a small fishing town called Cuajiniquil, on the northwest coast of Costa Rica.
The area is beautiful, warm, and very rural. It was interesting to stay in an area that has an economy based on something other than tourism.
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| Fishing boats |
The black flags on fishing boats signify that the fishermen use an extremely destructive process to catch fish, in which they use large nets that catch big areas of animals, a lot of which are useless to the fishermen.
The class met Saturday morning and we took a 4-hour bus ride to the town. After lunch, we took boats straight to the beach. We swam and hung out in the sun until around 5 pm, when the tide was at its lowest point. With the low tide, we were able to explore the intertidal zone and find all the animals that are living there. I absolutely loved it.
When you first look at the rocks, it looks like nothing is alive, but the closer you look, and the more rocks you look under, the more you find out that what seemed like a dead area is teeming with life. The organisms are really good at hiding because they need to in the exposed tidal pools.
So here is some of what we found (and were able to hold!)
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| My professor holding a puffer fish |
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| Chiton and Sea Cucumbers |
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| Sea Urchin |
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| Tunicates |
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| Crab |
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| Brittle Star |
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| Sea Snail |
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| Hermit Crabs |
We looked around the tidal pools until the sun went down then took a boat back to our hotel in the dark. The hands-on experience was awesome. It was really cool to be able to identify the organisms we have been studying in class.
The next morning we got up early to go snorkeling in a coral reef! We took motorboats out to the reef and snorkeled for several hours, taking notes on these underwater notepads they gave us. We suited up in wet suits to avoid getting stung by jellyfish (which wasn't very effective--I still got stung several times). (Here come some embarrassing pictures)
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| A sea egg |
Haha, anyway, it was a great trip. I think I might have caught the research bug-- It would be so cool to do some research before I apply to medical school, even if just for a summer.
I'm just over halfway through the semester!
The black flags on fishing boats signify that the fishermen use an extremely destructive process to catch fish, in which they use large nets that catch big areas of animals, a lot of which are useless to the fishermen.
The class met Saturday morning and we took a 4-hour bus ride to the town. After lunch, we took boats straight to the beach. We swam and hung out in the sun until around 5 pm, when the tide was at its lowest point. With the low tide, we were able to explore the intertidal zone and find all the animals that are living there. I absolutely loved it. 
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