Belize Research Trip 2012: Night seining and day off

Last night, Tuesday, we walked out to the beach to try night seining. This is when two people take a long net with weights on the bottom and floats on the top and drag it across the shore. One person is called the anchor and one is called the sweeper.

Last night we ended up finding the following after seining for 3 times: small yellow spotted stingrays, a baby grunt, baby Redfin Parrot fish, a Needlefish, several small Silversides, some small checkered Puffers, a small schoolmaster, and an unusual find, a Pipefish (which is related to a seahorse). The interesting part of the evening was when some of the local kids saw what we were doing and came to watch.

Night Seine Catch

Dr. Mark McGinley

Puffer

Looking over the catch

They were so excited to see what we were finding. They ended up helping us. One funny thing that I noticed was when they pulled in the baby stingray, the little boy, who looked about 7 years old, said, " ooo stingray...don't touch" and backed away. You could tell that he was taught not to mess with them early! The older boy took a cup and scooped the stingray into the cup stinger end first to move it to the bucket. The local kids that we saw knew a lot about the local wildlife. They knew what to touch and what to be careful with just as Texas country kids know what to be careful with also! I think the highlight of the night seining was watching those kids with their heads leaned over the bucket.

I could tell they love the creatures where they live and wanted to see everything that we caught! They seemed to be very knowledgeable about these creatures! (as Dr. McGinley said, "marine biologists in the making")

Shopping Day

Today, we had a day off to do what we chose. We had thought about going to the mainland to see the Mayan ruins, but decided that we be a long day. It would involve a long boat ride and much money. Instead, we walked downtown San Pedro and looked at all the shops.

Street Vendor

Reggae Singer

There are many street vendors and very good salespeople who are ready for tourists. We had a nice lunch in town and also sampled the Belizian Fudge ice cream. If you didn't want to walk, you could rent a golf cart for the day, but I chose to walk. While returning back along the beach side, we saw some kids playing. They would roll in the sand and cover themselves in sand and then they would go jump off the dock to wash themselves off. They were having a great time! It was really funny to watch!

Also, we stopped by an open house for a new condo being built to see what the sample rooms would look like. They were very, nice with the bedrooms facing the sea. The man, Philip, who showed us around, said that these places would probably rent for $500 a night. (US money). US money converts to Belizian money at a rate of two BZ for every US dollar. Wow! This place was very nice with a roof top view that was breathtaking! Someone's dream house!

Chaac (dog) and Bobby(cat)

Trash pile

On the walk back, we ran into the dog that lives at TREC where we are staying. It was almost like she was looking for us to lead us back home. There are many dogs roaming around the island, as well as chickens. Haven't yet seen any, but we have heard there are crocodiles also. Watch out dogs and chickens! One last thought for the day...I think it is sad to see such a beautiful place such as this island covered with so much trash. Along the beach, along the streets, and even floating in the ocean. We need to do a better job of taking care of this place and make it so that the presence of people is not such a negative one.

More "day off" photos: