Today’s special activity was a visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon Florida.  The hospital is about 25 minutes south of our hotel and is a favorite place every year for students to visit and purchase souvenirs.  At the Turtle Hospital we got to learn about the endangered turtle populations in this area and the main challenges they face as a species. Boat strikes and bowel impaction from eating trash and poaching are the main issues.  The Turtle Hospital was founded in 1986 with a mission to rehab injured sea turtles, educate the public, conduct research and work towards environmental regulation to make our beaches and water safer for all sea life.  You can learn more about the Turtle Hospital on their website here.

If you were simply looking through the photos of this trip so far(Here are today’s photos), it might be easy to get the impression that the students spend more time at the beach, snorkeling and sitting by the pool than doing academic work.  While they do get to do all of those wonderful things, this trip is also academically demanding.  To give you a flavor of what the marine biology students do while they are here, check out this section from today’s announcements:

Keeping Pace with Your Work: 

1. All pre-trip seminar work should be completed.
2. Five habitat profiles – GMF, Mangroves, Human-made, Coral reef, Rocky Coast
3. All Ecological profiles completed
4. All algae classifications
5. All water quality work
6. Group Habitat study should be completed.
7. Group Field Study project should be well underway.

All of this work will culminate on our last full day here in the keys with a Science Fair where all group projects will be displayed, and everyone will get a chance to check out the fantastic work our students have been doing.