Thanksgiving day at the Aquarium is like no other day of the year... it's a ghost town!

We may be closed, but the fish and other animals don't know that. It's business as usual with staff and volunteers working before having turkey (or tofurkey) dinners with their families.



Happy Thanksgiving from the GOT divers!

This is the seventh in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.

Day eight started at 4 am, long before any thought of the sun rising, but we had a lot of work to complete and the fish had to be at the airport at 10:30 am.

 



Bye-bye see you in Boston.


It was an exhilarating and exhausting eight days, and the people aboard the trip made it all the more special. So it was with tired bodies in need of a nice long shower that we all said our goodbyes. The only thought prevented our parting ways from being so sad was the promise of getting to see all the fish we worked so hard to collect soon on exhibit in their new home at the New England Aquarium.

So with a few more photos, I give you our amazing team.

Staff

 
Our fearless leader, Barbara, New England Aquarium


Diver Dan, New England Aquarium


Calm, cool and collected, Deana, New England Aquarium


Invertebrates expert and chicken raiser, Kate, New England Aquarium


Penguin transporter and blog mistress for our trip, Andrea, New England Aquarium


The fearless Captain Lou, Shedd Aquarium


Lean, mean fish-searching machine, Captain John, Shedd Aquarium


Volunteers

 
Multi-trip participant, Dave (practically staff)


Another long time trip veteran, Don


Power couple from North Carolina, Nichole and Chad


Fellow GOT volunteer, Patty 


My wonderful husband and best dive buddy ever, Scuba Steve


Me, Sarah


I hope you all enjoyed this photo day-by-day account of our Bahamas Collecting trip, as much as we enjoyed participating.  It was an amazing adventure.
-Sarah

This is the sixth in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.

With our crossing back to Miami scheduled for the evening, preparations for the fish began bright and early.



A complete list of our fish had to be e-mailed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife first thing in the morning, and fresh Bahamian ocean water had to be collected in multiple barrels for fish shipment. We did have time for a little recreational diving and some reef surveying. Splashing in the water without collecting bags, gear and nets for the first time in a week was an odd feeling. “You mean we are just going down to LOOK at fish?”






No longer needed, our nets were tucked away.

We checked on the fish, made some last recording and began the Gulf Stream crossing back to Miami that evening.



D.O. (dissolved oxygen) meter, used to check the percent of oxygen in the water 

This is the fifth in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.

By day five our list of fish began to dwindle leaving some particular species in which to target. 





First up was the copper sweeper round up.  I do not have any photos of this, as it was quite an event involving the whole team. Acting as a human SCUBA screen Nichole, Don and myself blocked a cave exit in order to keep the copper sweepers contained, as Captain Lou and Barbara scooped in with their nets. The rest of the team transferred the fish underwater to two huge bags, until we had collected 30 copper sweepers. 30 minutes later we were done. Go team!


Next up was the sponge round up. Now these animals (yes a sponge is actually an animal, the part we think of as "sponge" is their skeleton) may not be particularly challenging to collect, but distinguishing which species is which was quite difficult. 



Thank goodness we had invertebrate expert Kate Hudec on the scene. (Queue CSI Miami music.) 



 The sponge colors were gorgeous and vibrant.



Day six began with some cushion stars. A team of six of us donned our snorkel gear, headed to a grassy sandbar and rounded up some beautiful specimens.




With small mouth grunts and tomtates still on our list we headed to another cavernous spot to gather some grunts. 

Another successful day complete, although perhaps breathing all that compressed air was starting to get to us.


All hail Caesar/Dave

This is the fourth in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.
 
Day four began with some rough seas that proved to be somewhat of a challenge to work around.




Steve and Patty clinging to the barrel line during their safety stop, amid a strong current



After our morning dives a storm rolled in, but thankfully our skilled captains found us a safe cove at Gun Cay.





As the storm rolled out and the seas settled, we prepared for our night dive.

 
Note the glow stick on Dan's mask!

This is the third in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.
 
After a late night dive we were up and at it again early the next day. We started the morning with a beach seine. Andrea blogged about it here, so if you read about it earlier, you already know a seine is a technique used target needlefish and barracuda. With the net stretching over 100 feet, it took the whole crew to accomplish this task.


Barbara directing the group.




Deana on the “float side”


Steve and Don hard a work


The labor-intensive task was well worth our efforts as we collected three barracuda and many needlefish.




Barbara and Chris

We folded up the net and headed back to the boat for some more diving. No rest for us divers when there are fish to be had.

Like what you see? Join us for this Spring's expedition to Bimini, Bahamas! There are a few spots left.

This is the second in a series of guest posts from Aquarium volunteer Sarah M. Winchester. She participated in the most recent Bahamas Collecting Trip. As our expedition leaders are gearing up for next Spring's expedition, Sarah chronicles her experience with the Aquarium in Bimini.

With two dives under our belt in the holding tanks, we dove into day two with a vengeance. The team completed five dives that day, including a gorgeous an afternoon and night dive at the wreck of the Sapona.


 Chad and Nichole diving in 


“Chalk talks” before each dive, prepared us for the site and what fish we may encounter. Presumably this name came about when chalkboards were once used and the name stuck. Plus, “whiteboard talk” doesn’t really have that same ring to it. 

Some of us were novice at fish collecting, but thanks to the experienced New England Aquarium staff and veteran volunteers, by day two we were rolling. Here's how to catch a tropical fish: (This next step-by-step, makes it look deceptively easy. Those little fish are smart, and they seem to know which one you are going after.)


Surround the targeted fish and slowly approach. 


Enclose it between two nets. 


Carefully place the fish in your collecting bag. That is one good looking glass eyed snapper! 


More fish coming aboard! 


We record the fish as they came aboard, to later submit into the computer with their scientific names. This aided us in keeping an up to day list of what fish we had collected to then later submit to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. 

Sunset on the Sapona as we ate some dinner and waited for the night dive.

Like what you see? Join us for this Spring's expedition to Bimini, Bahamas! There are a few spots left.