Friends of the Environment E-Newsletter
Established in 1988 November 2015
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November is a busy month at FRIENDS and it is only a glimpse of what's to come. We have the Kayak Challenge, Science Fair, Turtle Trot, and Hope Town Music Festival all within the next 5 weeks! After we take a break for the holidays we begin in January with the Abaco Science Alliance Conference and I think this may be one of the best conferences to date. We have had a huge response with abstract submissions this year! There are so many interesting research projects happening throughout Abaco and The Bahamas, a couple of them are featured in this newsletter!

We hope to see you at our upcoming events and as always, thank you for your support!  
 
Kristin Willia ms
Executive Director
 


Frank Kenyon Centre Update
What a Year! 
FRIENDS staff, Terrance McDonald from Miracle Builders, and Earlyn Baillou, Construction Project Manager standing on the future site of the Kenyon Centre
just before construction began.
This photo was taken on October 30, 2014!
 

The photo above was taken almost exactly 1 year ago. Since this photo was taken The Kenyon Centre has been completed and is powered by the solar array that was also constructed in this time frame. Ten different institutions have stayed at the centre studying a range of topics including:  bonefish population and genetics, mangrove die off, patch reef ecosystems, sea sponges, spiny lobsters, sea turtles, shark abundance, lizards and more. We continue to receive bookings from universities and individual researchers from the US and abroad and local schools and students are making use of the lab facilities.

We hope you are as proud as we are of how much has been accomplished in such a short period of time. We could not have done it without you! 

October Bonefish Research
Top: Day Two Research Team:  Robert Albury, Guide, Black Fly Lodge - Cindy Pinder, AFFGA - Fred Arnett, DMR -Ischy William, Guide, Delpi Club - Clint Kemp, Guide, Black Fly Lodge - Justin Lewis, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust
Bottom: bonefish in a holding net waiting to be fin clipped for DNA samples

The Kenyon Centre recently hosted Justin Lewis ( Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, BTT) and Fred Arnett (Bahamas Department of Marine Resources), two young Bahamian researchers who were in Abaco to study bonefish. Cindy Pinder, Vice President of the Abaco Fly Fishing Guides Association (AFFGA), coordinated volunteer teams of independent guides and local lodge guides, along with a conservation-minded high school student and a second-home owner to assist in the four day BTT Bahamas Initiative bonefish genetics study and tag-recapture program.   

The research team was able to capture and fin clip 477 bonefish. Of those fish six were recaptures from previous tagging efforts. Five out of the six fish recaptured were caught in the same location where they were originally tagged, which supports prior findings that bonefish have small home ranges. One of the fish recaptured was 44 miles away from where it was originally tagged! This particular bonefish was a ripe male and was caught in an area previously identified as a spawning aggregation site.  For this reason, it was determined that the fish had traveled such a long distance in order to spawn.

The collaboration between the BTT, AFFGA, FRIENDS, Department of Marine Resources, lodges, and anglers is key to the continued conservation of the species. These partnerships are based around research, education and outreach. Partnerships like these are critical to understanding the importance of the bonefish fishery to The Bahamas.

Island Investigators: Taking a closer look at our world
Believe it or not these photos are of the same student. On the left Donovan participated in building and launching the reef balls as a primary student. Almost 10 years later, Donovan transplanted corals on the same reef balls at Mermaid Reef. 

This semester, our Island Investigators Club for 13-16 year olds has been learning about coral reefs. The club focuses on inquiry and encourages students to be involved with scientific research. Their first project involved the study of unknown egg cases collected from the backs of a coral-eating snail. These snails have been predating on corals on a restored coral reef in South Abaco. The Island Investigators have been monitoring the development of the eggs in the hopes that we can determine what type of animal will develop from them.

Their second project was done in partnership with Dr. Craig Dahlgren and Lindy Knowles from The Bahamas National Trust. Club members participated in a coral restoration project at Mermaid Reef in Marsh Harbour this month. Club members and other students will be able to monitor these corals for years to come. 

Club members will also be working towards presenting their research projects at the upcoming Abaco Science Alliance Conference in January. We hope you will attend and support our budding scientists!

Upcoming Events

Kayak Challenge-Saturday November 14th, 2015

The Abaco Cancer Society and Friends of the Environment are working together to present Abaco's fifth annual Kayak Challenge. Any craft you can paddle will be welcome, including kayaks, paddle boards and canoes - just no engines!  There will be three courses to choose from: 3 miles, 8 miles, or 15 miles that will take paddlers into and through the scenic tidal creeks of the Bight of Old Robinson, which is included in the recently established East Abaco Creeks National Park. Paddlers will be welcomed back with a beach party at Pete's Pub featuring a pig roast and DJ. It's a great day of family fun for paddlers and party goers, we hope to see you there! 

Abaco Science Fair - Thursday November 19th, 2015
Science fair project, St. Francis de Sales, Sawmill Sink

P ublic and private schools (even home-schoolers) are invited to participate in our annual science fair! The theme is Climate Change, so we will be looking for projects that address locally relevant issues under that theme. Visit our website for more information and download an entry form .

Hope Town Turtle Trot- November 26, 2015
Runners at the starting line

Join us Thanksgiving morning at Hummingbird Art Gallery for the 5k Run/Walk through the historic settlement of Hope Town. Prizes will be awarded to top male, female and junior runners. 

Abaco Science Alliance Conference - January 6-9, 2016
ASAC presenter Craig Layman answering follow up questions from Abaco students.

FRIENDS will be hosting the 7th Biennial Abaco Science Alliance Conference on January 6-9, 2016. Conference goals are to: provide a forum for networking and information sharing for Abaco and Bahamas-based research projects, encourage the use of research for local education and environmental management purposes, and stimulate further research in The Bahamas. 

Register for the conference here.

Abaco's Environment in Photos :
Abaco's Blue Holes Receive International Press Coverage... AGAIN! 

Nancy Albury, Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation and David Steadman, Florida Museum of Natural History with a recovered tortoise shell from Sawmill Sink
Blue Hole. Photo: Janet Franklin, Arizona State University

FRIENDS' colleagues and partners, David Steadman, Janet Franklin and Nancy Albury and several others recently had a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For those of us who are not in the science world, that is a pretty big deal! So much so that the news was picked up by several top publications such as The Washington Post,  LA Times , NY Times and the Gainesville Sun. Well done to all those involved with these important discoveries that are teaching us so much about our past and have so many implications for our future.