The Exploration of Tropical Marine Ecosystems – Turks and Caicos Islands

Name: Corrine Thomas

The objective of the Tropical Marine Ecosystems: Monitoring and Management program in the Turks and Caicos Islands is to explore the conservation of tropical marine ecosystems among the islands, the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on the ecosystems, and the importance of ensuring that environmental management objectives involve and take into account the island community. This was studied through classroom learning/activities and field research which was completed via snorkeling and scuba diving.

Before the project, I would have described myself as timid and sometimes overly cautious in new situations or when completing new activities. However, while I was on the trip and in the moment, I was so excited to do and see everything that I was never hesitant or afraid. For example, the when entering the water for scuba diving, we completed a back roll off the side of the boat. As the action was explained on shore I thought “no way” to myself, but in the moment I did it without hesitation. Through this realization, I have learned that I am naturally outgoing and adventurous although throughout my life I thought of myself as otherwise.

Leading up to the trip, I did research of South Caicos in order to prepare myself for a new country and living environment. I assumed I would have an easy transition into this new environment of no air conditioning and not having a say in what food was cooked – for a month – as I have been flexible in other parts of my life prior, but I was wrong. Here, at home, I know a whole different day to day life that was so opposite I didn’t fully process my living environment on the island until halfway through the trip. Although the buildings, the roads, the food, the dorm situation and other aspects were opposites, I found that the people on the island were more down-to-earth and communicative than I had imagined them to be. With only about 1,100 people on the island, no television, little to no internet, and a community reliant on fishing exports, they were as eager to learn about me and my life as I was to learn about them. Before the trip, I never imagined I would be as close to the local community as I ended up being in the end, but the relationship was made possible through the local values of friendship and supporting one another’s endeavors no matter how different they may be. The ease of forming these new relationships helped confirm a previously known strength about myself, which is the ability to be outgoing as it relates to meeting new people.

Participating in actions I have never done before while seeing new ecosystems really encouraged me to not be fearful. If I was fearful and stayed on the boat then I could miss seeing an eagle ray or a shark that I would have seen if I was in the water. Though I never hesitated getting in, the first few times in the deep water I had to mentally calm myself to truly appreciate the environment around me. At the beginning of the trip, my underwater stress was displayed during scuba diving through the amount of time I was able to stay under with one oxygen tank – approximately 26 minutes – while the end of the trip I was able to stay under for a max of 52 minutes due to slower breathing and feeling relaxed. Throughout my repeated water experiences my mental state changed from focusing on myself to focusing on the fish, corals, and people around me. Though I always appreciated the beautiful ecosystem I was submerged in, I began to fully embrace my adventurous side as I completed more underwater activities.

Throughout the weeks, especially Saturdays, the student center where I lived focused on community engagement. Different activities with the locals of different ages allowed me to experience several smaller niches within the larger community. Early mornings there were trash pickups around the island that I participated in, which allowed for a time to communicate with the locals. The ability to discuss details about life and values in the United States versus life on the island both thirty years ago to currently encouraged me to appreciate the contrasts between the two cultures. It was through these conversations that I was able to appreciate the experience of the way I lived while on the island.

At the student center, we hosted a weekly community engagement for the children where we would play sports, do science activities, teach them how to swim and snorkel, and do crafts. This was a very special time for me as I was able to realize how amazing it was to be in that place with the knowledge and life experiences I had and how I wanted to share that with the children. Teaching a child named Tash to snorkel was the highlight of this experience for me. Though he has lived on the island his whole life, a little over 10 years, he has never seen the underwater world clearly. Snorkeling gave him this opportunity. We taught the snorkelers underwater hand signals and the first time Tash saw a fish swim by us he gave me the most enthusiastic “so cool” hand signal. Through my time of relationship forming on the island, I began to feel at home on an island I knew nothing about a year previously.

These personal transformations of being able to overcome fear through changing my mindset and gaining knowledge, both general and professional, through conversing with new people will aid me throughout the rest of my life. As the skill of being able to change my mindset becomes stronger, I will strive to utilize it in my personal and professional life. This skill matters to me because I can expand upon it in all aspects of my life and it can help me to be more open minded to new ideas, career fields, and cultures that I may have not have naturally gravitated towards on my own. As I have learned throughout the application of this skill during the project I do truly enjoy more activities and fields of study than I had previously thought and I am excited to use this new skill in the future. In my academic career I am going to put conversing with people, especially professors and educators, higher on my priority list to learn about other people’s passions and fields of study to expand my own knowledge. This trip has shown me that I enjoy a career field I never truly pondered or was able to experience and I look forward to having more of these experiences in my academic career. In my personal endeavors, I hope to be more open to asking people questions in order to learn from others and expand general knowledge. Throughout the trip, I learned that each person I was around had a unique knowledge of something I did not. Overall, I have become more open minded and passionate about exploring the world and people of the many cultures around me.