Senior Project

 Today I return to campus and am very excited to see everyone. The last things I need to work on our finishing my final paper, getting my stuff in order, and getting back to school around five. This senior project has been a great way to end the year as a senior and I think getting off campus was a good thing for a lot of seniors eager to learn somewhere else. I am truly thankful for Proctor for giving me this opportunity and I think this is something that makes Proctor stand out from all the other schools around. 

Today, I had to leave the island. We packed up our bags, ate our last meals, and sealed up the house for hurricane season. We had two flights eventually getting delayed in Miami thus landing in Boston around 1:30 in the morning. As you could imagine we were exhausted getting to our house in Vermont at four in the morning. I slept for a while today and eventually worked on my final paper for my senior project. Below is an image of me and my dad on the plane at one in the morning.

This was my final week in St Croix and I am very grateful to have had this opportunity. This week I learned how to finalize the process of cleaning, fragging, and moving coral from the lab into the ocean. I also learned the process of getting one of the lab's rafts out to sea to test the water and then after, to place the coral substrates on it for launch. For the most part, I enjoyed working at the lab and facility.  If I return or get involved again, I will want to be certified in order to dive and enjoy the reefs first-hand. Everyone working for the Conservancy was welcoming and the coral research is interesting and important. I was not able to dive because I'm not certified so again, that was a little disappointing.   Overall my short internship was a cool experience and while I learned a lot about the coral reefs and their challenge, I learned a tremendous amount about the island. Going into the project, I was unsure what to expect or even what I would be working on ...

 Today was my last day working at the Coral Innovation Hub in St. Croix. We finished epoxying the hurricane covers and made the final cuts and adjustments. They know have twenty-six hurricane covers made from plywood that should keep the coral safe in anything below category four or higher hurricanes. I am very grateful to be a part of this organization. They also said that if I chose to live here for a summer or an extended period of time they would gladly give me the opportunity to work for them and get a job there. I highly recommend visiting their website (below) to help with the cause. In total I completed my 75 hours. https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/caribbean/stories-in-caribbean/caribbean-a-revolution-in-coral-conservation/

 Today I got to work with the in-water field team. We launched a raft out to start testing the water of the ocean where we want to put the coral substrates before they go in and get glued to a reef. They do this so that we have an understanding of what's in the water beforehand if we ever see side effects or diseases that affect the coral. The process took a while as they had to anchor the raft out securely against a rock.  Also here is a link to the grand opening of the lab and facility to the public which happened last week: https://stcroixsource.com/2022/05/13/tnc-dedicates-coral-innovation-hub-on-st-croix/

 Today was another hot workday in the sun. We were busy making hurricane covers all day. This included cutting, fiberglass sealing, and extending plywood to cover the tanks. We ended up going to a lumber yard and picked up some half-inch plywood that we cut up for the dimensions of the tanks using a table saw. After that, we mixed the epoxy and hardener together for the formula to make a fiberglass sealer, putting this on the wood will make sure that the plywood never gets heavy and is waterproof and more resistant to winds and other materials hitting them.  I have 66 hours in total and today was my longest day by far, I worked 9 hours.

 Today we continued to work on the hurricane covers, the idea with the foam and fiberglass won't work because there's a material shortage. We then figured out a deal to make with a guy who worked at the local lumberyard, and we were able to order enough half-inch plywood to cover all of the tables and make them into hurricane covers. Also, I was in the lab earlier in the day and did all of the normal water tests. 

 Today, I started working on a prototype for a hurricane shelter that goes over the coral tanks. They need to be lightweight to be able to be put on in a hurry and strapped down with multiple ratchet straps to concrete. Everything at the facility is very expensive and it would be years of wasted money and research to have it all destroyed. Although there's really nothing we can protect from hundred miles an hour wind if there's a cat 5, we can protect the equipment from category three or four hurricanes. For the design, we chose to use fiberglass and epoxy over a board of insulation which is super lightweight, and when we add the two together it's strong enough not to break under the load of the tie-downs and straps. On the outside of the insulation board were using aluminum c channel so that the outsides don't get crushed in.

This week has been a time of learning about island culture, science, and information about the Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/ .  The team is focused on coral conservation and restoration they have both in-water and land-based coral nurseries at the Hub. I have learned how important coral reefs are to the environment and our lives, not only for habitat but for island protection.  At the beginning of the week I was introduced to the teams, the on-land Scientists, and the Field Workers who scuba dive and re-attach, or re-plant the coral into the ocean after the coral goes through the process of getting cleaned, studied, and fragged. I learned how the Hub facility works, from the water being pumped out of the ocean into the tanks, then run through filters to clean out the bacteria in the water. I then learned how to test the water to make sure it's a healthy environment and learned about what kind of nutrients are important for the coral. The ...

 Today was the grand opening of the Nature Conservancy Coral Innovation Hub in the Virgin Islands. This is the lab and facility I have been working at for the last week and it was just opened to the public as the biggest coral Innovation Hub in the world. It was incredible to see the turnout of the opening, the Governor of St. Croix was there and so were the majority of the donors for the lab. This includes senators, private business owners around the area, supporters, and the donators. The Gov. gave a speech followed by traditional music and dance performance by some of the locals to celebrate not only the opening of the facility but the deeper meaning behind it. The facility is based out on an old sugar plantation. When Christofer Columbus came to America, the first place he landed was actually St. Croix, because of this the English enslaved the West Indian Natives to the Island. This day was not only a reminder of the dark past of the island but also a sign of the bright future....

Today was my fourth day in the lab and I did some more water testing like yesterday. I studied the PH levels, Ammonia levels, nitrate, and nitrite levels in the water. The coral is growing and we started fragging more coral again today in preparation for the in-water team to take some of the coral out of the tanks and move it into the ocean. Once they find a healthy coral in the ocean of the same specie they glue the fragged coral to the substrate which is now its new home and they will bond together over time. The system in the lab actually uses a water pump from the ocean to make sure the fragged coral in the tanks has fresh water and nutrients. The water is pumped and stored into 1000-gallon containers which look like the pictures below. 

 Today I was back in the lab doing tests on the water. It's critical that the coral has the right amount of nutrients in the water and other chemicals to survive. Today I tested the temperature, the pH levels, and the amount of NH4, N02, and N03 (Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitride). All the levels in the water were normal and in the first three days, I have worked 19 hours so far.

Today I went to the lab where they showed me how they regrow coral so that they can be more healthy and also increase in size. This is called Fragmentation, you cut up a large chunk of coral into small pieces (size depends on the kind of coral) and it triggers an emergency growth and regeneration signal in the coral so that they grow rapidly. I would not have suspected that to grow more coral you actually need to cut up a piece of living coral so that they regenerate fast. The pictures below show the start of a coral and the fragmentation process to produce more of them, once the coral gets cut into small pieces, they are placed in a tank of saltwater that has proper proportions of the nutrients they need to be able to thrive.

Today I started my senior project working for the nature conservancy in St. Croix USVI at the Coral Reef Restoration Hub. My day started with a tour of the facility and meeting everyone who is a part of it. I got to see how they test the water to make sure it's a healthy environment and learned about what kind of nutrients are important for the coral. The team is focused on coral conservation and restoration they have both in water and land-based coral nurseries. I am working on the land-based one shadowing and working with the team to make sure that the coral continues to grow and thrive while they figure out why and how to manage all of the diseases that are destroying the coral. Today, I learned how to take care of the coral tank maintenance, how to clean the tanks, and the coral fragmentation. I began monitoring the creation of coral grow-out substrates. I recorded these photos of what I was working on and doing today during my first day of work. A link to their website and a g...