March Madness Week 1

Over the first March Madness week, I went on a trip with REEF Conservation International to their island in Belize, where I hunted lionfish via spearfishing and learned the fundamentals of this problem. Personally, throughout the week, I caught 47 lionfish, but the whole group of volunteers caught over 400.

The Reef Conservation International volunteer program in Belize offers individuals the opportunity to work alongside marine biologists and conservationists in a remote and beautiful setting. Volunteers like myself participate in a range of conservation activities, including invasive lionfish hunting, coral reef monitoring, fish surveys, whale shark monitoring, and sea turtle monitoring. Volunteers also assist with beach cleanups and environmental education programs. The REEFCI base in Belize is located on a small island near Tom Owens Caye, which is in the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve. The island is a small, rustic facility that provides volunteers with access to basic amenities. Through their work with REEFCI, volunteers have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the health and well-being of coral reefs and marine life in one of the most beautiful and ecologically significant areas of the Caribbean.

REEF Conservation International exists to protect marine environments through research, education, and conservation efforts. One of the areas where REEFCI focuses its efforts is in the fight against invasive lionfish populations. Belize is an important location for REEFCI's lionfish control efforts because it is home to one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Lionfish were first observed in Belizean waters in 2008, and their population quickly grew, threatening the health of the reef ecosystem. REEFCI works with local communities, organizations, and government agencies to conduct research on the lionfish population, develop strategies for controlling their spread, and educate the public on the impacts of invasive species. REEFCI also engages in direct removal efforts, encouraging and training divers to safely capture and remove lionfish from the reef. Through its work in Belize and other areas, REEFCI aims to protect marine ecosystems and promote sustainable use of marine resources for the benefit of both the environment and the people who depend on them.

Monday, March 6, 12pm

Right now I’m on my flight from Houston TX to Belize City. I was supposed to fly direct from New York to Belize City yesterday, but I only had a PDF of my notarized letter of travel consent to travel to Belize alone as a minor, so I missed my flight. The only option for a flight today was to connect through Houston. I woke up at 3:15 am this morning to make it to my 5:28 am flight from Newark to Houston. I slept through my whole New York - Houston flight, because yesterday I had to be at Newark at 7:00 am (but left from home on Long Island around 3:30 am), so I needed to catch up on sleep. Now I feel much better. The rest of my travel day will be customs in Belize City, and then a 15 minute flight from Belize City - Placencia. Placencia is the village that the dock is, where I’ll be taken to REEFCI’s island from. I’m curious to see how the boat ride will go, because since I’m arriving late, I will be boating alone, rather than with the other 20 volunteers, out to the island, which is 4 hours from land and has no cell service or wifi. Anyways, I’ll say more when I arrive at the island! I’m feeling 50% excited, 50% nervous…

Monday, March 6, 9:00pm

Tonight’s been a little bit tough… I missed the dive today, because I didn’t get to the island until 6 pm, whereas other people got in around 1:00. Arriving late also meant that I didn’t get introduced to anyone, so at dinner, rather than sitting with the group of college students here, I sat with a 65 (??) year old couple from San Francisco. Their names are Bonnie and Victor, and they were quite nice, we just didn't have anything really in common other than our interest in protecting our reefs through lionfish eradication. I’ve been reading the sequel to I Forgot to Die by Khalil Rafati (great book, definitely recommend it), which has been keeping me busy. I’m going to go to bed now, because we have a 6 am wakeup for the first dive! I can’t wait to get in the water.

Tuesday, March 7, 10:00pm

This morning, I woke up at 6:00 am. It wasn’t a hard wakeup, as my room doesn’t have shades, so I was woken mostly up by the sun. It helped that my bed wasn’t super comfortable… I brushed my teeth and put on my bathing suit, and then got my dive equipment ready. I forgot how heavy a scuba tank is!!! We then learned how to spear a lionfish. We practiced on a coconut on the island, and I was a natural. Our first dive of the week was at 7:00 am and as a group, we only got 6 total lionfish, out of the 9 we saw. Then, after arriving back to the island, we ate breakfast at 9:00 am, and I had a bagel. After that I played beach volleyball with the college students and some of the dive masters who live on/run the island. After that, we had a lionfish presentation at 10:00 am where we learned basic information about invasive lionfish. I already knew everything we were taught from previous research, but it was amazing to see so many people who cared about the same issue as me. Then, we had our second dive of the day at 11:00 am. On this dive, as a group, we got 18 total lionfish, and saw some really beautiful coral. After that, I learned how to filet the lionfish and I dissected 5 lionfish stomachs to count how many fish they had eaten in their last feeding, as part of required research for the invasive lionfish PADI speciality certification. Then, we ate veggie burgers for lunch. On REEFCI’s island, they like to have the only meat eaten be lionfish, and mostly have a plant based, sustainable diet. After lunch, I read some more of my book and we had a FISH ID presentation, where we learned common types of fish and how to tell what species they are. It was very similar to the FISH ID course that I took in the Virgin Islands. At 3:00 pm, we had another dive, where the group caught 26 lionfish. After that, we filleted them again, and again fed the rest of their bodies to the sharks. Next, I took a shower, and my dive hair took 30 minutes to untangle. We had dinner after that, which was delicious. After dinner, I took my lionfish specialty written test – I got a 100%, and then I got ready for bed.

Wednesday, March 8, 9:00 pm

This morning, I woke up again at 6 am. I got my dive equipment ready, and we were on the boat on the way to the dive site at 7:00 am. I held the zoo keeper on this dive (the thing that we put lionfish in after spearing them), as part of the physical part of my lionfish specialty. This took some getting used to, as my buoyancy and weight was off, but as the dive went on, it became easier. I speared a ton of lionfish in this dive, and we went down to 118 feet, which is the deepest I have ever gone. This dive got me really close to my decompression limit, where it becomes dangerous for your lungs and body. After that, we went back to the island and had breakfast and listened to a presentation about aquatic mammals such as manatees. Then, rather than diving at 11:00 am, because I had gotten so close to my DeCo limit, I snorkeled and free dived through a wreck. We saw beautiful fish and the wreck was really cool. We went back to the island and played some chess, and then left to go to another island to do a beach clean up. I’ve never seen anywhere, let alone such a beautiful and remote island, so covered in plastic and trash. They explained to us why that specific island is so affected, and it is because of the tides, similar to how the Pacific Garbage Patch was created. On the beach off of the island, we saw some starfish, which was really cool. We picked up over 1600 gallons of trash over three hours, as a group. After that, we quickly went back to REEFCI and prepared our dive equipment, and then went on our next dive. This dive was AMAZING because I saw a 6 foot shark and got about 3 feet from it. We hunted lionfish, and got somewhere around 40. After that, we filleted them, and fed the leftover pieces of the fish (the spine, head, etc) to some nurse sharks that hang out around the island. I was really tired by the end of the day, but we played some beach volleyball before having dinner and a (much needed and appreciated… but cold) shower. After that I read my book and fell asleep with the book open (I wrote this the next day…)

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Thursday, March 9, 10:00 pm

Today was a lot of fun. I spent all of my time on the island playing beach volleyball and chess. We had three dives again, and caught and filleted the lionfish we caught today. I've gotten into a routine here and in some ways I'm really excited to go home and see my friends and family, but I'm also doing something I love so much, so it's weird to think I'll be leaving tomorrow. For dinner, we ate lionfish for the first time!!! It was so delicious and so exciting to eat what we had been catching the past three days. I’m writing this between Beach Volleyball sets, so it has to be short, but today was amazing. I saw a shark swimming above me during one of the dives, which was about 4 feet, which was awesome. I held the zoo keeper again, and the divemaster kept track of my buoyancy as part of the test.

Friday, March 10, 5:00 pm

Now I’m in my hotel room for the night ALONE which is a bit scary… Throughout the week, I noticed that I started to “miss” my phone/social media so much less, which is really nice. Being cut off from the internet was such a good detox for me, and I’m really really glad I did the program. Going to a foreign country by myself at 15 years old is a unique and uncommon experience, and it taught me so much. For so much of my time, I was nervous -- in the airport, on the boat alone out to the island, in the car going to the hotel, and not knowing anyone on the island. Having a safe experience where none of my worries were validated taught me how good the world can be. Throughout the week, I got so much footage of diving and of the lionfish and got so much experience with them. This did WONDERS for my MM project and I just really wish I could dive 100 times more. This morning, we did a final, 70 foot dive, which was really cool and we saw some amazing coral. After that, we all ate breakfast together and I logged all of my dives for the week. Around 10 am, we left the island and did our 4 hour boat ride home. I was so excited to talk to my family and friends and I got service around two hours into my trip! Since arriving at the hotel, I ate lunch and I took a HEATED shower! I leave tomorrow morning from Placencia - Belize City and then Belize City to New York!

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