The seniors spent last week camping on Cabretta Island and studying marine biology at the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve (SINERR). Much of Sapelo Island is dedicated to the analysis of barrier island ecology and the long term effects of global warming.

Our students worked with a Department of Natural Resources researcher collecting samples of plankton, recording observations of salinity and turbidity, and returning to the lab, worked on identify specimens. Later, our students met the director of the University of Georgia’s Marine Institute, who gave us a tour of the island research facilities, and then, in the evening, joined us on the bridge to Cabretta for hydrophone recording (listening to the sounds made by marine animals is one way to document their presence and activity).

Camping on Cabretta was like living on a private island. We explored its pristine beach, live oak forest, and salt marsh to make our own ecological observations. And after studying our island habitat, everyone enjoyed swimming in the ocean and playing on the beach.

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