Just Like a Child

My parents remind me from time to time when they tell stories about me that when I was a kid, unless something was disgusting or dangerous I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I now look at my life in 2011. I like traveling to remote parts of the world, going scuba diving as much as I can, wrangling sharks for an internship in my spare time, and I would jump at the opportunity to go bungee jumping or sky diving. I’ve talked before about my help with shark research so I won’t go into detail about it. After spending several weeks now doing dolphin research in Belize, I can say I’m not cut out for it. It involves sitting on a boat watching the water for hours waiting for a fin to pop up now and again. Sure they are interesting creatures but the field work is frankly boring. Here at the research station we are staying in now, there is a very well-known crocodile researcher conducting some studies and I was able to take a few kids on the boat with him tonight. Here’s a glimpse at how the night went:

We left the field station around 5:45pm, immediately after returning from a dolphin survey. The small boat zipped us around a couple cayes for about 20 minutes until we set anchor. Riding through the area involves seeing lush mangrove populations in all directions. The cayes that make up Turneffe Atoll create a playground of coral, seagrass, and red mangroves, all set along crystal clear and turquoise water. Dinner was served on board in front of the setting sun while Tom explained the guidelines for spotting, catching, handling, measuring, and studying crocodiles. Before we knew it, dinner was packed away, the stars were glimmering, and the crocodile hunting began. Crocs are spotted with a very high power handheld spotlight which allows us to see their reflective eyes. Right off the bat we saw some eyes not 100 yards from where we started. Tom handed me the light, prepared the snare, and hopped in the shallow water at the edge of the mangroves. Unfortunately the crocodile had weaseled its way deep into the root system of the mangroves and was thus too difficult to catch. We saw a few more and were unable to catch any. As we were starting to wonder whether or not we would catch one, Tom brought us to the edge of some mangroves, hopped off the boat with the snare as I spotted with the bright light, and after a tense 5 minutes of silent maneuvering through the prop roots, the croc was caught. She was brought on board, measured, tagged, and used as a hands-on learning opportunity for everyone uneducated about crocodile biology and behavior. After being released, the boat took us all along the calm water under a beautiful bright starry sky punctuated by constant yellow and orange flashes of distant heat lightning that added to the exciting but gorgeous atmosphere of the night. After one more sighting, we all made our way back tired to the field station where we had plans to retire for the evening which I have now broken by writing this update. True to form, and with no surprise to my childhood self, the crocodile catching has been one of the biggest highlights of Belize for me and I didn’t even get into the water with them.

Me with a small/medium-sized croc

As I reflect on my time here in Belize, I look forward to many things right now: having time off, being back in North Carolina, visiting my “second home” and family in Connecticut, the prospect of work in Miami, reconnecting with friends in Miami, being back in a Christian community, and hopefully continuing my shark research.