Saturday, December 29, 2012

Crabs and snails- oh my!

So just to elaborate on the last couple pictures in the previous post- one of our big projects for the winter semester was working a federally funded project to survey and determine preferred habitat as well as population sizes for several species of crabs and snails on the island. We are still crunching numbers and writing up the final draft- but it was definitely an amazing experience. We learned how to use machetes and different kinds of fancy field tools to measure the critters we catch.

Anyhow, we just recently got back from Rota a couple days ago. Rota is a smaller much more rural island about 70 miles away. The vast majority of the inhabitants are traditional chamorros and are by far the nicest people I've ever met. It was exciting to meet and talk to these people and was a huge step in the right direction. The local people do not trust outsiders coming in and trying to enforce things they might not necessarily support. The biggest challenge for conservation in this area is gaining the trust of the locals by truly understanding and being able to see from their perspective. They love wildlife and nature as much as we do- and hopefully over time they can understand the efforts being made are for the benefit of everyone.

But the people of the village we were staying in- Song Song, threw us a big bbq. We were might with huge smiles, hugs and kisses on the cheeks. Throughout the night the kept urging us to "never stop eating". There were so many delicious dishes and amazing conversations. To put this all in perspective- this is a small island with ~2300 people living on it. The economy is basically non-existant. Most families rely on farming to feed themselves. Not many hold jobs and overall there are only 3 restaurants on the whole island. So for these people to work all day and offer us so large amounts of food...was really quite a big deal. I can honestly say though- I've never met a nicer group of people and so far our trip to Rota has been my favorite part of all of this. It was such a nice change of pace and very eye opening to experience life from a local point of view.


Me and my professor in the tiny little 10 seater plane on the way to Rota from Saipan.

One of the first sites they took us to. The waves were crashing up all around us.

Mochong Latte Site

A lagoon near our hotel. I think it was called Twixberry?

The view from our hotel.

We went to see a bat colony from this cliff overlooking all the trees. Really weird to be able to see birds on the tops of trees below you.

A watershed area that supplies the majority of the freshwater to the island.

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