Last Entry

Hey there kids,

So the time has come. Mo'orea and I sadly parted ways and I have been reunited with good old berkeley. It is cold and rainy here and I live alone in my studio apartment. The days of dorms and living on the lagoon are no more. I miss my little island!!

I have been incredibly busy since I returned to the states but now everything is coming to an end. This whole semester the grade I will receive for 13 units is based on two things, an oral presentation and a paper. I have written the paper and am continually editing it and the presentation is now over and done with. It is amazing. I am feeling quite accomplished and my paper is formatted in the professional scientific journal way! In a couple weeks I can say I am published and it gives me joy beyond words.

To finish on the right note I am going to sum up the results and conclusions of my study. Here goes...

I identified 37 rays total, 29 from the Lagoon (site 1) and 8 from Te Honu Iti (site 2). I identified five kinds of scarring, only one of which the origin is confirmed. Those five types are wavy, thick black, scrape cluster, thin scrape, and cospecific bite. Using the Lincoln Peterson method for my mock mark recapture study the populations estimates for sites 1 and 2 respectively were 30 and 8. This suggests all the rays I identified were all of the rays living at each site. There was not cross over between sites, which confirms my theory on site fidelity ie these rays are double dipping so to speak at different locations. They stay where they get fed and consistently come back to it.

Now onto the discussion portion of the evening...

My conclusions are that the rays at site 1 are highly more injured and have a much lower body condition than do the rays at site 2. At site one the rays would swim onto you and follow you. They responded to every boat motor and every shadow. I kayaked to my site and they would respond to my little dinky kayak even. These rays are being fed what the boats are feeding the sharks as well. They chum one section of water and get two birds with one stone, black tips and rays. I saw a ray, which are known for eating gastropods and stumatopods, eat a fish head. It had so much trouble with it, it was literally banging itself and the fishhead against the sand in an attempt to compact it in some way.

Overview near Site 1. I worked in the far right area near the darker water, which is a boat channel.

At site two it is a different story. I went to site two once at lunch and once on Wednesday during the dinner hour and there were no rays. Te Honu Iti hand feeds once a night, except wednesdays, and from outside the water. They have stairs that lead down into the water and the rays just hover. They also have lights that illuminate the immediate water so the guests at the restaurant can see the rays when they swim by. The rays were incrediby skiddish and scared of me. The second I entered the water they would run away. Their frequncies of scars was much less as well. They completely lacked two car categories, which makes me guess they are boat related as the water at Te Honu Iti is far too shallow.

The restaurant.

Chef Roger, in the middle, let me interrupt his dinner ambiance frequently.

In conclusion...ecotourism is definitely affecting the rays of site 1. This is a managable problem though. With monitoring and regulation these rays can avoid the detrimental effects that have plagued the Southern Stingray. The Southern stingray has HUGE parasite loads and no natural breeding cycle anymore. Constant feeding equals constant breeding, which causes the females to have severe calcium depletions not to mention messing with natural history is just not okay! The rays at the lagoon are not there yet, there is still time to reverse damage and manage and adjust our ways so that we can save the species and its natural behavior. Biodiversity needs to and should be preserved and to the best of our ability. We can do something about this problem and with further study things can change and problems can be resolved.

Well there is a very condensed version of my paper...hope you enjoyed it!!

my little island I miss so dearly

One of the first days in the truck...feels so long ago, but still makes me so incredibly happy

sarah and I being awesome...that is how we roll.


Thank you all for reading and sharing my experience. This was quite literally the best opportunity I have ever had and is my most treasured memory. I will hold this near and dear to my heart forever. Thank you to those who helped me get here and to those who cheered me on.

love and thanks,

Brianna McCoy.