I’m way late in posting this, but below are a few photos of our initial construction session when building the Apocalpyso with team member Stephen. The Apocalypso was a raft built from reclaimed materials, which was based on the general from of the pirogues that the Amerindians used when colonizing St. Martin. Conceived and designed by Stephen, Jenn and I helped him do most of the construction in a few hours. The boat was completed and featured at the Love the Lagoon fundraising event.

I’ve missed the last three hikes with the St. Martin Trails Hiking Association, but I’m looking forward to getting back to it soon. Anyhow, below are a few photos from the Walk-a-Ton we did with Maternite Active at the end of March, taking us from Le Galion to Oyster Pond via French Quarter. Of particular note was the amount of trash on the dirt road between Le Galion and Quartier d’Orleans, a real shame.

I’m admittedly quite a bit behind in my posting after spending so much time on the Love the Lagoon fundraising event, but I did want to post the article from SXMFaxInfo about our mangrove marine life survey:

There will be an booth for the Incomplete Guide at the Eco-symposium Thursday morning at the Cultural Center in Sandy Ground.

A copy of the book was donated as a prize for the Dolphin Defenders art competition. Awards ceremony is May 3rd at the Philipsburg Library.

Dolphin Defenders St. Maarten
Dolphin Defenders, St. Maarten Our mission is to: 1) Stop any and all current plans for captive dolphins and all other marine mammals on St. Maarten. 2) Have it written into the Law of country St. Maarten that there will be no form of Marine Mammal captivity, in any type of facility, for any reason whatsoever, now or in the future. 3) Bring awareness to the island of St. Maarten in regards to the importance of protecting the freedom of dolphins and other marine mammals from the negative and cruel captive dolphin and marine mammal industry, destructive fishing practices and environmental hazards in our waters and internationally. We are going to do this by: 1) By petitioning the government not to permit the establishment of such a facility in Country St Maarten. 2) By lobbying the government to have it written into the Law of country St. Maarten that there will be no form of Marine Mammal captivity, in any type of facility, for any reason whatsoever, now or in the future. 3) Making available to the island of St. Maarten, from young to old, information regarding the negative and cruel captive dolphin and marine mammal industry, destructive fishing practices and environmental hazards both in our waters and internationally – education starts at home.

Come to the Love the Lagoon fundraising event Saturday, April 2nd starting at 7pm. The event is at the Sand Bar at Isle de Sol in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten. Proceeds from the event will go towards buying a sewage pumpout boat that will take sewage from boats on both sides of the lagoon for treatment, rather than it going straight into the lagoon.

There will be music from Simple Stand, exhibits about the lagoon, raffle and much more. There’s additional info on Facebook and the EPIC website. If you can’t make it, find out how to donate on the EPIC site.

Gary Brown interviews Mark for YachtBlast on Sunday 11am (rebroadcast Monday 7pm) about the wildlife guide and Les Fruits de Mer’s recent mangrove sea life survey.

Island 92 – Rock Radio St. Maarten
island92.com
ISLAND 92 ROCK & BLUES RADIO 2nd Floor Federal Express Building Simpson Bay, St. MaartenLocal Phone – 599-544-3377 US Phone – 786-693-9200Email – info@island92.com

On Sunday, Les Fruits de Mer made what I believe is our first official scientific expedition, to conduct a survey of fish, invertebrates and vegetation in the mangroves of Grand Ilet in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. The mangroves we surveyed were actually planted by EPIC (Environmental Protection in the Caribbean) and volunteers several years ago. Today, they are growing well and we did the survey on behalf of EPIC to begin measuring the impact of the mangroves on the local wildlife.

Aboard kayaks generously loaned by Tri-Sport, we headed out to the islet, a trip that was both fun and definitely very good exercise for infrequent kayakers. Once at the site, we stopped briefly at the beach between our two primary survey areas. A knife fight amongst the drunken, pirate-like folks hanging out on the beach convinced us to proceed immediately to our first survey transects.

After using line to demarcate our transects, we attempted the first fish survey on snorkel. The maximum depth in the transect area was approximately ten centimeters, which made it very difficult, even for the world’s first Extreme Shallow Snorkeling team. The only way to see underwater was to tilt one’s head sideways so one eye would be underwater. Changing plans slightly, we did the surveying primarily on foot, while snorkeling the slightly deeper (but still quite shallow) areas around the transects.

Although there were few fish inside the transect areas due to the shallowness, there were several species in the area, including juvenile jacks, barracuda, checkered pufferfish, small bait fish and other juvenile tropical fish. The most common invertebrates were mostly echinoderms: sea cucumbers, sea stars and urchins. We did see one large shrimp, a couple blue crabs, two types of sponge and one small patch of coral as well.

Overall, the survey was quite successful and very fun. We returned safely by kayak with data in hand and the team enjoyed a lovely supper together.

The latest SXM Trails hike started at Defiance and looped around the coast past Gibbs Bay and Dawn Beach before returning to the starting point. It was fun, and it was nice to have a relatively easy hike so people who might not be able to scale the taller hills or navigate difficult terrain could still participate. It was however, a little bit sad to see the amount of new and existing development in the area.

As volunteers participating in the sea turtle nesting survey for the Reserve Naturelle, we were invited to a dinner with the Reserve and the other volunteers at Enold’s in Grand Case (try the chicken colombo). Afterwards, we headed to Baie aux Prunes and Baie Longue to see if we could find any nesting leatherback turtles, since their nesting season had just begun. We were not lucky enough to see any, but it was a beautiful night on the beach and the clear visibility gave us a great view of Saba at night. I took a bunch of long-exposure photos of the survey.

If you see sea turtles nesting, don’t bug them! You can also call the Nature Foundations turtle hotline to report your sighting: 9229.