Field Trips are Better in Fiji

On Sunday morning, we left to go to Sigatoka on the Coral Coast for a 3 day field trip for our Marine Biology class. I was upset that I had to do this instead of going to the Yasawas (an island chain off the Northwest coast that is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous) with the rest of my friends, but I figured I would make the most of it, so it ended up being an okay start to the mid-semester break. I also celebrated the beginning of break a bit too much the night before and as a result had the worst bus ride ever, but once we got there I had perked up. We arrived and unpacked into our dorm style rooms at the resort, then cooked a large dinner with everyone (actually we watched the fijian students cook since they were making fijian food and knew what they were doing).

The first day, we all woke up at 5:30 in the morning because our professor declared that we would be working on the reef at 6. This was despite the fact that the sun doesn't rise until around 6:30, so of course we all went back to bed after being woken up too early (how is it possible to not figure this out ahead of time?). We saw sharks out by the breakers near where we were surveying, which was cool, until I was alone at one end of a survey transect line and saw a v-shaped ripple in the water cutting towards me and freaked out just a little bit. Our section of the reef kind of sucked so we didn't see too much cool stuff, other than a bunch of wiggly sea cucumbers, some butterfly fish, and of course sharks. We spent a few hours taking inventory of the reef here, then went back and napped before loading onto a bus and doing the same thing at a beach at Natadola (where we had visited earlier in the semester). This reef had more stuff, like heaps of starfish, a huge conch, snails with bright shells, and many little fish.

This is a crown of thorns starfish, a really nasty looking thing. They're the second largest type of starfish in the world. The spines are really sharp and contain a neurotoxin that's supposed to be very painful if you step on one. They prey on coral polyps and are a problem with breaking down coral reefs, so a lot of people kill them when they find them. We played it safe and just messed around with it with our snorkels though.

Although this reef was more interesting, it was much larger, so by the time we were done we were all pretty sick of reef surveying for the day. We made ourselves sandwiches for lunch (I never knew that processed cheese with plain bread could taste so amazing) and headed home. Tonight was indian food night, with the indian students making huge pots of rice and several curries that were all delicious, even though I thought I was going to choke on a chicken bone several times and accidentally burned my mouth off by eating a hot chili. I spent a few hours stargazing with friends on the beach before passing out.

There was a really pretty sunset, although of course our digital cameras aren't that great at showing it.

Me, contemplating sun. Actually I was figuring out the best way to jump off of the rock to get back down on the beach sand.

Our last day was spent going on the reef right outside of our resort once again, but this time to count butterfly fish. Since fish get scared when big clumsy human legs wiggle at them in the water, we had to measure out our line and then wait for a half hour before moving along extremely slowly to count the fish. After this, we packed up our things and headed home. We have to write a lab report on all of this in a couple of weeks. It wasn't exactly thrilling work, but it was a nice escape from Suva for a few days to spend some time in the water. This afternoon we get on a boat (the ride's supposed to be 18 hours long!) to go to Taveuni, the third largest island in Fiji, which is northeast of Viti Levu. I'm very excited!