Not Just Another Stamp in My Passport

This trip has been full of firsts for me: my first time leaving the country, my first time on an airplane, my first time speaking Spanish, and my first stamp on my first passport. Going to Panama I received another stamp on my passport, but I also gained more knowledge. Our time in Panama is spent mostly in the water, and it happens to be my first time snorkeling and my first time seeing a reef. For this site we had to complete a field notebook, an activity that involves recording what we see for thirty minutes. Naturally, I had to complete my notebook in the water.

            The Caribbean Sea is full of more creatures than anyone could imagine. We saw at least two different types of sea urchins, various types of coral, algae, sponges, starfish, and fish. My first time snorkeling I was so excited seeing my first ever starfish. But, I really learned to appreciate the sea water and all it holds while completing my field notebook. The area I examined contained three sea urchins and some yellow sponges – sounds a little boring, but this little ecosystem contains many interactions. For example, two small fish, less than 1 centimeter, were swimming into and out of the sponge. Maybe the fish were trying to confuse a predator? Or were there prey inside the sponge? Is the sponge a possible habitat for the fish? The reason for their behavior, I do not know, but it surely is interesting.

            At one point, one of the sea urchins, which are large, black, and spiny, started to move. Now mind you, these spines are at least 25 centimeters in length, but the sea urchin literally just starts to roll away. It did not move far, but clearly something startled the urchin. Again, the actual reason for why the urchin started to move, I do not know, but as a biologist I cannot help but be interested. My time in Panama has been interesting, as it is not often that one gets to snorkel for five days in a row observing the coral reef ecosystem. While my time in Panama has been way too short, I’m glad to say that every minute was filled with wonder and knowledge, making Panama so much more than just another stamp on my passport. 

Bridget Gross

College of Wooster

Thoughts on Sustainability

All day long it is possible to hear motorboats out on the water, marsh birds and forest birds calling out and cattle calling and grazing. At night the sounds of crickets and frogs are audible, and it seems as though nothing is willing to give me the silence I have found comfortable while snorkeling the coral reefs of Bocas del Toro in Panama. I sit in a plastic chair (because the more comfortable hammock is presently occupied) and look out at a cattle pasture and part-time swamp towards the boat dock where we arrived from. This space will become a mangrove ecosystem in fifty years, according to resident biologist and Executive Director of the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC) Pete Lahanas, but I digress. I want to discuss engineering and construction work on this biology station built by ITEC. The information gathered was acquired by interviewing Pete Lahanas and from the ITEC webpage, itec-edu.org.

            The total property that is described as Bocas del Toro station today is a 70-75 hectare space along the coast. About half of this space is secondary and old growth tropical wet forest. It is situated on the north end of Isla Colón near the Village of Drago, which is made up of 95% indigenous peoples.

The current station consists of a dormitory for students, a dining hall and a laboratory with two classrooms on the second floor and a library. Total construction for these three buildings took one year approximately and funds were raised through donations. Costs were reduced by making deals for cheap lumber from the U.S. and shipping them with Chiquita cargo containers. When you walk into the rooms wiring and plumbing are visible, walls are of basic construction. All water on the station is collected from rain water and stored into four 5000 gallon tanks. Pressure is created by a concrete water tower and there is no heating system for the showers. Heating is not necessary, however. Meals are prepared by locals from the village, usually relatives of the manager, Enrique Dixon Brown, and were very satisfying after days swimming out on the reefs. Electricity is obtained by a gasoline generator that is only run early in the morning for breakfast and the afternoon and evening for class activities until about 10:00pm. However, gasoline is expensive and must be imported from the mainland, and Pete hopes that they will be able to install solar power cells in the future. This station is now 16 years old and its upkeep is driven by student courses like ours and donations.

It was a very welcoming station and it brought up ideas on what standards of living and sustainability meant to me. Remember we are talking the tropics, so hot water isn’t really necessary and I could always heat water in the kitchen. This station could achieve a state where the only thing that was required to physically bring was food and gas for cooking and the occasional construction upkeep. It is nice to see a place always striving to achieve the ideals it desires: promoting education and conservation.

Now comes the tricky part, continuing to live and act with respect for nature and minimizing my environmental impact, while inspiring lives who would not think to change the actions in the days of their lives in order to minimize environmental footprints. I suppose I am most impressed that the station on Isla Colón practices low impact on an island where a ferry must bring supplies to the population twice a day.

Yet many do not live on a small island. Many of us have great opportunities on the mainland, in great cities, in the country side, having wealth and influence on city and government laws and actions. The greatest challenge to sustainability for people, industrial agriculture, and governments is the effort it takes to be sustainable. The real goal should be to think of sustainability not as requiring effort, but being simply being a part of the culture, be it the social, religious, or business culture.

Ace Spitzer

University of Northern Colorado

Say Cheese!

We spent a great week at San Gerardo field station in Monteverde and after a long uphill hike back to the road and a shower at the hotel, the group went to visit the tourist areas of the town.  We weren’t there to be tourists, though; instead we were discussing the impacts of tourism on the region of Monteverde with our professor Mau. We learned a lot of interesting things, but what stuck with me was our visit to the Monteverde cheese factory.

The region of Monteverde is very famous for their dairy products sold under the name Monteverde. We visited the factory and the ice cream store inside, which sold the most amazing ice cream I’ve had. After eating our ice cream, we talked about the history of the cheese factory. When it first started, it was the only company selling high quality Costa Rican cheese, which was sold in San Jose for high prices. The excess whey from the cheese making process was dumped in a nearby stream.

Eventually research was done on the effect of the whey on the stream, which found that the pollution from this waste product was causing a lot of harm to the stream ecology. After some pressure to stop this pollution, Monteverde cheese came up with what seemed like a perfect solution. They would start a pig farm with 400 pigs and feed them the excess whey in addition to other food.

Unfortunately for the surrounding residents, the people who planned this didn’t think about all the ecological consequences of this project. Right after the project was started, these problems became very evident to the nearby landowners. A pig farm is very loud, very smelly, and the ponds used to treat water were a wonderful breeding ground for mosquitos. Not only did these problems lower the property value of the land, the neighbors to the pig farm couldn’t go about their daily lives without being affected by the pig farm.

The company listened to the major outcry and tried to fix the smell problem by planting water hyacinths in the treatment ponds, which are very good at taking pollutants out of water. Yet like before, this plan wasn’t fully thought out. The hyacinths did help with the smell slightly, but they also created even more surface area for mosquitos to breed. With their efforts of controlling the situation failing, they called in experts to help, aka our wonderful professor, Mau.

Mau and his team suggested a form of biological control using bacteria that targets the mosquitos and kills them. The bacteria population crashes when the mosquito population crashes, ensuring that it does not contaminate any other surrounding water sources. This plan worked very well for many years, but their original struggles show how complicated ecology can be. Without understanding the system or thinking of the consequences when changing the environment, a lot of damage can be done despite the best intentions.

Erin Gaschott

Grinnell College