Vester Field Station!

                  This week at the FGCU Vester Field Station was the best so far. We took sediment cores, identified shells at an archaeological site, snorkeled and did environmental surveys, and went shark fishing. Basically every day we went out on the boats and I feel like I learned so much about the Ft. Myers area. Every day I learned a new bird, fish or plant native to the area.

                  My favorite part of the week was shark fishing. The objective was to catch a shark, measure and sex the shark, and take a tissue sample. The tissue sample was then analyzed for its mercury content. Mercury has a long half-life in fish tissues and is of great concern when it comes to consumption leading to mercury poisoning in organisms in a higher trophic level, including humans. Super cool study and so much fun shark fishing especially since we caught a blacktip!

                  Everything was awesome here, especially since it was a pretty much a research resort. I have never appreciated sheets and blankets on a bed so much. The teachers at every site have been great and very welcoming to questions about anything at all but I feel like this week gave so many more opportunities for questions because of all of the boat time and living so close to the classroom.

This is on Mound Key for the archaeology day. Bob is telling us about different shell tools and how the Calusa Native Americans made their pottery.