In Love With Saba Island

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Hello everyone!

I am sorry it has been so long since my last blog posting! I am terrible, I know. I have got a couple of threatening emails demanding to know what is going on with me and where I am at! I have talked to a couple of you so bear with me it might be redundant.

I am still on Saba Island. For those looking for it on a map will find that sometimes its not there! It’s one of the smallest islands in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. It’s right next to St. Maarten and St. Eustatius. The island is only 5 square miles and is very mountainous, it seems much larger! The island is a tip of a mountain coming out of the water peaking out at 3000 feet! So everything is very steep and scenic. There are only about 3 access points to the ocean from the towns! The shore is super rocky and the sea is normally pretty rough! One beach that sometimes gets taken out by the pounding surf. It’s not your classic Caribbean island by any description.

Last time I posted a blog, I mentioned I got really sick? Well once I got better I got swept up with the two doctors, Wyatt and Nick, that took care of me. They spoiled me rotten for 6 days. I got to stay at a very fancy hotel for a couple of days in their loft and got 5 course dinners! It was so much fun they were both very goofy guys and we had lots of laughs! One of my favorite memories is playing the game of Clue in the 5 star restaurant drinking a bottle of expensive red wine! We got some weird looks! Wyatt and I did a couple of the hikes around the island. Once they left the island I started to pound the pavement to find a way to stay on this amazing rock. I got talking with the dive shops and since they were so slow they could not offer me a diving internship. They pointed me in the direction of Ecolodge which has gardens and the owner, Tom van’t Hoff, was responsible for setting up the Marine Park in Saba and 2 other Dutch Antilles islands! We got a conversation going and once he found out what I did in Oregon he pointed me in the direction of Jan who is the Manager of the Marine Park. That Monday I started to volunteer with them! A first we worked out a plan were I would volunteer part time at the Ecolodge for lodging and part time at the Marine Park. But after a week of that the immigration officer didn’t like the idea of my not being Dutch and working at the Ecolodge? Strange I know? But working at the Marine Park was OK since it’s a non profit organization. So after the first week of working with the Marine Park I passed for being a good worker. So they worked out a deal with Tom at the Ecolodge that they would pay for lodging if I worked full time at the Marine Park! So now I am in heaven. At first I was helping with their mooring lines, which are anchored to the sea floor therefore avoiding boats dropping anchors on sensitive reefs. I also helped with some trail maintenance. A couple of weeks ago, my boss Jan gave me a couple of projects to work on when I am here! One of the projects is to re-create a reef fish survey that was done 13 years ago! It’s been so fun. I get to SCUBA dive and count reef fish! Yipppy! I have been responsible for figuring out the sampling design by going through a bunch of scientific papers and being advised by Tom. I am in science nerdy heaven. I work with the Marine Ranger, Greg van Laake, he is my fish counting buddy! We nerd out on fish together and he has been an awesome friend! He has been teaching me a lot about boats and SCUBA diving. Another project I am working on is re-establishing a underwater snorkel trail. It’s been so much fun! I also help out with child education, which is not my strong point, but its fun to get kids excited about the environment and teach them about fish! There is one group and we teach them how to swim and snorkel, they range from 6-10 years old! They are so cute. And the other is a Girl Scout group that is more advanced and we go out on the boat to snorkel around the island and hike on the trails.

As for the social life, I managed to find the coolest group of people to hang out on the island. They are always having parties, BBQs, and hanging out. Like last weekend there was a fancy cocktail retirement party at the Queen’s Garden Hotel for a lady that is retiring to the island. It’s been awesome! They make me feel so at home here. Most of my friends own hotels and business on the island. Its really small community with only 1500 people!

I get to live at the Ecolodge in a rad little cabin called the tree frog! I will post a picture of it. It’s run off of solar power and rain catchment for the water! I have a hammock on my porch where I hang out about 90% of the time I am home. There is also a swimming pool I can use, hot tubs, outdoor showers, and a sauna! I am so spoiled its gross. At night there is a deafening music of crickets and tree frogs! Its amazing. I feel like I am woman in the mist....Sot the place is only accessible by foot. There is a road that comes up to the top of the saddle of the mountain but you still have to hike in for a couple of minutes. For me with out a car, I hike. There is an awesome foot path that winds through the jungle down to the town. It’s like a mile or so and has a 1000 foot elevation gain! So I am in really good shape, running home is not so easy sometimes. I get picked up at the bottom every morning for work. I get to ride in the back of the truck and see the amazing views all the way to work! There are a couple of towns that are nestled into the mountains and separated by mountainous terrain. There are very rarely a flat spot on this island. For example, the run-way for the airport is the smallest in the world! The hiking here is unbelievably good. Most of the land is privately owned but preserved in green space so there are trails all over the island that connect in this huge net work! I spend most of my weekends on the rainforest trails that run right next to the ecolodge! You can also hike to the top of Mount Scenery which is right up the mountain from where I live. The vegetation is so variegated here. In the morning I wake up on the mountain and open my double door and clouds float through (literally!), its normally a bit stormy and windy. I hike down out of the banana trees, helicona, tree frens, into the mid bush of avocado trees, mango, ficus. Then I travel down into the desert were I work on the harbor next to the ocean where there are prickly pear and catsus lining the rocks with madrone trees! Its so crazy! You can go through so my ecosystems here! Can you tell I am in heaven? They are also very earth based here, for instance this month is Sea and Learn month. It’s a month long seminar and education series were they invite scientist from all over the world to come and do research on the island and educate the people. It’s awesome! There are field workshops and hands on training for learning all the plants and animals! The whole community comes out and participates. Like yesterday I lead the Girl Scout group to help two bat scientists set up mist nets for research they are conducting! Tonight is the shark researcher who is going to lead a talk then show a video of his shark stuff. Then next week he is coming out on the boat with us to do some research! Yippy! I am in heaven. I found my paradise folks.


I also got to check out a neighboring island of Angullia a couple of weekends ago. A group of people organized a trip over there on a boat. It was pretty cool place, but it made me appreciate Saba. It was my 13th Caribbean island and it was pretty influential. I am not going to get totally in to it. But let’s just say that it’s inspired me to make a difference in this world and protect the marine environment or what is left of it. I am getting so sick of seeing destroyed reefs and sick environments. I need to do something about this and I think I am just head strong enough to pull something off. It gave me a new purpose of this trip. I need to see how all these places compare environmentally, talk with people get their input on what they are experiencing with the changes. Talk with the old timers, new timers, and kids. I am not sure what is going to be the end goal but I found out that is what needs to happen on this trip. I need to see what is going on. Then I am going to figure out where it’s going to be the best to focus my energy to make the biggest difference. There ya go. That is were my head it at these days. Doing this marine research on a very intact, very healthy, very delicate environment, has given me the opposite end of the spectrum of what I was experiencing on the other islands. This is what happens when people care about their environment. It’s happy, they are happy. Of course it’s not perfect but the ideas and consciousness is there. Very inspiring. It’s also a small island and can change easier than larger communities of people. But its being done and that is what is important.

I am going to be staying on Saba until the last minute. I don’t think I am going to make back to Oregon before I head to Europe. Unless there is a hurricane chasing me out of here! Right now I am going to be leaving October 20th. But I am might actually push it back even more? I am really getting into my projects. I would like to stay longer but my round the world ticket is calling me on October 31st. Plus I need to see the rest of the world before I settle in a place. Maybe Saba will have me back in the end?

On a side note I got interviewed by the island newspaper and I am going to attach the article below. I am so honored they did a story on me? The article it makes me sound so important, I am embarrassed.

I am on email pretty regularly now! So feel free to email me! I miss you all! I will try to write another blog in a couple of weeks! Love you!

Mae

Newspaper article:




Marine Park intern updates Saba fish count


SABA—Marine ecologist Mae Noble is working at the Saba Conservation Foundation (SCF) to update a previous fish count study.


Noble said that the original study was completed in 1995 and was done by Marine Biologist Callum Roberts and Julie Roberts of York University, England. Noble and Marine Park Ranger Greg van Laake are revisiting the same sites so that the information can be a direct comparison to the data gathered 13 years ago.


Noble said that she was drawn to Saba through a personal referral followed up by her own research. After working the last three years as manager of the Oregon State University Marine Ecology Laboratory, she decided to take a personal sabbatical and tour across the tropical zone to get a closer look at the health of ocean environments. She will continue gradual level studies in the fall of next year.


When she arrived on Saba, she stayed at the EcoLodge, which is owned and operated by Tom van’t Hof, who established the Saba Marine Park in the 1980s. Van’t Hof directed Noble to current Marine Park Manager Jan den Dulk, who was happy to have more expertise on board, and promptly put Noble to work on the new update study.


The fish count statistics are taken from fished areas such as Hole-in-the-Corner and Gills Quarter as well as unfished areas like Tent Reef and Babylon. Noble hopes to accomplish four more areas in the next weeks. Noble and van Laake do two counts in the same area, one at five meters and another at 15 meters. They are counting five families: parrot fish, surgeon, grunts, snappers, sea bass, and any pelagics that swim into view (barjacks, barracudas, and sharks.) They also note approximate size of the fish populations.


Noble will also be working on a project to revitalize a project for a snorkel trail in the Torrens Point area.


Noble said that Saba’s nature, with its combination of a pristine underworld environment and beautifully maintained topside trails, has made her even more enthusiastic about working in the field of ecology. She said that many people have lost touch with nature and feel that technology will save the situation. “Nature is a finite resource,” she pointed out. “We have to do something big, otherwise something big will happen,” she said.

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