Our trip to Puerto Penasco and our stay at CEDO was an incredible experience. There is a quote by Jacques Cousteau that I think sums up our experience quite well: "The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever".

Kayaking in the estuary

On our last day of our Marine Biology study abroad, we kayaked

into Morua Estuary to learn more about how these soft bottom habitats are home to the young of many fish and invertebrate species like blue crabs (earning estuaries the nickname of "nurseries") as well as a resting and nesting place to many migratory birds like terns, egrets and oyster-catchers (black and white birds seen in picture). Estuaries are shallow bays where freshwater from the land, empties into protected bays of the ocean, creating water that has a mixture of saltiness or salinity. Oysters are raised here in Morua estuary and then sold in local fish markets. This CEDO (saaaydoe) ecotour was guided by Paloma and it was a great learning activity to end our marine biology study abroad.

Certified open water divers!

Three of our class got their SCUBA certifications while diving with the sea lions thanks to the excellent instruction of Glenn Bennett. Congratulations Kayla, Kymri and Elizabeth!

Swimming with LIONS !!!

Being a student that has taken a marine biology class and has studied the sea lion i can say that through all the videos/books/and pictures i have seen absolutely nothing can prepare you for the extreme beauty of seeing the sea lion in its natural habitat up close and personal.  The acrobatic abilities of these creatures within the water are mind blowing.  I am so glad i took this trip to be able to have experienced these amazing creatures.

Not to mention getting the bragging rights of being able to say you got to play in the water with a bunch of sea lions =)

For whatever we lose... it's always ourselves we find in the sea. - E.E. Cummings

Today was a sad day indeed as we all packed up to leave CEDO. It was an incredible week jam packed with learning and amazing experiences. Staying at an institution completely dedicated to the conservation of marine life was amazing all on its own. There are so many efforts being aimed at educating fishermen and locals about what can be done to protect endangered species. The people at CEDO are extremely passionate about oceanic life and can't help but do everything they can to spread conservation awareness.

Here are a few more pitctures and videos of some of our adventures and the organisms we fell in love with along the way.

On the left is the Decorator Crab. Their survival is based on their ability to cover themselves with other ocean organisms. Kudos- they can be tough to spot!

On the right is a snail with the operculum protecting it from us. Snails have a muscular foot they attach to this "shield" that they draw in when tides are low so they don't dry out or get eaten by predators.

Here we have the flat worm on the left. We found quite a few of these tidepooling and really came to appreciate their beauty in the water. Not only do they have awesome coloration, they move like little dancers with their almost pleat-like bodies.

The octupus find was huge for us! We actually found two of these pigmy octupuses that morning in the tidepools and could hardly get over it. So fascinating to watch their tube feet attach to the glass (or your hand!).

The sea lions were everything I had hoped for. I was lucky enough to go diving at Bird Island and they are absolute teases in the water. A big group of them would come up and surround us, watch us, and get within arms length only to do a sly twirl away with a kick of their fins.

The sea turtles at Cet Mar were a major part of what I was looking forward to on the trip! There were five of them in a large pool that would swim right up to you and let you pet them on the head and feel their shells. Dr. C rounded up some food for them as well that just so happened to look like human fingers. We were careful with that :)

Puerto Penasco trip was....

AWESOME!!!!  I have been to Mexico before but this experience definitely blows all the past visits away!  I got to see and hold a lot of the marine life i learned about in Marine Biology while tide pooling with the crew! Also got to pet GIANT sea turtles at the aquarium in C.E.D.O  and  SWIM WITH SEA LIONS while snorkeling!  Sea kayaking was also a blast!!

This trip is completely worth your time!  Amazing people and experiences!!

Good things will happen, if you really want this

Be honest, I have never been on ocean or sea before, I wanted lie on beach close to ocean, I wanted see and at least touch see lion, as well as try kayak, dive or snorkeling, or just get away from cell phones, internet for at least a week. And guess what wish came true, I had all of this in one trip and much more. I think I need tell big thank you to our directors/teachers, because they made this trip fun for all students. If you tired of noisy daily routine and have one week of free time, advise to visit Rocky Point, and it will be way more fun if you will be able to go through Study Aboard Program.

Good Time

I have to say that this trip was a lot of fun, although we did homework, but some of us did not like it. Many of you who will ask me if you should go there or not. My answer will be definitely, yes. People who like kayaking, tide pooling, diving, or just simple have fun. Its mean this trip made just for you. As well I really liked my group, although group itself was small only ten people including our teachers. I'm really sorry could not post my pictures, simply because I had only for one day charge on my camera. If somebody will ask me, will I go there one more time? I think my answer will be definitely positive.

Bitter Sweet

Our trip is over and I am typing from my house all sun tanned/burned, tired, and feeling awesome!!! I feel both sad and joy when it comes to our trip. Sad that it is over soon, but I feel so amazed at just thinking on how much stuff we managed to do during one week.
I snorkled with sea lions, caught multiple and different types of sea life (crabs, oysters, mollesks, fish you name it!), kayaked or better attempted to kayak. I met really cool people (yes including professors) and we had a lot of fun getting to know each other as well as learning new culture. I was amazed at how most of the mexicans were able to speak English. I think this was a definately one of the most exciting experiences in my life.

Another shot from our diving at Bird Island

Kymri, Kayla and a sea cucumber.

What a Wonderful Experience!

Wow!! It is so hard to believe how fast our trip to Puerto Penasco went. I think it is safe to say that everyone here is sad that our time here at CEDO is coming to an end. We have had such a wonderful learning experience and have had so much fun doing it. I personally now know a whole lot more about the sea life and I will never visit a beach again without looking for animal life, not just the pretty shells to take home. I have held so many animals that I would never have dreamed of holding for example a Blue Swimming Crab and even an octopus. I might never again want to hold another octopus after this one decided to bite me, but it was still awesome to do.

I have done a lot of things that I wouldn't have experienced other wise. I know many people have mentioned that we were able to go scuba diving. That was AWESOME and something I hope I will be able to do a lot more of during my life. We also went to the CET-MAR aquarium and were able to pet sea turtles and a sea lion. That was pretty cool as well. Today we also went kayaking, Paloma our guide here from CEDO told me that we kayaked 3 kilometers. Let me tell you I am sure my arms will be sore tomorrow, but it was so worth it! Overall it was an amazing trip, I am so glad that I was able to come!

My favorite word right now is totally Nudibranch --teeeheeee!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudibranch

Lia

CET-MAR Aquarium

We spent the afternoon visiting CET-MAR aquarium.
There were larval octopus, gulf sunstars, dogfish snappers, moray eels, and much, much more. But I think for many the highlight was the opportunity to feed the sea turtles and the sealion.

Subtidal shots

A Puerto Penasco sunset.

the dive boat we took out to the island. Sirena del Mar.

More underwater shots from Isla de Jorge (Bird Island).

A sea cucumber

Fire sponge and green coral.
Feather duster worms and mat anemones.

My First trip to Mexico

I was very careful picking Marine Biology in Puerto Penaso class because of all the unrest that is happening in the country. We all heard different stories about the corruption, drugs, and how it is not safe to travel to Mexico. However what made me leave the comfort zone of the United States was Alex Cheroski's description of the whole trip. He stated that we will leave outside the town in the research facility zone and we will only visit town for 2 hours a day under careful supervision of our professors. 

I would like to note that I felt not only safe, but I was also astonished by the great service and the friendliness of  C.E.D.O. staff. All of the hispanic people I met were able to talk basic english and were very friendly. It was funny how all of them were very enthusiastic in teaching us spanish. Our professors were very strict about our security, and although they did not let us to go to town by ourselves, they were very accommodative when it came down to shopping for basic groceries and swimming supplies. 

Our day would begin at 7:00 am. where we would get our breakfast and rush towards the tide zone in order to be able to capture and learn about all the different species that live during low tides that is only accessible two times a day. Then we would have our breakfast all together, and get ready for our lecture. After lectures we would have enough time to go to the beach, shred the waves with our boogie boards, or lay on a beach and get a sun tan or sun burn :).(bring your sunblocks with you all the time!) 

We also went snorkeling and scuba diving under supervision of both our and scuba instructors, tide pooling, and kayaking. 

Overall the weather and the whole trip was very enjoyable! We did not have any incidents with local police or local people, everybody was friendly and we really enjoyed our stay. If your parents do not feel safe about you registering for this class have them visit our website and read my blog!

Lookin Seriously Confident about Diving

Some pre-dive meditation possibly?:)

Scuba!

So Tuesday was Elizabeth, Kymri, and my first day as official PADI divers! We got officially certified under water at Bird Island and were rocking and rolling after that and off to explore! On our first dive we saw lots of reef fish and of course sea lions! They were so fun to watch in the water playing and checking us out. Glen, our istructor, actually did get a chance to pet one, until another one came at him baring his teeth.. Time to end the dive! Second dive was truely one of the best experiences of my life. After Dr. C almsot descended right on top of a scorpion fish, Kymri and I decided to follow him and Krya and explore closer to the island. At one point of our exploration I stopped and looked around and was surrounded by almost thirty sea lions. Having all those sea lions around me was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. Also, it was very humbling, to be surrounded by all these animals that could take two bites and kill me but didn't, they just wanted to see who I was. The animals exist so harmoniously down there, I just wish everyone who tries to disrupt their habitat could see this harmony all the animals have a learn something from it, and learn to leave it alone.

Swimming with the Sea Lions!

Since many others will be posting after our awesome day of diving out at the sea lion rookery (about a 60 minute boat trip from Puerto Penasco) but wanted to add some underwater shots. Everyone is pretty tired tonight so we'll be signing off soon!

All the divers that made it out alive!

Life at the Estuary

Life here in an estuary is never easy, being uncovered and covered with water twice daily -- yet it seems to teem with life! Check out a few pictures displaying the tidal fluctuations here in Cholla Bay, as well as a few pictures of organisms we found . . .

Sea Lion Horizon

What an awesome time today on our boat trip to Isla San Jorge (Bird Island). We started out around 8-830 this morning to catch low tide with Jim, our dive guide and Jose Luis, el capitan. Many did well with the goal not to get sea sick on the undulating and bumpy ride.
As we started to approach the site, there were several very large white rocky peaks coming out of the water. Jim leaned in to tell me that though the Sea of Cortez is famous for them, they were not a mirage. On the east side of the islands, we were able to see many birds flapping their big wings and sea lions barking and playing. After a brief note on the local tide and current fluxes, and the mechanics of dive gear, it was time to get our feet (and lives) wet. The prospects of swimming with the sea lions had been all too anticipated, and they seemed very curious to meet us as well.
With several of us snorkeling near the surface and some "scubies" diving below the sea lions remained, swimming all around and throughout the group trying to get a closer look. I remember at one point floating very still while one female approached my face with hers, closer and closer. She came about a foot in front of me and it was there where we made true eye contact. As quickly as she became clear to me was as quickly as she had disappeared into the turbid deep. This must be the struggle many field biologists experience, we all just want that few more seconds to look....
Scubies and snorkelers up, we boated around the cove to another site for exploring. This time the bottom was deeper and the current faster. 45 more minutes of double fun, who knows what the scubies observed and recovered. All I know is that I left a piece of my heart at that island today, and already am I ready to retrieve it.

I suspect that this experience is what scuba is all about, thanks to today I understand just a bit more of all of that dive talkin.

Lia

Puerto Penasco Is Practically Perfect

Here is a sea hare we found tonight during our tide pooling! One of Krya's personal favs. It was a smash hit with everyone as we passed it around to feel its consistancy.... kind of like flubber? Those are the tentacles near the fingertips.

Here is the group at the estuaries learning about anaerobic/aerobic organisms. We found some great stuff! A few different crab species, snails, barnacles, and curlew bird.

We like to keep up with our technology here at CEDO. Dr. C doing a little blue steel along the way and Leah trying to keep up on her cinnamon raisin bread.

It's day three in Puerto Penasco and we are all working on aspiring to Dr. C and Krya's mad marine biologist skills. Now as we walk down the beach tide pooling we hear things like, "There's another operculum!" "Purple urchin!" "There's a rock crab!" Or the crazy scramble tonight for an octupus and brittle star. We're just soaking it up!

Our curlew at the estuaries :)

Tide Pooling

Hey everyone! Even though we were really bumbed out that our boat trip today was canceled due to the wind we still had an AWESOME day. We had a lecture today about intertidal life that was really interesting. I didn't know that there are different 4 zones and that there are different species that indicate what zone we are in. It was really neat to learn about. After we got back from dinner we decided to head down to the beach to look in the tide pools since the tide was really low. We saw a lot of intertidal life. One of my favorite things that we saw tonight was the Sea Hare. It looked like a really big slug and that it kinda what it felt like to. We saw many different types of crabs like the Lumpy Arm Crab and a Decorator Crab. It was really cool. We pretty much decided that the majority of the time we were looking in the mid lower zone or zone 3 because we saw many Turbo snails and also the Lumpy Arm Crab which we learned in lecture this afternoon are the indicator species of that specific zone. Hopefully tomorrow mother nature will comply and permit us to go out to Bird Island where some of us can Scuba dive! I am so excited!!!
~Elizabeth

Dive delayed

Mother Nature wasn't on our side today for diving. We met at the dive shop at 8 a.m. ready to go only to be told by the captain that there was too much wind to go out. (with too much wind, the ride back is particularly bumping to where people often get sick. Not the kind of memories we wish to make!). New plan is for 8:30 a.m tomorrow (Tuesday) when hopefully the stars (and the moon) align better for diving. Meanwhile, we did some tidepooling down in front of CEDO as the tide was coming up and this afternoon we'll have a lecture in the visitor's center on intertidal life.

Camerone!

We haven't seen any shrimp this big yet but maybe while diving at the sea lion colony tomorrow! Lots of crabs (blue, rock, porcelain), lots of cerith snails (as well as hermit crabs masking themselves as snails!), and one St. Bernard (terrestrial canine, from the house near the bay).

Estuaries

Day two and we've already had adventures:). At the estuaries we got caught in the high tide that came on quicker than expected. We did manage to make the best of the high tide and caught a lot of speciest that were trying to retreat to the ocean to cool off or under the sand. We caught three male blue crabs alive and found about six dead blue crabs. Krya and Dr. C showed us how to distinguish between males and females and soon enough we were all able to easily tell male or female. Fiddler crabs were in scarce supply but we did find a few very small fiddlers and what we thought was a rock crab.. who thought he was a rock. On our way back tot he vans we almost brought home a neighbors dog who jumped in the van and tried to go home with us. All in all, successful day at the estuary. We managed to take home periwinkle,oyster, clam, and turban shells and also a colonial cnidarian (gorgonian) which was we learned was an animal and not a plant evne thought it looked like a tree. Scuba/snorkel tomorrow! Wish me, Kymri, and Elizabeth luck on our first dive!
More later:)
-Kayla

View from deck at CEDO!

 

Here!

Successful drive down through Organ Pipe National Monument and here to see the ocean! Out to town to get dinner now for local flavor!