This morning we all woke up to rainy weather in the mid
thirties, and were thrilled when we realized that in just a couple days we
would be waking up to the glorious Bahamian sun. Wednesday cannot come soon
enough! Almost all of us made it to class on time, almost, but because we are a
team and a unit we were all faced with thirty pushups when the last person came
in three and a half minutes late. Despite the strenuous exercise and the icky
forecast we stood up and proudly sang our hearts out as we watched the super
extra video that accompanies the Bahamian national anthem. Our first activity
was a review game.
We came up with team names and team mottos and then fought
to the death over identifications of different birds and aquatic organisms. Not
actually to the death, but it came pretty close, especially when a dispute
broke out about whether “Yellow Mustard Hill” was close enough to “Mustard Hill
Coral” to count for a point. There were some concerning illustrations that
accompanied the Killdeer bird, but the good news is that now we’ll never be
able to forget what it’s called. We did our best to remember how to do the
sheet bend knot, which attaches ropes of different sizes; the clove hitch knot,
which ties to a cylindrical object; and the bowline knot, which creates a
non-adjustable loop and is objectively the best knot. When there was a four way
tie of 29 points we raced through a cleat hitch (which ties a boat to a dock)
as our tiebreaker, even though it wasn’t really breaking a tie because we were
tying a knot… I digress.
Each table group was assigned a country and provided with
the country’s flag (not to scale) and the country’s view on commercial whaling.
Once we had taken a minute to look over our material, and we understood where
we stood on the issue, it was time to have a conference. Japan and Norway wanted
commercial whaling because it was “important for their economy.” Zimbabwe and
Botswana didn’t care much for whaling but wanted to change the laws surrounding
elephant poaching. Smaller countries like St. Vincent and the Grenadines (the
best country by far) just wanted aboriginal whaling rights and were willing to
do almost anything to get them. Tensions were high. Greenpeace was there. It
was exhilarating. After some group debates and some private discussions (which
may or may not have involved some sketchy deals about whale meat at a below
market price in exchange for support) the time came for each country to share
their decision. The same number of groups wanted to allow commercial whaling as
those who didn’t, but it takes three quarters of the representatives to agree
on a law before it can be passed. This led to our closing remarks during which
Japan’s representative took to the floor, announced that it didn’t matter
whether or not the law was passed because Japanese business men were going to
capture and domesticate whales anyways, and finished with a dab - which we all
know is the most professional way to end a conference.
Once we had recovered from the closing remarks and put away
our flags, we moved the tables from conference mode back to our normal seating
arrangement and reflected on the economy and ethics surrounding whaling as we
walked to lunch in the snow.
After our scrumptious lunch provided by Sage Dining, we
adjourned back to the classroom to hear our head of admissions, Ms. Jackson,
speak about her and her husbands experiences exploring the ocean floor. We
learned about photographing the ocean and how lighting comes into play. When
taking pictures deeper in the ocean it is imperative that you bring appropriate
lighting or you will miss out on all of the colors present. In addition to
talking about photographing the ocean, she also laid out several problems that
are occuring on island-countries like the Bahamas and then provided us with
potential solutions. One of the ideas she brought to us was educating the
locals and tourists about problems such as plastics and it effects on sea
turtles, how much pollution cruises cause, and that Lionfish are not poisonous,
but just venomous. We were then interrupted by a fire drill.
Following
the drill, we took a 20 minute long break to rest our brains and get prepared
for the final block. Immediately following the break, we went right into our
share outs. Each team worked hard to prepare a six minute long share out, which
everyone went over on time, about their Bahamian problem. We all learned about
what each other were working on and where we were at. The one thing most of us
need to work on is specifying our goal. We had a lot of great ideas, but we
can’t solve everything in 11 days. Over the next day, we hope to gain more
information on our topics so that when we head to the Bahamas, we are ready to
hit the floor running.
Signing off,
Becky and Nick
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