Read on for program highlights, research results, all-star alumni, sustainable living ideas, and more.
BAHAMIAN SPINY LOBSTER FISHERY Have you ever eaten a lobster tail at a restaurant like Red Lobster? If so, most likely, you have eaten a Caribbean spiny lobster tail. These…
What does an Island School Semester alumna, with degrees in Computer Science and Marine Biology go on to do? Save the Great Barrier Reef, of course! Megs Malpani, a S13…
There are many opportunities that set an Island School Semester apart from a traditional school, but one of the most remarkable things is the real-world research students conduct alongside our team of research scientists through the Cape Eleuthera Institute.
Fall 2021 Semester students in the permaculture research class commenced their project with the question, ‘What is the most vulnerable portion of our campus landscape to climate impacts and how…
“We all have something to learn from each other. While learning more about the ecology of these animals is crucial for their conservation, really understanding the importance of the fishery in the community context is equally as important. Events like Crab Fest are a great way to better grasp the significance of these animals from the stakeholder perspective.”
Last month, we held our third and final session of Schools Without Walls for the academic year. This week of experiential learning sees our Deep Creek Middle School students immerse themselves into other branches of the organization, which includes helping with research projects, working on our campus’s sustainability initiatives, and exploring iconic cultural and natural history sites across Eleuthera.
As Hurricane Matthew made contact with the Bahamas in early October, it brought with it many threats of damage and devastation. The Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) was extremely fortunate in…
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) are one of only seven remaining sea turtle species. These reptiles were classified as an endangered species on the IUCN Red list, following the abrupt…
Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals are major reef-building corals found off the shores of Florida and throughout the Caribbean. In recent decades there has been a widespread…
During the course of a six-week program, three students representing Operation Wallacea (Marcus Griffiths of the University of Nottingham, Rob McCalman of the University of Portsmouth and Lucy Arrowsmith of…
CEI was well represented at the regional 2016 Bahamas Natural History Conference, with representatives giving talks on plastics, climate change, rare shrimp, turtles, conch, sharks and lionfish. More excitingly, the first…
Members of the Stingray Research Group from the Cape Eleuthera Institute’s Shark Research and Conservation Program have recently completed two days of outreach on Great Exuma. Following on from the…
Last Friday, Deep Creek Middle School’s Grade 7 joined Georgie Burruss, CEI Research Assistant, for a snorkel through Page Creek as part of the School Without Walls program. The focus of…
Last Thursday was The Island School Research Symposium! It is a highlight of Parent’s Week, and a time for parents to hear about the good work being done by their…
Historically, sea turtles were considered to be an economically and culturally important food source throughout the Caribbean. Since the discovery of the New World, sea turtle populations throughout the Caribbean…
Deep-water sharks are slow growing, slow to mature, and have a relatively small number of young, and as a result are extremely vulnerable to human-based disturbances. This, coupled with the…
The Sea Turtle Research Team recently said goodbye to their first Earthwatch team of the summer, and we are sad to see them go. The group of 7 students and…
Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (HIOBS) is partnering with The Island School to launch an expeditionary sailing program to be operated out of The Island School’s campus in Cape Eleuthera,…
Two weekends ago, The Island School hosted the SEA Change Youth Summit with musician, Jack Johnson and 5 Gyres to raise awareness about the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean and to…
On Saturday, June 6, Spring 2015 Island School students participated in the Research Expo, their final Research Class assignment, which coincided with the Youth Action Island Summit hosted at the…
Last week The Island School hosted Parents’ Week. The week included an opportunity for parents to tour our campus, view a student art exhibit, parent-teacher meetings, and a day for…
As any angler will tell you, fresh fish is the best fish (Fig. 1)! Even non-anglers would insist that grilled wahoo, dockside yellowfin sashimi, or fried dolphinfish fingers are best…
In the Bahamas, the fishing industry is crucial for the economy of the country, worth about $100 million annually. This mainly comes from the three main fisheries of The Bahamas, spiny…
Here is an excerpt of her Island School experience, by Link School student Medina Purefoy-Craig: I can now safely say that I can jump into water and actually not drown. Early…
OAK Leadership Institute from Cleveland, Ohio joined us the first week of April for an action packed week. The five students and two teachers had the time of their lives exploring…
Eleuthera was recently visited by a group of students from Williams College (Massachusetts). Their trip focused on Eleuthera’s food systems, with a focus on sustainable production. Over the past two…
9 expeditions, 92 volunteers, 115 turtles, and 145 Baited Remote Underwater Video Surveys – just a taste of the successful year the Earthwatch-funded sea turtle research program had in 2014! This…
The Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute Research Symposium was held last Saturday, November 29. As with previous years, The Island School students prepared scientific posters about their Applied Research…
Last week students in the Fall 2014 semester of The Island School gathered with their peers, teachers, faculty, and visitors to present introductions to their Research Class projects. Presentations contextualized…
Stone crabs have been a popular and principal commercial fishery in Florida for many years, and have comprised a portion of the local fishing take here in The Bahamas for…
Earlier this month was the return of Camden Hills Regional High School for their sixth visit to CEI, and Oceanside High School’s second trip alongside Camden. It was another stellar…
The Island school summer term went out with the deep-water research group, led by Mackellar Violich to pull up traps from 1200 meters deep. The baited traps are set off…
Congratulations to all of the Spring 2014 Island School students who gave oral and poster presentations at the Research Symposium. This event is a culmination a semester-long research class, where…
The Island School’s youngest students have been able to get up close and personal with some deep sea creatures over the past couple of weeks without even setting foot in…
Last week, the Island School campus was inundated with the parents of the Spring 2014 students. Aside from campus tours and a breathtaking art gallery, parents also got to witness…
Things are heating up here at CEI! Students are on campus, summer is on the way, and the adventures are everywhere. The Educational Programs team wrapped up the month of…
The first of 8 teams for 2014 were at CEI last week assisting with sea turtle research. 9 volunteers, from across America and Canada, spent 9 days collecting data from…
Visiting CEI for the first time, 26 students and 4 professors from the University of Exeter, UK, completed a 12 day program during 6th- 17th January. As part of a field…
The Maine School of Science & Mathematics blessed us with their presence for the 4th year in a row here at the Cape Eleuthera Institute! Dr. Debbie Eustis-Grandy and Dr.…
The Spring Gappers are on campus! Our first week was busy getting oriented to all the exciting opportunities that are waiting for us in the next two months. While we’ve…
This past fall, CEI’s resident plastic researcher, Kristal Ambrose teamed up with local high school teacher Joanna Parker’s geography class to conduct two consecutive beach plastic surveys for their BGCSE course work,…
January at the Cape Eleuthera Institute is an exciting time: a new year, new interns, and a heap of new students visiting during their university’s January term!Monmouth University joined CEI…
In November, Kristal Ambrose, working for the Center for Sustainable Development, and CEI’s outdoor educator Tiffany Gray, made the trip down island to visit Ms. Thompson’s grade 12 geography class at…
This weekend saw visiting Exeter students and professors heading to the Schooner Cays with the CEI Queen Conch team. A 30-minute ride and short swim allowed us to conduct shallow…
The Cape Eleuthera Institute and The Island School have recently begun their deepwater exploration of The Exuma Sound with almost 100 hours of footage from the deep ocean. This study…
Kylie grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received in a Bachelor’s of Arts in French Language Studies and a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from the University of St. Thomas…
This fall the gap year team has undertaken the task of completing Fall 2013 shallow water conch surveys. Once complete this data will be a part of a larger effort…
Here are short bios from our three Gap Year students:Eryn Dioli: My name is Eryn Dioli and I just graduated from high school in June of 2013. I’m taking a gap…
Here are brief bios from CEI’s three fall research assistants:Ian Bouyoucos graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. This research assistant position is…
Last week Justin Lewis, from Grand Bahama, Zack Jud, from Florida International University and Tiffany Gray, from Cape Eleuthera Institute, worked with Cassandra Abraham at Friends of the Environment in…
This blog was written by the 18 incredible students visiting us from Maine.Campus Life The Island School/CEI is located in Cape Eleuthera. The campus faces the water with exotic beaches…
Space 2 Create, a non profit summer day camp for the youth of Harbour Island, Eleuthera, joined forces with The Cape Eleuthera Institute to initiate Space 2 Explore, a program…
This week we said ‘bon voyage’ to an amazing group of students, staff and crew from Seatrek Fathoms. They graced us with their presence for 10 days of science, fun,…
Seven undergraduate students from Newcastle University have been on campus since July 1, assimilating with various research groups at CEI. Each student is working on an individual project for their…
Last week the Cape Eleuthera Institute and the Island School welcomed 18 South Eleutheran children to campus for a sleep away camp focusing on the world we live in and…
Last week our Educational team led a three day natural history camp for nine kids from Deep Creek and the surrounding settlements. In addition to camp songs, rounds of the…
The week of May 20th we had four senior students Ian, Kyle, Annie & Cyrus, join us at CEI to work on their senior projects. Three of the four students…
The Research Experience for Undergrads- Bahamas group just completed a two week stay in Eleuthera. While down here, they participated in some archaeological research, and blogged about it! Check out…
This past Saturday, CEI and IS hosted their Spring 2013 Research Symposium. The event consisted of research presentations and poster sessions, where Island School students got the chance to present…
This past weekend, the CEI and Island School campus had many visitors eager to hear about CEI research- Island School parents! Parents attended presentations given by IS students on current…
The plastic pioneers of CEI have struck again! Recently the Cape Eleuthera Institute embarked on a historical project studying macro and micro plastic pollution on beaches in South Eleuthera. This…
Attention! Deadline for registration for CEI’s Eleutheran Explorer’s Camp, Shark Week, Flats Week, and the new Turtle Week has been extended to JUNE 15. Please see the links below for…
Lyford Cay grade 8 had a busy 3 days here at CEI diving into the plastics curriculum as well as some of the fun yet educational activities typical of our…
Last week, Educational Programs at CEI had their hands full with two classes hailing from St. Andrew’s School in Nassau, home of the Hurricanes. The first class, a group of…
This past week, the SP13 Island School students presented Project Introduction presentations to their peers, staff, faculty, and the many visitors on campus. These presentations gave the students a chance…
On Thursday of last week, the Marine Plastic Pollution Team at CEI embarked on their first full day of plastic research. The team, which was led by Kristal Ambrose and…
This eyewitness account was written by a student in the University School-Hathaway Brown Program: Before getting started, allow me to explain one reason why the Island School was such an…
From December 27th, 2012 to January 10th, 2013 a field course from Carleton University, led by Dr. Nigel Waltho and coordinated by the Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology, came…
This past Saturday, December 1st, marked CEI’s 28th Research Symposium. During the Symposium, Island School students got the chance to showcase the culmination of a semester’s worth of research to…
This November, CEI was flooded with over 100 guests as The Island School hosted Parents’ Weekend for all 45 students. The week was full of tours around campus, a student…
CEI recently started performing shuttle box experiments in the wet lab. The set-up of the shuttle box system is simple: two tanks are connected through a short “walkway”, and above…
Research classes kicked off this week for The Island School students. On Tuesday, students broke into their 8 different research groups and spent the afternoon getting to know their research…
Cape Eleuthera Institute’s Kristal Ambrose embarked on her epic journey to of plastic research, leaving on April 24th.. From Nassau, Bahamas to Texas, USA; from Tokyo, Japan to Guam; and…
[slideshow]The joint CEI and University of Illinois shark research team just returned from the second of four, 2 week field expeditions to a shallow bank known as “the bridge” that…