UTMSI field trip videos and pictures!

Hello S.A.F.E.Oceans! Our first field trip to UTMSI was a great success. We were greeted by Ken Dunton when we arrived and introduced to Sally Morehead who is working on the MANERR project (Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve). She was extremely knowledgeable about the subject and explained to us how it works. She then took us to ARK, which is the Animal Rehabilitation Keep. We met Tony Amos and were allowed to tour the facility. We received a private lesson and tour of the sea turtle rehab area and also the pelicans and gulls, which most were missing wings due to entanglement with fishing line. After that, Ken took us out on one of the boats and gave us a tour of the bay. We visited mangroves and compared the salinity there to that of the water in the bay. We then went to the East Flatts and took core samples to check out seagrass beds. It was great...of course on the way back we came across many pods of dolphins and thanks to Ken picking up on our obvious longing to stop and watch, we were able to get some good pictures and video. We had dinner that night while listening to some great live music and then hung out on the beach before going to bed. The day was more than I had expected and we were very grateful to be able to experience so much. We left the next morning after having a great breakfast at Juan's and can't wait till the next trip out. We want to thank everyone who helped out with the trip; it turned out to be great and we know that people gave a lot of their time and support to make it possible. Thanks again and check out the video and pictures from the trip!



Watch sea turtle video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a46xuk2QiIc

Watch dolphin videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_kg7HRgSfo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W20EW7cWn4