Work and Play at Heron Island

Morning walk around Heron Island

I know by now it sounds like we never got any work done in Heron Island. Yes, all play with no work would make the Stanford in Australia group a pretty dull group. But, we did actually do a lot of work. Heron Island had very intense days were we would spent the better part of the afternoons in labs counting zooxanthallae and protein on coral branches, ID-ing fishes, invertebrates and planktons, looking through the highly magnified microscopes until our eyes wanted to burst out of our heads, having group presentations till after 10pm, having afternoon lectures where our brains were boggled by the thermo-haline circulations, the million plus invertebrates groups (slight exaggeration!) with their phylum and characteristics, the bony and cartilaginous fishes, the futile trials to spell or more like misspell all the Latin names for the species, and even worse still, trying to pronounce them are some of the unforgettable moments of Heron Island. The two days of species card presentations made for great group bonding sections. People presented their mega or micro fauna with such charisma and humor that we were all soon laughing our tongues out during the different presentations. From choreographed tribal dances, to acting skits, from gangster mimics, to “disgusting nature” assimilations, from written songs and poetry, to cleaning equipment stunts, from dry humor to not-so-specific to Heron Island species (such as the stanfordutus bushpig), our group executed such talent and humor that has not been really apparent to the naked eye before.  Thus, we were all able to cruise through Heron Island with no permanent injuries sustained from terrible sleep patterns, bad eating habits/food, caffeine highs and lows, laughter, late nights and saline water. When we did have free time, it was party all the way, well as in; we all did activities that gave us that exhilarating feeling of absolute freedom. One of my most valued free-time activities (when not napping J) was a walk around the island, the forest or along the beach. Some days if we were lucky, we would catch the sunset and watch it sink beyond the seas, sometimes we would watch the birds diving for fish, at times we would walk along the shore at low tide and venture further into the waters, trying to save tiny stranded animals, and at times we would just enjoy a photo shoot around the island. There was never a boring moment in Heron Island, but the distance between us and civilization was soon calling us back to the “real world” aka good internet, food, shopping and people J

Heron Island evening walk!