 | A Typical Day at Forfar Field Station
by Susan Polhemus
In the morning we departed for a thirty-minute boat ride to Saddleback Cay. At Saddleback Cay there are an ample amount of creatures living in its tidal pools. There were baby lobsters, sea cucumbers, bristleworms, brittlestars, and many anemones. We walked around the entire island that morning until lunch, when we had a picnic on the beach with lots of hermit crabs. While walking around the island, we noticed the unique way in which the rocks face the East side and the sandy beach is on the West side. After lunch we split up; one group went to Three Sisters patch reef while the other went to Rat Cay. Three Sisters is a patch reef located off the shore of Pigeon Cay. It was very interesting because the reef is very small yet contained many varieties of fish and coral. There were many queen conchs and starfish here. Rat Cay is an oceanic blue hole located off the island of Rat Cay. Visibility in the blue hole is to about twenty feet and has many cliffs and overhangs. This is a "must see" when visiting Andros Island. The fish here are amazing. We saw a southern stingray, a nurse shark, numerous angelfish, parrotfish, and triggerfish. The blue hole at Rat Cay was definitely an eye opener. It was the highlight of the day if not the entire trip. The entire Cay was surrounded by little patch reefs that contained lobsters and other small fish like the fairy basslet. After Rat Cay we all went back to the field station, had some dinner, and cleaned up a little. Craig, a guide from the station, spoke to us on the fish that we had seen. He gave an indepth speech on the anatomy and temperaments of different fish. He also had a slide show prepared for us. After that, Maracuda, a well-known basket weaver, came and gave instructions on basket weaving.
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A typical day of culture on Andros Island
Well, today is going to be a dry day. We are going to visit a community called Red Bays. After breakfast, we get on the bus and head north about two hours to Red Bays. The first place we go to is the beach. This is where sponge that is for commercial use is industrialized. In order for a sponge to be used it must first be caught. The catchers bring it back to the beach and dry it out for a couple of weeks. After they are dried they are brought to someone's house to be sold. After we bought some sponges, we went to visit a man named Scrap Iron. He is a world renowned basket weaver. He also kills wild boar for their tusks. His specialty is large baskets. When we arrived he was making one of these large baskets. He was making it while sitting inside it. After Scrap Iron we walked down the road to visit Ms. Marshall. Ms. Marshall is the prominent medicine doctor. She had many children running around the limestone front yard. She was very interesting; one thing that intrigued me was that she had two very large goiters on the side of her neck. A goiter is caused by a lack of iodine in the body. Yet iodine is mainly found in fish. Her philosophy about not getting them removed is that she did not want to give in to the white mans world of medicine. Everyone respected her as a medicine doctor, so to see her go get help would lessen her value as a doctor. Her back yard was completely full of medicinal plants. She said that it did not come that way and that she and to plant them herself. Ms. Marshall also made many baskets. On our way back, we stopped by Henry Wallace's house. He is a wood carver in Red Bays. When we got there he was carving a conch out of a piece of mahogany wood. When we got back to the field station we had dinner and then finished our baskets or took a walk down the road to Maryanne's.
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