I literally can’t sit still to save my life. Every weekend I can’t have even one day to just sit at home. I have to do SOMETHING! So, imagine my frustration with summer vacation. School’s out, nothing to do, so naturally I got another (third, fourth, seventeenth?) job. Now, this job isn’t just hanging out in a Target all summer, after spending June with my girls at The Oceanography Camp for Girls, I went to spend July with my favorite boat biologists at the Sarasota Bay Explorers boats!
Sarasota Bay Explorers has been running eco boat tours out of the Mote Marine Lab for years. When I moved here in January of 2020 and spent an afternoon on the boat with one of the biologists, Jill, and I decided that I really wanted to work on that boat someday. Year after year I waited for something to open up, and just my luck they needed someone over the summer this year. So naturally I immediately accepted the position and was thrilled to get started. I love this boat so much simply because they promote science through education (aka my favorite job description).
From the beginning I was ecstatic to even be on the boat. And training made it seem like this was definitely the place for me to spend the summer. I learned the responsibilities of crewing and boat pretty quickly and soon was off to the races and leading excursions on my own. The most exciting thing about the job, besides getting to catch and talk about fish, was that I could add to the script in order to talk about whatever interested me in the bay! So naturally there is a shark talk on my boat, shocker I know. This role gave me a reason to look up more on the humanistic history of Sarasota Bay, like the history of Bird Key and exactly how many shark-human incidents there have been in Sarasota Bay (exactly one in recent history, I get asked a lot).
The net is my favorite part of the boat tour, it really is incredible to see what a diverse catch we get each time. Even from my first boat, we caught filefish of all sizes, toadfish, several different crabs, and of course the fan favorite seahorse! Every time since I have loved seeing what we bring up, my favorites being the burrfish and the pufferfish.
One notable catch was a teeny tiny box fish, this little guy almost escaped my grasp because he looked like a seed or ball of algae! This cutie, as well as other box fish in the bay, have the cutest structured body to literally look like a box. The shape and its hardness helps to prevent predators from munching on them, and protects their bodies from damage.
The bay is full of unique and amazing animals, and sometimes we get surprised with big animals too like our local manatees. Lately they have been enjoying hanging out by the boat dock munching on the seagrass there and doing fun spins in the water for us. We have seen several mating herds of these manatees here in late summer as well as many mother and calf pairs of both manatees and dolphins.
At the rookery, the birds are leaving the nesting grounds but some still remain. Bright white pelican babies and awkward mottled blue and white little blue herons fly about getting used to the world before they are on their own. We have seen nurse sharks swim off in the distance, small fevers of cownose rays swimming through the wakes, and ospreys flying above scouting out their prey. Every day is something new and exciting.
I really appreciated getting to be on the boat this summer. It gave me time in my element out on the water and let me get familiar with running a boat. But mostly, I got to be around animals in the bay and inspire and delight people with the information I am able to give them about these creatures.
The one thing I hope everyone leaves with on my boats is a new appreciation for the bay itself and what beauty and life it holds in it. My biggest emphasis for my passengers is showing them the diversity of life here in the bay. Most people believe it’s just a mess of seaweed and sand down there but it’s truly a wonderland filled with mystery! I can only hope that at least one person leaving the boat at the end of a trip will go out into the world with just a little more love for the ocean, the bay, and all the life in it.
