Canoe Trip

(Photo courtesy of http://www.thedirk.com/2008/04/)
On our last field trip we got to go out on canoes at the FGCU Marine Lab, which is right next to Barefoot Beach. Some people drove separately there, such as myself but others carpooled. I originally wanted to carpool however I had so much trouble finding the Marine Lab at first that I decided carpooling would have made things more difficult since I couldn't find the Publix that I needed to stop at either to meet the other people that were going. Fortunately the other people were able to carpool because we didn't have much room parking at the lab itself.

(Photo courtesy of http://www.fgcu.edu/vestermarine/)

Once everyone was there, we were given a brief overview of the map and a general idea of where we would e canoeing and then our professor's husband gave us a little talk about canoeing and the technique for proper paddling. After that, I began helping out along with the other tall strong guys, in getting the canoes down the rack and into the water for my classmates who had already gotten a partner. Towards the end, I ended up getting partnered with two other people in a somewhat smaller canoe. I don't believe it was a proper three person canoe however it still fit three of us. I was a bit annoyed because I just wanted to be in a canoe with one other person, and even then I would have preferred being by myself. One we got in the water, we realized the girl in the middle wouldn't be able to paddle since she didn't have much room. My other partner was in the front and I was in the back since I was the heaviest and would be steering. Once we were out there, we began to get the hang of things and followed the class out. After a while, we would make periodic stops and our professor would point out some things, mainly the mangroves or even the oysters. I appreciated the stops since my group seem to always fall behind and needed to catch up! It was kind of difficult following because I paddled much harder than the frontman and we were essentially carrying another person who couldn't paddle so that definitely slowed us down a bit. Fortunately, I had a good time otherwise just being outside, even if we did crash into others in canoes and mangroves! The only hard part was sitting down for so long during the whole thing. My butt was real sore even WITH a seat cushion during the whole process, and I would have hated to feel it without one.



My impressions of the mangrove estuary were fine. It reminded me of the field trip when we went out to see the old cottage and then walked along the boardwalk. I do realize how important mangroves are however, and I won't take them for granted. They provide shelter for the smaller organisms that wouldn't survive out in the big water alone. They also aid in carbon sequestration. They also protect our shorelines too which is important because sand erosion isn't good and we need to make sure we can stop or slow it down by any means necessary. All in all, I would definitely like to go canoeing again and check out the mangroves again.