6-12-09

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Dr.  Mel Zimmerman, a Lycoming College professor of biology and director of the Clean Water Institute, has been teaching tropical marine biology as part of the College’s May Term since 1984. He has made 16 trips to the Caribbean with more than 200 students from Lycoming. All but two of these trips were to the Hofstra University Marine lab in Jamaica.

During a sabbatical in 1989, Zimmerman and his wife, Gail (certified in biology), were directors of the Hofstra lab for a semester. After 25 years in operation, the Hofstra lab in Jamaica closed in 2005, and Zimmerman used a professional development grant tied to his sabbatical in 2006 to complete an eight-day workshop organized by The Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence on Tropical Marine Ecology at the Roatan Institute for Marine Science (RIMS), a private teaching/research lab housed at Anthony’s Key, Roatan Island, Honduras. 

The experience led Zimmerman to organize a May Term in 2009 that included an extended eight-day trip to Roatan. The RIMS lab is located in the middle of a 13km protected area known as the Sandy Bay Marine Reserve. The island of Roatan is along the southern edge of the second largest barrier reef in the world. The MESO-American Barrier Reef extends from Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) south to the Bay Islands of Honduras. 

Nine  students Allison Felt ’11, Summer Haas ’10, Kayla Kichline ’10, Mitch Le Sage ’10, Beth Machella ’10, Myles Miller ’11 (Lebanon Valley), Gregory Sledzik ’10,  William Stropnicky ’12 and Alyssa Taylor ’10 all joined Zimmerman, his wife Gail, and Cody Ensanian, an ITS network specialist at the College.

Most of the students went on the trip because of the experience. Kichline decided that she wanted to go on the trip since “Science Saturday” back in 2006 when she was first looking at Lycoming. “I want to be a marine biologist so of course this trip was right up my alley and was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Sledzik though it would be a great course to take because he is considering marine biology a possible career choice once he is done with school. 

Divers logged between eight and 10 dives during their trip.

According to Zimmerman, the two-to-three snorkel/dive trips each day were fantastic. The reefs were alive with coral, sponges and fish, including groupers, wrasse, parrotfish, butterfly fish, and an occasional barracuda. Three students and Zimmerman were PADI-certified scuba divers and completed 10 dives, including a night dive and wreck dive (the 200 foot El-Aquila sunk at 110 feet).

A scuba certification course is offered every semester at Lycoming for PE credit (Zimmerman is dive master). An added bonus to the lab was the dolphin training/research facility. Fifteen bottlenose dolphins reside at RIMS and, after lectures on their ecology and physiology, students were able to snorkel as part of their course encounter. Field trips also included a tropical forest/garden ecology tour and a “zip-line” canopy tour that started in the central-highland and ended at the sea.

All the students who participated felt that the trip was worthwhile. “If any student is even remotely considering this trip, that is enough of a reason to go,” Sledzik adds.

An added thrill for Zimmerman was the shark encounter dive. One of the early morning dives (three miles off coast and at 70 feet) included staff in appropriate shark-bite resistant wet suits feeding 20 reef sharks as five other “eco-tourists” from the resort sat on their knees taking pictures and video. The students created a Web blog of their trip that can be viewed at http://hondurasmay.blogspot.com.

For a complete photo gallery, please CLICK HERE.

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