Stonefish are lurking.

Friday we awoke to a huge rain and wind storm that lasted most of the day. What better weather to work on our project proposals? It was nice, everyone was huddled in front of their laptop in the common room in the dorms, sipping tea and working hard. I really like the dynamic in this group, it's nice to be living with twenty-one biology kids. We all sit around and discuss our project ideas, helping each other out and sharing ideas...definitely a good work environment.
We did have one welcome distraction though. Val, one of the station organizers, suddenly came running in screaming "BALEINES!!!" -- a mother humpback whale and her calf were hanging out in the bay right in front of the dorms, so we got to watch their blow holes erupt and fins fly out of the water every once and while.
In the evening some of us went out rowing again with the Polynesians. It was a great row, we got to see the sunset on the mountains from the boat. Back at shore, we hopped in the water and carried the boat out. Unfortunately, as we were doing so, my friend Trisha stepped on something sharp. She started feeling light headed, so we ran to get the Polynesians to help us. They took one look at her foot, exclaimed "poisson pierre" (stonefish) and ran out the door. And this is where we saw ethnobotany in action. Turns out Trisha had stepped on the most dangerous fish in the world, an extremely ugly fish with a perpetual frown on its face and the ability to blend into the substrate on the bottom of the ocean perfectly. The neurotoxins are released from the spine when the fish is stepped on, and can be fatal if left untreated/allowed to spread near the heart. Hinano, one of the women in charge of the station, ran outside and picked a plant known as Barringtonia, and the men then proceeded to pound at it with a hammer to release the juices. They then put it in a pot of heated sea water, and stuck Trisha's foot in it. The plant's sap has properties that break down the neurotoxin and numb the pain. Hinano also had one of the students cut Trisha's wound a bit to put some of the plant's juices in the cut. Luckily, this botanical cure was very effective: while Trisha was still in severe pain for the night and the following day, her foot didn't turn black like it supposedly can, and she is now fine. It was definitely cool to see the locals use their traditional knowledge of plants and their healing properties, and Hinano really seemed to have the situation under control, so even though the most dangerous fish was involved, it wasn't too scary.
Yesterday was again spent on working on project proposals. I talked to Brent, our professor, about my topic, and he gave me some good tips about how I should go about with my coral biodiversity studies: the current plan is to go to different parts of the reef all around the island, snorkel around, identify the coral species, and calculate species richness. I will then compare this data to some data taken on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and analyze this results. Should be really interesting and lots of fun, considering all the snorkeling I'll have to do. Plus I'll be a coral specialist by the end of this...
After finishing and turning in our project proposals, a few of us went out for a swim, and then played some volleyball. Then in the evening we went out for a row again (this time everyone wore shoes to avoid stonefish) and were out for over an hour. We left Cook's Bay and went towards the right, to the town of Maharepa, which was supposedly about 15 km round trip. It was amazing, we rowed on turquoise waters through which we could see the bottom of the ocean about 15 feet down, with sting rays swimming along the bottom and colorful coral everywhere. The Polynesians we row with, two older guys, are hilarious -- they are constantly laughing and had fun splashing us with water as we got sweaty on our super long row. They have decided that once we will row AROUND the whole island, which supposedly takes four hours (and no breaks?)!
Last night we had a party in the dorms, in which every room had a theme. People did a great job decorating, there were rooms full of tropical plants and sarongs hanging everywhere, and people dressed up in plants and make grass skirts. We even had a couple of crab races (we collected crabs and put them in a ring) -- we lovingly named the crabs after our professors.
Today is another lazy Sunday, our day off on which we are not allowed to do any work at all, which is always welcome. Plans yet to be determined!