Sea & Learn what all the noise is about!  Our 6th annual event is in  the works.  Monitor this page for updates and check out the Experts page with 2008 Guest Lecturers now on line. 

The first publication of the 2008 Calendar is now on-line and will continue to be updated.

Saba Bank Update

Everything you always wanted to know about the Saba Bank, is now finally available on a public web site:  http://www.mina.vomil.an/biodiversity/saba_bank.php
You'll find the results of the work done last year as well as earlier work, and a management plan drafted on the basis of those results.

Holy Bat Study!

SABA--The Sea & Learn 2008 program promises to start out with some excitement.  Perhaps not Zoom! and Bang! accompanied by the Joker and the Riddler but it's sure to be entertaining and intriguing.  Two bat experts will start this year's program with the first night emphasizing the importance of bats to our environment and the role they play in keeping the ecosystem naturally in balance.  Nathan Muchhala specializes in bat pollinization.  After spending some time on Saba, Nathan and his colleague will give a next presenation focusing specifically on Saba's bat populations.  Saba is known to have 5 species of bats--a considerably high number in just 5 square miles.  But researchers believe we may have up to 7 species.  Stay tuned as Sea & Learn conducts hands on mist netting surveys to find out more. 

SABA—Three inspect specialists – entomologists – are spending the week on Saba looking for ants, spiders, and beetles.

This latest study to be sponsored by Conservation International (CI) will be the first comprehensive listing of these insect species on Saba. The work is being conducted by Derek Sikes, Curator of the University of Alaska Museum, Gary D. Alpert from the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Joey Slowik, research associate from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. 

CI has recognized the Caribbean as a “hot spot” because of its tremendous biodiversity, which is under documented and at risk. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s most threatened birds, amphibians, and mammals and over half of all the world’s plants live in just a tiny fraction of the Earth's surface – the biodiversity hotspots. CI previously sponsored a biodiversity study of the Saba Bank, an inventory of Saba’s flora, and now the current insect study.

 With the support of the Saba Conservation Foundation, the three scientists are collecting their specimens from various spots on the island. During the day, Sikes and Slowik collect species by holding a “beating sheet” under a tree and then beat the branches to dislodge insects into the sheet. The sheet is a piece of white cloth stretched on a square frame. After discarding the larger pieces of debris, they can separate out the sometimes minuscule insects, which are put into a small glass vial with alcohol. Alpert pointed to a tiny ant small enough to go through the eye of a sewing needle. They will also be collecting at night.

Beetle expert Sikes said that beetles are actually the biggest family of life on earth, with 60,000 species making one out of every four animals is a beetle. Over 2,000 new species are found every year and there are over two million beetles yet to be described yet. Sikes is anxious to see whether he will discover a new beetle species during the Saba expedition.

SABA—Commissioner Bruce Zagers signed Tuesday afternoon an agreement with Bakker Recycling of St. Maarten, which will rid the island of over 1,500 metric tons of metal.  

This coming weekend a barge will bring the necessary heavy equipment to Saba: two excavators and a crusher. One of the excavators will remain in the Fort Bay area and the other and the crusher will be located near the landfill. Three expert technicians with the company will come to Saba to operate the equipment and oversee the operation, which should take about a month. The metal objects go into the crusher and then the compressed results are cut into manageable size. The final results returned to Bakker will be the volume equivalent of about 68 20-foot containers and should make up one load on the barge returning to St. Maarten.

Jean James, Bakker Recycling Managing Director, said that it had taken time since his first visit last June for both parties to be prepared to sign an agreement. The cost of the operation to Saba Government is approximately NAf 68,400, which includes room/board for the Bakker crew, shipping of materials to and from Saba, fuel to run the equipment, and trucking on Saba by Big Rock Engineering. All proceeds from the sale of the metal will go to Bakker. 

Commissioner Zagers said that he had met with stakeholders from the Planning Bureau, Public Works, and Big Rock Engineering. In addition, the government will reach out to the population to help gather any metal items that might still be on private property. Zagers said that government would organize the pick up and let the villages know in advance. 

Zagers said that once the landfill is cleared of metal objects, metal would be separated out and collected in one spot in the landfill. He said that the new waste management program, earmarked for NAf 400,000, is one of the SEI initiatives. The plan is that there will be no more landfill burning, but refuse will be buried.

Saba—Lt. Governor Syndey Sorton updated the Island Council during its Friday meeting on seismic activity experienced on the island in the month of January. He assured that all on-island measuring equipment is in good working order.

Two tremors were felt on Monday, January 14 at 10:30am (3.8 Richter Scale) and 10:35am (3.9 Richter Scale). They were measured near Saba at a depth of approximately 10 kilometres. On Sunday, January 27, another two tremors were felt shortly after midnight, measuring 3.5 and 3.6 respectively on the Richter Scale and located in the same area. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (RNMI) analyzed the earthquakes and concluded that they were cause by shifts in the nearby tectonic plates, and were not volcanic in origin.  

Sorton explained that the RNMI was charged by the Central Government in 2006 with seismic monitory on Saba, replacing the Seismic Research Unit of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Trinidad. The RNMI installed systems on the three Windward Islands in November 2006 and it continually monitors activity over the Internet. Locally, the SATEL phone company is in charge of the equipment. 

Sorton said that representatives from the RNMI, the Meteorological Office of the Netherlands Antilles/Aruba, the Puerto Rico Meteorological office, and technicians from the Seismic Research Unit met February 25-29 at UWI in Trinidad. The meeting resulted in an agreement that a protocol should be signed between the RNMI and the UWI Seismic Research Unit to monitor activity on the Windward Islands.  

Citizens can obtain current seismic and weather information by visiting the RNMI web site at http://www.knmi.nl. 

There's no reason you can't participate as well.  Remember, Sea & Learn on Saba is fun, it's free and it's for everyone.  For more information or a reservation, email:  info@seaandlearn.org or contact one of our sponsors. 

Read more from our previous events in 2004 and 2003: