30 May - 1 June: Waterfalls and farewells

On Wednesday, we went to the waterfall ("Taki") of the Diong Era Did (sometimes spelled "Diongradid") river in Ngardmau state on Babeldaob island. We spent time with guest instructor Dr. Carla Atkinson learning about some of the different lotic habitats (riffles, runs, and pools), and ways of sampling invertebrates (kick nets, d-nets, shrimp traps left overnight). We found at least five species of freshwater crabs and shrimps, but curiously few insects (only some simuliids, chironomids, a single damselfly nymph, and some small aquatic hemipterans we haven't figured out yet. Neritid snails were also abundant, but we think that by and large, decapods dominate the Diongradid. 

(above): Chris and other students walk down the rock pools of the Ngertebechel tributary (below): Jani and Laura cross a suspension bridge on the way to the Taki (a Japanese word for waterfall that Palauans often use to refer to the second image down)

On Thursday, our students had most of the morning and early afternoon to work on their final presentations, and then they heard from our Palauan friends Kiblas Soaladaob and Tarita Holm. Kiblas has a masters degree in Pacific Studies from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and has thought a lot about Palauan culture and identity in the context of other Pacific Island cultures. Tarita has a masters degree in forestry and has worked on a variety of conservation projects in Palau. 

Then, sadly, on Friday, we had our last day. As I type this, at about 9:30pm Palau Time, the students are enjoying their last few hours in their apartments. Earlier today, they gave some great presentations on what they learned about conservation biology in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments in Palau. 

We asked the students to do some quick reflections about the course, and guest instructor Dr. Anuschka Faucci put them into a word cloud: