Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
Six months ago, I was certain that I would be travelling to Indonesia to research mangrove crabs for my master’s thesis. The project was funded, and I was prepared to leave for Indonesia when suddenly, I received information that local fishermen could not catch enough crabs for me to conduct research. At such a late date, this was incredibly stressful news!
Despite an earthquake, our resilient J.A.M.I.N. students from Port Antonio and Titchfield High Schools were back in their classrooms and ready to investigate the presence of mangrove disease earlier this year. Our students were the first to research the occurrence of mangrove disease in Port Antonio, Jamaica. They were ready and eager to begin.
Throughout human history, compounds found in plants and animals have been used to heal an array of medical conditions. Traditional medicine, sometimes referred to as “bush” or “folk” medicine, was used to treat ailments prior to the emergence of modern medicine. Many of these customs are still being practiced today. The healing properties of mangroves were first discovered by those practicing traditional medicine. Like with modern-day medicine, many of its uses were discovered through trial and error. When a cure worked, the knowledge and information was passed along from generation to generation.
In January, our second-year J.A.M.I.N. students were tasked with collecting a variety of growth measurements from the mangrove trees that they tagged and identified inside their quadrats. Before we started, I wanted to review the characteristics that are unique to each species of mangroves, a skill they learned previously during the first year of the program. I decided to quiz the students instead. “How can we identify the red mangrove?” I asked. The replies came quickly. “Prop and drop roots.” “Pointy, thick leaves.” “Green bean-like propagules.” All correct. But among the flurry of eager replies, one stood out as several students shouted in unison. “Red tannin!”
Scientists are looking to students across the Caribbean for their help studying the health of mangrove forests. This week, Dr. Ryann Rossi, a post-doctoral scholar at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), launched the Mangrove Detectives Project with help from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and Friends of the Environment. Mangrove Detectives is a new citizen-science project that teaches students valuable laboratory and field skills while they document mangrove disease and insect communities in their local mangrove forest. The project provides teachers, non-profit organizations, and environmental educators with free lesson plans, field kits, and laboratory materials to help their students study threats to their local mangrove forest and become part of an international community of Mangrove Detectives.
Water quality monitoring is extremely important in keeping mangroves healthy. That is why we teamed up with EarthEcho International to have students in our B.A.M. and J.A.M.I.N. programs participate in the EarthEcho Water Challenge. The water quality data (such as salinity, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen content) that they collect, will be shared with other students from around the world.
For the past 5 years, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation has worked with students in Jamaica to teach them about mangroves and help them restore local mangrove forests through the Jamaican Awareness of Mangrove in Nature (J.A.M.I.N.) program. …
Previously, you heard the voice of the students in our B.A.M. program. Now it’s time to hear how the students in Jamaica feel about our J.A.M.I.N. program. Year 1 Program “My favorite part of the J.A.M.I.N. program is when I actually got to …
Throughout the B.A.M. and J.A.M.I.N. programs, we evaluate each program by surveying students in each of the three phases. We use this information to gage how much information the students initially know regarding mangroves and their attitudes towards them before we begin the programs. …
With the help of our partners FRIENDS of the Environment in the Bahamas and the University of the West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Lab in Jamaica, we have successfully completed the third year of J.A.M.I.N. and second year of B.A.M. …
