In January 2002, Steven Thur, a doctoral candidate in the Marine Policy Program at the College of Marine Studies, landed at Flamingo International Airport on the tiny Caribbean island of Bonaire to conduct research vital to his dissertation.

The airport is named after the birds, which, along with wild donkeys, may outnumber the people who live on this island in the Netherlands Antilles. But, it wasn't flamingoes or wild donkeys that attracted Thur. Instead, it was Bonaire's progressive attitude toward the environmental protection of its natural resources, including the coral reefs that surround the island.

Bonaire and its sister island, Klein Bonaire, are surrounded by some of the world's most beautiful coral reefs and are home to an exceptional array of underwater life. Diving sites are well marked, and many sites are accessible from shore, making the islands a snorkeler's paradise.

"I am studying the value of recreation in marine protected areas, in particular, coral reefs," says Thur, whose research is supported by the UD Sea Grant College Program and the College's Marine Policy Program under the guidance of George Parsons, professor of marine policy. "I am concentrating on Bonaire because it has a long-established, well-functioning marine protected area that has preserved the island's reefs for recreational scuba diving."

Although Bonaire is only 23 miles long and 3-7 miles wide, it attracts some 28,000 divers a year. And yet, it has managed to protect its coral reefs during a time when other reefs around the world are at risk. In 1979, the island's government took a pioneering action, placing the management of its natural resources in the hands of a local not-for-profit foundation called STINAPA, Bonaire.

Thur went to Bonaire to collect names and addresses of divers from STINAPA's database and to test a survey he had developed. He administered the survey to 11 small groups of divers "to work the bugs out," he says, and also got input on the questions from STINAPA officials.

The survey asked about each diver's trip and what fees the divers would be willing to pay to dive in the park. Thur then asked a hypothetical question: "If you were given information on entrance fee price, number of fish and coral species, visibility and percentage of coral cover for Bonaire and another unnamed island prior to your last trip to Bonaire, would you have chosen to go to Bonaire, to go to the other island or neither?"

"I hoped that they would combine their desires for each of these characteristics and choose the most appealing option," Thur says.

He collected 299 names of divers and mailed them the questionnaire. He now is analyzing the data.

"Diver fees have not been raised in the past 10 years," Thur says. "STINAPA is currently evaluating whether to raise diving fees or charge all users of the marine park, such as snorkelers and windsurfers. My research will provide valuable information to STINAPA in evaluating the importance that people place on natural environments and help to identify the level of user fees that can be charged to pay for conservation and protection."

Thur was able to tour Bonaire, including the salt pans and natural salt lakes on the southern end of the island, which now are breeding grounds for flamingoes. He also visited a sanctuary for the island's wild donkeys.

"The most memorable part of my trip was probably seeing the health of Bonaire's marine environment and knowing how the policies of the marine park have enabled the environment to remain so pristine when other areas of the Caribbean have declined in the face of the same development pressures," Thur says. "I look forward to returning to Bonaire for a vacation."

New depths of discovery

The Black Sea attracts scientists from all over the world to conduct research in its waters, a unique environment in which wooden ships, tools and other objects can remain undamaged for hundreds of years.

One of those scientists is Brian Glazer, a doctoral candidate in the College's Marine Biology-Biochemistry Program who participated in an international research cruise last year aboard the 279-foot vessel Knorr.

Intact wooden objects found in the Black Sea were a significant discovery to scientists and have been attributed to the sea's unique geochemistry. Typically, wood is decomposed by organisms that live in oxygenated water. However, the water of the Black Sea contains no oxygen below a depth of 200-300 feet--essentially a "dead zone," where only bacteria that produce the extremely poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide can survive.

"The primary goal of my research is to characterize the geochemical and microbial environments that are present in the transition zones between water that contains oxygen and water that has no oxygen," says Glazer, who conducts research under the guidance of George Luther, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Oceanography. "This is known as the oxic-anoxic transition zone."

The Black Sea is the world's largest anoxic zone, with a clearly defined oxic-anoxic transition zone. Scientists speculate that it has been this way for roughly 7,000 years, since the level of the Mediterranean Sea rose and broke through a land mass, spilling salt water into the once landlocked, freshwater Black Sea.

Before meeting up with the international scientific team aboard the Knorr, Glazer had a few days in Istanbul, Turkey, where he describes the cultural diversity as "staggering, as so many different influences of European, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures are represented."

Once aboard ship for the research cruise, Glazer says the novelty of being in a foreign country quickly disappeared. "There is work to be done almost 24 hours a day, which maintains high intensity and productivity for the duration of the cruise," he says. "However, once the ship returns to port, the international flavor quickly returns."

Glazer has been involved in two other international expeditions, in January 2000 and October 2001, that explored hydrothermal vents on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Although this work is not the primary focus of his research, he says, "This is one of the more exciting environments where oxic-anoxic transitions are important and where the geochemistry of the water really drives the ecology of the system."

The first expedition departed from Guaymas, Mexico, and the second from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Before the second trip, Glazer and fellow student Brandon Jones traveled through Costa Rica for a week and visited with the family of Ana Dittel, a research scientist in the College.

"They took us to their coffee plantation and some of the area volcanoes and rain forests," Glazer says. "Seeing a foreign country with locals really enriches the experience."

On hydrothermal vent cruises, a typical dive morning includes one last check of the equipment and dive plan, and then two scientists climb into the Alvin submersible. It takes about two hours to descend two miles to the vent sites on the seafloor. The pilot turns on the lights "and the bottom slowly rises out of the darkness," Glazer says. "The view is amazing, especially with the stark contrast between the black rock background and the snow-white fish and shrimp living there."

Glazer is a strong advocate of research cruises and encourages anyone who is serious about research and discovery to participate in one, especially in an international setting. Seeing the diversity of cultures, research backgrounds and personalities while in an intense, captive environment is an ideal opportunity to form strong new contacts and broaden one's perspectives, he says.

A world far from home

^"It was like stepping back into time," says Dawn Castle, a doctoral candidate in the Marine Biology-Biochemistry Program at the College, of her recent work in Latvia.

Castle was selected to be part of a group of U.S. scientists who collaborated with scientists in Latvia's Institute of Aquatic Ecology. Calling it "a learning experience beyond science," Castle says it made her appreciate the facilities and the relative
ease with which Americans do research.

Castle is studying the impact of organic pollutants on the structure of the bacterial community and their activity in estuaries. She works under the guidance of David Kirchman, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Biology-Biochemistry and associate dean of the College.

Latvia, a regional center of trade, travel and technology, has long served as a bridge between western Europe and Russia. Its status as an independent nation is fairly recent, and in a number of ways, Latvians are "still trying to establish themselves as an independent nation," according to Castle.

"Economically, they have been struggling and have identified a key port, Liepaja Harbor, that could help them get on their feet and into the European Union, which they are scheduled to join in 2004," she says.

"Unfortunately, Liepaja Harbor was badly contaminated with oil when the Russians retreated. Old ships were sunk, and their fuel tanks were drained into the harbor. As we took sediment samples, we were shocked at how polluted the area was. The sediment looked like it had been dug out of an oil barrel."

The institute's goal was to determine whether the harbor could be cleaned through bioremediation, a technique where bacteria that are naturally present break down contaminants, or whether it would have to be dredged. As it turned out, dredging was necessary because the levels of pollution were so high.

"I worked with a student and scientists at the institute to teach them how to measure bacterial production and how to assess the bacterial capacity for detoxifying some of the components of oil pollution," says Castle, who was selected because of her expertise in the use of radioactive materials and her knowledge of how to perform the assays that were needed.

Despite its many bombed buildings, Latvia struck Castle as "a beautiful place" that retained many of its old structures. The biggest cultural difference she encountered was linguistic, although the scientists with whom she worked spoke English.

Castle's trip to Latvia was not her first time doing research overseas. She also participated in two research cruises in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Joint Global Ocean Flux Study.

"Our general objective was to characterize the chemical and biological properties of the southern ocean in order to better describe the contribution of this area to global carbon cycles," Castle says. Both cruises took her first to New Zealand, where she had the opportunity to tour the island before heading out to the extreme environment of the Ross Sea.

"We were cutting through several feet of ice most of the time and each day saw penguins and, most days, seals," she says. "Storms were fascinating, as they caused complete white-outs as the
wind ripped across miles and miles of unobstructed ice."

Castle says she has benefited professionally and personally from her journeys. Of Latvia, she says, "My most lasting impression was the generosity and kindness of the people there." And, as for her Antarctic voyages, some of the former strangers she met have remained friends to this day.

"I would recommend this type of experience to anyone who has the opportunity," she says. "It widened the scope of my education far beyond that of the laboratory."

--Kari Gulbrandsen