SEAS Islands Alliance USVI Hub

Join us for our 1st beach clean up of the year! 📍Please meet in the vacant lot just South of Cottages by the Sea. Look out for our tent! 🚮We will provide water, gloves and trash bags. ♻️Please bring a reusable water bottle, hat and sunscreen. 🎟️Raffle Giveaways & Refreshments: Upon arrival be sure to get your raffle ticket to enter our clean up giveaway! 🧃🍺Enjoy refreshments (beer, soda, & juice) on us at the end of the clean up!

Congratulations to our two new Rescue Divers
Israel Popo and Rob Peterson !

Are you at the SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference!?? The USVI Hub sure is 😁 What an amazing experience and a wonderful conference to attend !

What a great way to start the week! The 2022 Annual Fall Student Research Symposium was held today , hosted by the Emerging Caribbean Scientists Program. Thank you to all who attended and showed your support for our awesome students. We're so happy and proud of our undergraduate students!

UVI Receives $1M National Science Foundation Award to Support Marine Science Graduate Students and Workforce Position

The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) has received a $1 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to support UVI students who wish to pursue a Master's in Marine and Environmental Science at UVI and to secure workforce positions in marine and environmental science in the territory. The award, entitled, Securing STEM Island Pathways, is led by Dr. Kristin Wilson Grimes, research assistant professor in UVI's Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, and Dr. Lawanda Cummings, STEM education director of the Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI EPSCoR). It builds on past investments in the territory by the NSF, including the NSF INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance, VI EPSCoR's Ridge to Reef. Processes and Interdependent Drivers of Small Island Resilience, and the Florida-Caribbean Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence. -see the link to learn more

https://www.uvi.edu/news/articles/2022/22_92_uvi_receives_nsf_award.aspx

Bridge student Amanda Badai, learned about the coral microbiome and how it responds to different depths. She analyzed the data, performed PCR, and gel electrophoresis along with former MMES student in Mónica Medina’s lab, at Penn State this summer. They were able to observe how the bacterial community structures of Orbicella faveolata and Orbicella franksi were altered after a reciprocal transplant in the USVI.

This summer Bridge program participant Laura Palomino learned how to study mangrove wave attenuation in the lab. See for yourself how efficiently mangroves can break up wave energy!

This summer SEAS interns with gathered marine debris from seagrass that washed up and seagrass beds. There were a variety of items found bearing from boating material to construction material. It was the food and beverage containers and many other single-use items that were found to be the most common items collected.

Here are some awesome photos of SEAS folks at the St. Croix Great Mangrove Cleanup that happened on June 25! That event had 39 community volunteers who removed 1,098 pounds of marine debris from mangrove shorelines in Salt River. Since 2018, these mangrove community cleanups have engaged 567 individuals and removed 10 tons of marine debris from mangrove shorelines across the territory.

Fifth Great Mangrove Cleanup Removes 4,450 pounds of Trash from Vessup Bay Mangroves on St. Thomas

This month, 97 community volunteers, from eight years old to 70 years young, participated in the fifth annual Great Mangrove Cleanup on St. Thomas. Together the volunteers cleaned 0.5 mile of mangrove shoreline in Vessup Bay, removing 4,450 pounds of lingering hurricane debris and other trash trapped in the mangrove roots. This is the most debris removed during a Great Mangrove Cleanup, to-date.

By number, the top three items removed were beverage bottles (2,000; plastic, glass, and cans), plastic pieces (1,078) and plastic bottle caps (493). There were also quite a number of interesting finds, including 3 propane tanks, 3 dinghies, 3 tires, 219 flip-flops and other shoes, 10 toothbrushes, a weight belt, a dry suit, fish ID card, a flowerpot, a broom, an engine, and a lounge chair. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, most marine debris comes from land-based sources, which means the community plays a critical role in reducing marine debris by recycling, re-using items, or making sure that items that must be thrown away end up in the proper waste receptacle, rather than the environment. - see the link to learn more

https://www.uvi.edu/news/articles/2022/22_054_fifth_great_mangrove_cleanup_remove_trash.aspx

We are so glad you participated!🥰

The Junior Ocean Explorers (JOE) program has come to an end but we can't wait to see you again next year! Set your reminder, registration opens in January 2023.