A group of 12 students and two instructors spent their Spring Break 1,824 miles south of Ames studying marine biology in what can only be referred to as paradise.

The students enrolled in Biology 394A/B arrived in the picturesque Roatán Island of Honduras after taking two flights lasting a total of four hours and 15 minutes to study what they couldn’t get their hands on in Iowa.

The students, working in various groups, were conducting research for marine biology based projects they will present to their classmates April 13. Ability to participate in the class was based off of applications, recommendation letters and interviews.

Donald Sakaguchi, program director for the Spring Break abroad trip and professor in genetics, development and cell biology, has taken students on this trip nine times as of this semester.

The study abroad program, which was open to all students, aims to provide students with “a hands-on experience of a marine environment,” Sakaguchi said.

A hands-on experience is just what Cristina Cuhel, sophomore in animal science, and Logan Ott, senior in microbiology, got when they spent their Spring Break abroad.

It’s not often that students are excited to wake up at 6:30 a.m. during their break from college, but these students were more than ready to wake up for scuba diving and snorkeling adventures.

Jeanne Serb, co-director for the program and associate professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, responded with a laugh when referring to the structure of the student’s daily itinerary.

The student’s schedule was “very busy.”

“We started our day at 7 [a.m.],” Serb said.“We would do one or two dive/snorkel sites in the morning, we would have one or two lectures, lunch, then another lecture or two during the afternoon and evening, then another at least one or two dives and snorkels. Our day typically didn’t end until close to 7 p.m.”

Cuhel referred to the days being really long, which had the students eager for sleep by the time free time rolled around.

Unlike other Spring Break trips, this one was heavily centered on the students completing research and data analysis for the group projects that they had spent the first part of the semester getting ready for.

The students were using all the time that was offered to them, considering they were experiencing wildlife unique to places surrounded by water unlike what they have access to in Iowa.

“Here on campus, we examine things like experiments and controlled systems, whereas when you’re out in the field you can see the things you’ve been learning about and you can have an idea about how they’re actually working,” Ott said.

Ott’s group focused their research project on the impact of humans on phytoplankton.

“We were trying to see if this biome of organism was affected by things like human runoff, pollution, coastal development and things like that,” Ott said.

The question Ott’s group was focused on answering was “how is coastal development and human impact affecting the coral reefs in marine communities?”

The group found that there is an increase in microscopic life right off the coast of developed areas, which is inhibiting the growth of natural coral reefs because they rely on clearer water to grow so they can receive light.

Ott, who had never left the United States before, said he spent his first abroad trip by becoming scuba certified, which allowed him to conduct a fish survey on numerous different indicator species such as the spotlight parrotfish and damselfish.

“It’s like living in another world, being able to just float along with the fish,” Ott said.

The purpose of the fish survey was to accumulate data his group could compare with the plankton data in hopes of revealing a correlation between the two among the Roatán waters.

The correlation would potentially show that there is an impact on the upper end of the food chain that humans are responsible for, and that humans are having a negative effect on the coral reefs by causing things like nutrient shortages, Ott said

“What we found so far is that there is an increase in microscopic life right off the coast of developed areas which is inhibiting the growth of natural coral reef because they rely on clearer water to grow in so they can get light,” he said.

In order for Ott’s group to obtain data on phytoplankton, he said they used phytoplankton nets, which they dragged through the water to collect water samples that they would examine under a dissecting microscope.

They would then count the living or organic organisms and specify how many different types of living or organic organisms there were. Ott’s group continued this form of sampling on the docks outside of the Roatán Institute for Marine Science in a nearby channel off the coastline and in open water, he said.

Through this collection, Ott’s group found that there was a spike in phytoplankton directly offshore, and there was a drought of organisms farther offshore.

One hypothesis Ott’s group is toying with regards the idea that runoff is providing additional nutrients right next to shore, which causes the bloom of organisms and increases dead space farther from the shore where nutrients are lacking.

“Those [phytoplankton] are playing a huge role in the ecosystem of other marine life such as larger fish, or corals and anemones. Since there’s a boom closer to shore that causes dead spaces further out it is inhibiting the growth of other organisms,” Ott said.

Ott said he plans to continue studying the interactions that microbes pose on the rest of the world post-college.

“In particular, I want to be studying different kinds of diseases caused by microorganisms,” Ott said.

Ott said he is interested in studying marine environments but he is not sure if he’ll be able to go down that route after college. He plans on completing either a medical or master’s program in the future.

Similarly to Ott, Cuhel spent her time in Honduras experiencing research that she’d also want to study post-college.

By the end of the week, Cuhel concluded that her experiences in Honduras were worthwhile enough for her to decide she wanted to pursue a career in dolphin training post-college.

“This trip really helped me narrow down what it is I wanted to do,” Cuhel said.

Cuhel recalls snorkeling with bottlenose dolphins in there enclosure to be a “super fun” experience, as she got to play with the dolphins by putting seagrass in their mouths.

Cuhel is currently looking for internships on dolphin training, she said. She has recently applied to one in Honduras and is interested in the dolphin training research aspect instead of training dolphins for aquatic shows.

After changing its project focus a few times, Cuhel’s group spent its time studying the different methods for collecting data on dolphin behavior.

“We got a lot of our data from the other group that was there,” Cuhel said. “We mostly observed them and how they observed the dolphins.”

Cuhel’s group didn’t get its data from scuba diving and snorkeling with the dolphins, she said, but rather collected its data by observing the dolphins from above water.

The group focused on focal sampling, scan sampling, audio recording and video recording when looking into different methods of studying dolphin behavior.

Cuhel and Ott both enjoyed swimming in Roatán on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and getting a chance to study the environment they were submersed in.

“A lot of these trips are kind of daunting at first because they require more financial input and more commitment, but it’s definitely worth it,” Ott said. “It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”

Cuhel and Ott both said they’d like to continue studying abroad if they can to gain more experience in real-world applications of things they learn in classes at Iowa State.

Despite loving the research side of the trip, Cuhel said her favorite part of the trip took place during the last dive. 

“On our last dive we got to explore a shipwreck,” Cuhel said. “At one point I went and stood on the front of the bow and re-enacted the titanic pose.”