Background of the internship
I have had the opportunity to participate in a research project that took place on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The project, in which the internship was conducted, focuses on sponges and their interaction with coral reefs. It is centered more on marine biology, and the internship gave me the opportunity to gain valuable experience in this field, which is not the main focus of my Marine Geosciences master’s program.
Carmabi is a well-known research station in the Caribbean, with a primary focus on coral reefs and their associated ecology.
The research project focuses on encrusting sponge species and how they take up dissolved organic matter produced by corals. This interaction was discovered at Carmabi several years ago and has since become an increasingly important focus in marine biology.
The island of Curaçao
The island of Curaçao was truly a unique experience. It has been influenced by many different cultures throughout its history. The European influence cannot be overlooked, due to its colonial past. Still being part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dutch is among the most widely spoken languages on the island, and most tourists come from the Netherlands. Nevertheless, due to its location, there is also a strong Latin American influence on the culture. This is reflected in the “laissez-faire” way of life, where everything happens in its own time and time itself seems to be a very flexible concept.
Personally, this helped me in the beginning to adjust to the hot weather. I left snowy Amsterdam in January and, after a 10-hour flight, landed in 30-degree heat. The one thing I needed time to get used to was that at night, the temperature does not drop by more than 3 degrees, so opening the window for some cool air does not work.
Research
The work on sponges began with a lot of scuba diving on the reef next to the research station. The appropriate sponge species and sizes needed to be found in order to place them in an aquarium in the wet lab. For me, it was the first time diving on a coral reef, which was a wonderful experience.
Back in the wet lab, various incubation experiments with the sponges and corals were conducted. I collected water samples from the incubation setups to filter later in the laboratory at Carmabi.
Summary
The internship gave me the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and experience in the field of marine biology. Furthermore, the time spent on the island was wonderful. I had the opportunity to explore the entire island and experience true island life. The nature on the island is very different from anything I had seen before, and there was much to discover. Seeing all the different birds, iguanas, and other animals in the wild was amazing.
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