Sanibel Sea School

Last week was Coral Reef Week at Sanibel Sea School, which means

34 campers, six tents, 50 life vests, crates of oranges, boxes of bread,

three enormous coolers of food, two stoves, one grill, a boat, a U-Haul and

a lot more stuff made its way down to the Big Pine Key camp for a week of

wilderness, no see’ums, rain, and lots of water time.

No electricity, no iPods, no phones, no computers – just us. So campers wove

palm fronds and snorkeled off the beach, gathered hermit crabs in shallow water

and had sea grape wars when they were on land. And when they weren’t on land,

they snorkeled on Looe Key, a National Marine Sanctuary, the beautiful barrier

reef off Big Pine Key.

Wow – we saw sharks and huge tarpon, eagle ray and sea turtle, giant

parrot fish in grazing groups and queen conchs too large to lift out of water. We

saw lobsters hiding under ledges and barracuda at cleaning stations, mountainous

coral and encrusting coral and branching coral. We saw Goliath groupers. And in

the blue water, we saw flying fish!

For More Information on the Sea School Visit:

http://www.sanibelseaschool.org/kidsprogram.html