Learning Experience For A Change Of Pace From A Lie-In-The-Sun Vacation, Earthwatch Takes You Along And Allows You To Contribute To Research In The Field

You say you’re bored with regular vacations? Tired of sunning yourself on the beach (which isn’t healthy) and shopping in those look-alike tourist traps? Tired of driving from motel to motel and eating too much rich food (which isn’t healthy either)? I’ve a suggestion, at least for those with an inquiring mind and a desire for adventure. Go on a expedition with an organization like Earthwatch, doing research alongside scientists and scholars.

Earthwatch has a lofty mission: to improve human understanding of the planet, the diversity of its inhabitants, and the processes that affect Earth’s quality of life.

But it readily translates into a wide variety of down-to-earth projects. You can study marine mammals, global climate change, culture and tradition, paleontology or archeology. Or you can scuba dive, as I did.

My three Earthwatch expeditions have taken me to Bonaire, one of the premier diving spots in the world, and Maui. In Bonaire we studied stinging fire corals. In Maui we looked at the diversity of fish and coral at several sites along the coast.

In both places I improved my diving skills immensely, learned to identify hundreds of marine species and, best of all, got to dive, dive, dive.

Another Eastern Washington resident who’s been on Earthwatch expeditions - Spokane Falls Community College professor Ralph Granner - chose paleontological trips, digging for dinosaurs with Earthwatch in Australia and Argentina. He learned so much on his trips that he’s expanded his course offerings to include dinosaur paleontology.

Research expeditions combine hard work, interesting people, learning and fun. But be warned: If you like sleeping in and lying on a beach all day, this probably isn’t your kind of trip. As Granner says, “It’s fun, but it’s not a vacation. It’s a research project and you can’t expect to be entertained.”

A typical Maui day for me started at 6 a.m., since I need plenty of time for coffee and a leisurely breakfast. Other expedition members staggered in one by one until we were all scrambling to get our huge sack lunches assembled and water bottles filled. At 7:30 we rendezvoused with the scientists and headed for the day’s dive site.

All our dives started with laying three parallel 50-meter rope lines on the sea floor, over, up and through whatever we encountered, whether sand, algae or huge bunches of coral.

Then we swam the area between the lines, identifying and recording on slates the animal life: fish, corals, lobsters, eels, even sea turtles.

The hardest to count were the schools of small fish that called one coral head home. When we approached, they all ducked into the coral and couldn’t be seen. But if we were patient and hung quietly in the water, they’d start to come out and be counted.

On one trip, a diver concentrated so hard on what was on the sea floor that he twice missed large sea turtles swimming close in front of him.

When identifying and counting corals, we laid meter-square frames along the lines, then hovered over them and recorded the corals within the squares. That may sound easy, but when you’re in 10 feet of water and the surf is up, you move with the surf, back and forth over the square. It’s hard enough to keep from colliding with your dive buddy, not to mention remembering what you counted on your other swoops over the square.

Between dives we ate lunch, transferred data from our slates into notebooks, napped and helped each other to identify fish before appealing to the scientists for help.

When the day’s diving was done, it was back to our simple beach-front condos. (Frankly, luxury would have been wasted, for our days were long and we didn’t spend much time awake in our rooms.)

On the first trip, I shared accommodations with three men, even roomed with one of them. We took turns doing the daily chores: cleaning dive gear, entering data into the computer and cooking supper.

Some evenings we had after-dinner slide shows, usually to help us learn fish and coral identification. On others we had informal talks. But mostly, we were too tired to do much more than write a postcard and fall into bed.

We had one treat night, dinner out courtesy of the scientists, followed by a night dive. Diving at night is different, always a bit scary to me. (It’s incredibly dark down there.) You see animals and activities that you don’t see during the day, such as the vividly colored parrot fish surrounded by the membranous bag they secrete to sleep in. Or eels swimming free instead of hiding in the coral.

Granner’s days were quite a bit like mine, though he spent all his time on land.

On his Argentina project - Triassic Park (the Triassic was an earlier geologic period than the Jurassic) - participants were up and out of their tents early. After breakfast they made sack lunches, got water out of the water barrels (which should tell you something about how many showers they took) and headed out to prospect for fossils. When lucky enough to find one, they encased it in protective plaster jackets and helped pack it for shipping.

Evenings were spent around the fire, swapping stories before cooking and eating dinner. On their day off, they toured a neighboring small town where the villagers lived in adobe houses with dirt floors.

“We were a long way from civilization,” says Granner, “six hours from San Juan, the nearest major city. So there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for other types of entertainment.”

On Maui and Bonaire we had more choices for our day off. Some read, wrote letters or strolled around town, while others hiked or rented mountain bikes. And of course some, myself included, went diving.

Expect to meet a varied group on Earthwatch trips. Granner and I worked alongside doctors, housewives, educators, scientists, students, business executives and retirees. Many were veterans of several Earthwatch trips, while others were on their first.

The divers came with all levels of ability, from a student who had just been certified to a man with over 3,000 dives.

Pack light, Granner advises, but adds, “Flexibility and a sense of humor are good things to put in your suitcase, for you can’t always control the conditions. Be prepared.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Earthwatch is an international nonprofit organization offering opportunities to work side by side with leading scientists and scholars on one-to two-week research expeditions. Expedition volunteers support the research and cover their food and lodging expenses with tax-deductible contributions that average $1,700, plus travel to the research site. They also help do the work. While no experience is necessary, you must be 16 years or over to volunteer. Expeditions are located around the world and take place throughout the year. Accommodations vary from bunks in a grade school to tents to rooms in guest houses or condominiums. Since Earthwatch’s founding in 1972, more than 40,000 people have funded and worked on projects to save endangered species and habitats, foster public health and document cultural heritage. This year there are more than 137 projects.

You can: Record the behavior of orcas in Puget Sound to understand how population and development are affecting the killer whales. (May-September) Study and radio-collar the mountain lion population in the Albion Mountains of Idaho. (July and August) Interview women in rural Zimbabwe as part of a nutritione-ducation program. (June-August) Photograph and collect a fantastic variety of katydids in the Peruvian rain forest. (August and September) Survey the excavation site of a 4,000-year-old religious sanctuary in Mallorca, Spain. (April-December) Learn how small, shy mammals like the echidna survive in the rugged Australian bush. (February-September)

For information, contact Earthwatch, Box 9104, Watertown, MA 02272, (800)776-0188 or visit its World Wide Web site at http://www.earthwatch.org.