As a recipient of the 2016 Wave Award, I would like to sincerely thank the visitors of the 2015 Open House Event.
The Wave Award, funded by the generous contributions of Open House attendees, was established by the MLML Student Body to recognize graduate students who have generously given their time and shown continued dedication to MLML community service. At last year’s event, more than 2,000 attendees contributed $5,000 to student scholarships. The seven Wave Awards given this year will directly support our thesis research.
Students at MLML often juggle full time school, multiple jobs, a family, and maybe even some free time to complete our degrees. The financial support provided by this award is a welcome and wholeheartedly appreciated gift from the community, and I greatly appreciate your support.
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the 2015 Open House Event. We hope to see you this year again April 30th and May 1st! Please visit the 2016 Open House Event Website for more information about this year’s very special 50th anniversary event.
While every student at Moss Landing Marine Labs designs their own thesis, sometimes one comes along that really requires the entire community.
Phycology student Steven Cunningham is looking at the effect of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, detritus on the plankton community. Macrocystis is considered a foundation species because thousands of species that depend on it for habitat and food. Steven is constructing an artificial kelp forest to disentangle the impact of structure and nutrients on the kelp fores community. With so many plants to make, he rallied the labs this past weekend, complete with movies and BBQ to keep everyone fed and amused.
Kelp Helpers working through the weekend to get this forest built! Photo: Lindsay Cooper
The artificial kelp is made from marine-grade polypropylene rope and tarp with concrete holdfasts that will be bolted to the substrate. With the artificial kelp being deployed at 25 ft depth and multiple stipes per plant, it came it thousands of feet of rope and thousands of individual tarp blades, each attached by hand. Over 30 people came to help and hang out, making the work go much faster. It was great to see so much of the MLML community come to support one thesis, and a good reminder of how we can never get through this degree by ourselves.
From the holdfast to the canopy, this kelp to mimic the structure of natural Macrocystis integrifolia beds. Photo: Lindsay Cooper
With all the help, Steven hopes to deploy his fake kelp in the next month!
Thousands of fake blades are attached to hundreds of polypro stipes to make up the plants. Photo: Lindsay Cooper
We are just breaths away from the first day of spring, and the wildlife of Moss Landing, CA is in a flurry. High above the the heads of kayakers and sea otters in Elkhorn Slough, birds have started constructing their condos in the tall eucalyptus trees that line the shore of this estuary. Egrets, cormorants, and herons are gathering supplies and strength to begin chick rearing. In just a few weeks these silent efforts will be rewarded with the arrival of fluffy chicks, clamoring for their next meal. These particular condos have reached surprisingly high densities in past years, nearing 200 nests!
Great Egret (Ardea alba) nest with three chicks at the in the Morro Bay Heron Rookery. 21 May 2009. Photo by Michael "Mike" L. Baird
If you read my previous blog post, you may remember that I spent my summer out on Santa Catalina Island at the Wrigley Marine Science Center (WMSC), a research facility owned and operated by the University of Southern California (USC). While there, I began my thesis research examining the effect of male limitation on the reproductive output of blackeye gobies, a temperate sex-changing fish. While we were able to successfully set up the project, we were unable to collect any useable data.
A blackeye goby (Rhinogobiops nicholsii). My study species for this project. Source: Ron's Critter of the Day.
Undeterred, we returned to WMSC this past January in an attempt to get the project up and running again. The artificial reefs we had built and used this past summer were still in place so our first order of business was to collect some fish. To get my project going, we would need to catch approximately 500-700 blackeye gobies. Much to our dismay, we found that the number of blackeye gobies on the surrounding natural reefs was too low to continue with the project in the winter. On the first few dives at our collection sites, we didn’t see any blackeye gobies.
Dr. Mark Steele (one of the principal investigators on this project) has been working with gobies around Catalina Island for the majority of his career and had never seen abundances this low before. If you recall from my previous post, the major problem that we had with blackeye gobies this summer was that they didn’t want to spawn. We think that this may have been due to the incredibly warm water temperatures this summer. If our fish weren’t spawning, it’s very likely that the natural populations of blackeye gobies weren’t spawning as well. This may have been what caused the low numbers of blackeye gobies that we saw in January.
I will be returning to WMSC this summer in another attempt to obtain some useable data. I am confident that this field season will provide more favorable results as long as there are a sufficient number of gobies for use in this study. While it’s likely that the water temperatures will still be warm, moving the reefs deeper in the water column (to 60 feet as opposed to the 30 feet that they were at last summer) may help combat this.
I’m looking forward to spending another summer out on Catalina and can’t wait to get back in the water again!
The beautiful view from the helipad at Wrigley Marine Science Center (WMSC).
One of the many great aspects about doing marine research in Monterey Bay is that there are many institutions in the area, all of which are interested in uncovering the unknown about our Pacific Ocean. Many Moss Landing Marine Labs graduate students often continue their careers at these institutions. In fact, right down the street from our lab is Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI for short), and many former graduate students now work there. Much of the research performed at MBARI involves taking ROVs into our canyon and exploring what lies beneath the water we see from MLML's windows.
Two deep sea peniagone sea cucumbers scouring the seafloor for food in 2013. (Photo by: MBARI)
For the last 25+ years, scientists at MBARI have been monitoring a site deemed “Station M” within the Monterey Canyon that is 126 miles offshore and 2.5 miles below the surface. For 20 of those 25 years, the ecosystem has been relatively stable and sponges were the dominant invertebrates in the area.
Then, between 2011 and 2014, scientists noticed that sea cucumbers immigrated into Station M and out-competed the sponges. One interesting fact about these squishy deep sea echinoderms is that, in addition to inching along like caterpillars, they can actually also swim around! They rely on sinking and decaying detritus for food, and increased decaying plant life around Station M is what allowed the sea cucumbers to take over.
But why was there a sudden increase in food, and where did it come from? These were among the questions asked by MBARI scientists, and they believe the decaying plant life may have been pushed into the system through upwelling. Seasonal winds cause upwelling, which brings cold, nutrient rich waters to the surface. Scientists believe that climate change is causing an increase in these winds, which in turn, is increasing the frequency of upwelling.
Christine Huffard, a scientist on the project said, “What we do on the surface waters does affect the deep sea. We are not just changing our immediate everyday surroundings, we are changing the greatest depths of the ocean.” So, as we humans heat up the Earth, that changes how the ocean works, which then affects even the deepest part of our canyon. For its inhabitants, that means more food for sea cucumbers, and for us, it means food for thought of our actions on land!
Schematic of the upwelling process. (Photo by: Seos Project)
Understanding how people use the ocean and its resources is not straightforward. Some fish for a job. Some fish for fun. Some don’t fish at all and use the waters for recreation, tourism, or science. How can we manage the ocean when so many different groups (stakeholders) have different needs and wants?
Last semester, students explored these issues in the Fisheries Biology and Resource Management seminar course taught by Dr. Scott Hamilton (Ichthyology) and Dr. Rick Starr (Fisheries and Conservation Biology). We learned that many fisheries around the world are overexploited, such as the decline of Nassau Grouper in the Bahamas, Common Thresher sharks around the world, and the Brown Sea Cucumber in the Galápagos Islands.
However, not all is “doom and gloom” – success stories in fisheries management do exist. The Orange Roughy in Australia is thought to be in recovery, and some studies suggest that globally, more fisheries are recovering from overexploitation.
The class featured discussions with weekly speakers, in-depth presentations from each of us on a fishery of our choice, and even a field trip to a Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Sacramento. For me, the seminar speakers were the real highlight of the course. We heard from experts in stock assessment, management, fishing, and conservation working as scientists, managers, environmental lawyers, and entrepreneurs. I learned that jobs in this field are more diverse than I initially realized, and the speakers provided an excellent opportunity to think about potential career paths outside of academia.
Here’s what other students had to say:
"Since many of our speakers were past MLML students sharing their current involvement in fishery issues, this made the course feel more like a window into our career futures!"
“I thoroughly enjoyed the fisheries course at MLML. It was an extremely enriching class that gave me insight into multiple complex components of fisheries and fisheries management. As a first year fisheries student, the presentation and paper of a specific fishery was particularly helpful… and helped spark ideas for potential thesis topics.”
– Bonnie Brown, Fisheries and Conservation Biology Lab
The 2015 Fisheries Biology and Resource Management seminar class provided an excellent opportunity for us to learn of the complexities in this field, and real-world application of management principles. The course is only offered every few years, so if any future students are reading this blog post, I recommend taking it if you can!
By Kristin Walovich, Pacific Shark Research Center
White Sharks, Manta Rays and Tiger Sharks are easily identifiable to most, but there are more than 1,200 species of sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras, collectively called Chondrichthyans, known to science.
For my Master’s thesis I study a unique group of fish known as ghost sharks, chimaeras or ratfish. They are related to sharks and rays because of their cartilage skeleton, but look quite different. They have large pectoral fins, rabbit-like teeth and a long tapering body (check out an amazing video here). We know very little about these deep-sea creatures, in some cases something as simple as their name.
The Spotted Ratfish is a species of Ghost Shark found in California.
There are 49 species of Ghost Shark, however several additional species are known to exist, but have yet to be officially named. Under Dr. Dave Ebert, director of the Pacific Shark Research Center (PSRC), graduate students at MLML have named five new species of Ghost Shark since 2006. In fact the PSRC has described 25 new species of Chondrichthyans since its inception in efforts to help the 'Lost Sharks' of our oceans. The most recent edition, the Ninja Lanternshark was officially published last month and received quite the media buzz!
Last year fellow graduate student Paul Clerkin and I traveled to South Africa to search for new Ghost Shark species. For more than 15 years local researchers speculated two new species existed in the region, but no one had taken the time to look for them. It may seem counterintuitive, but a museum is a great place to find unknown species. If researcher or fisherman encounters an unidentified chimaera, it's often placed in the museum collection and forgotten.
We arrived at the South African Museum in Cape Town to gather morphometrics, a series of 96 measurements per animals that we use to describe and differentiate species. Together we measured 90 specimens for a total of nearly 9,000 unique measurements. Finding and measuring specimens isn’t as glorious as it sounds, the specimens are preserved in alcohol and stored in large tubs; one never knows what you might find. It’s a smelly job, but stay tuned over the next few months for several new species of Ghost Shark!
The South African Museum houses hundreds upon thousands of fish in their collection.
Able Seaman Pat Breshears of Oregon State University’s R/V Oceanus shuttles Holly Chiswell and Alex Olson out into the haze to collect sea surface microlayer samples offshore of Northern California.
The Chemical Oceanography and MPSL labs set out on their latest cruise this past summer in hopes of bolstering and expanding their search to answer the question: how is monomethylmercury (MMHg) transported into coastal marine fog? For those who missed our first post, a quick review:
MMHg is a neurotoxic form of mercury (Hg) recently discovered in marine advective fog along the central Californian Coast at trace levels, yet still 100 times higher than that of rain. Naturally, monomethylmercury is the byproduct of cellular metabolism in certain anaerobic bacteria; created (or methylated) from available elemental Hg. Oxygen minimum zones in the ocean also show increased levels of MMHg, suggesting its production occurs within microenvironments in these zones. In other words, it’s possible that bacteria that make their living in the anoxic depths of the ocean may be pumping out MMHg from any available elemental Hg in seawater. Elemental Hg (the kind found in old thermometers) is widespread and found globally in trace amounts. Volcanoes and other geologic venting were the main contributors of elemental and reactive forms of Hg to the atmosphere before the Industrial Revolution. Since then, global atmospheric levels of Hg have more than quadrupled. Anthropogenic sources of Hg are responsible for most Hg poisonings worldwide. One event, involving MMHg in waste discharge from a chemical plant, led to thousands of deaths in the small Japanese fishing town of Minamata. This event in the 1950’s, led to elevating global awareness of MMHg pollution. “Minamata’s Disease” is now a term used to describe the symptoms associated with the degradation of the body’s nervous system as a result of high MMHg toxicity. In case you are wondering, these symptoms include:
Tremors
Changes in vision
Deafness
Muscle coordination
Loss of sensation
Memory loss
Personality changes (nervous, irritable, shy)
MMHg is lipid-soluble, meaning it can enter tissue membranes and accumulate in organisms that take it up. This is how a chemical plant’s refuse contaminated Minamata’s local seafood populations, yet this process of biomagnification also occurs naturally. The EPA has suggested moderating consumption of certain fish species of higher trophic levels (upper food chain) and water-filtering organisms (mussels) for a few decades now. Increased atmospheric deposition of Hg from increased industrial activity contributes to the growing Hg levels in seawater, which could potentially expose the global population to MMHg contaminated seafood.
So how does this MMHg we normally see in anoxic (no oxygen) mud bacteria end up in the ocean and then coastal fog?
There are a few suspects in this investigation...
Plankton is prolific in the ocean, and one of the first likely steps for MMHg bioaccumulation into the food web. The genes hgcA and hgcB responsible for methylation in known methylating bacteria (typically sulfate reducing) can be compared to observed plankton species to see if they are genetically capable of producing and excreting MMHg as well. If methylating plankton are identified, then Hg enriched incubations can confirm which species are methylating in the water column, a “Who’s who in the zoo”.
MPSL Lab tech Chris Beebe eyes a colorful plankton tow.Graduate students Holly Chiswell and Kristin Walovich filter samples for an onboard methylation experiment.
The interface between air and sea is a place of biogeochemical shenanigans, where phase changes and aerosol production play a major role in the creation and cycling of organic/inorganic matter and pollutants. This sea surface microlayer (SML) is ~50-100 microns thick, and a zone where insoluble material accumulates, often concentrating trace materials and contaminants. It is from this layer that MMHg may also accumulate, and eventually be vaulted into the atmosphere by wave action, where it would then become the MMHg signal we detect in the fog.
The Chemical Oceanography Lab will be discussing their latest results with other fog researchers as part of a group called FogNet. Here they will examine their data in the context of fog dynamics along the California Coast. Check out some pictures and stay tuned!
Unofficial cruise mascot "Bear" secures the fog sampler for sea.Collecting microlayer samples attempting to capture the air-sea interface.Collecting microlayer samples attempting to capture the air-sea interface.Returning to the R/V Oceanus after microlayer sampling.Resetting the CTD in some splashy weather.Resetting the CTD in some splashy weather.MPSL director Wes Heim helps prepare labels before mustering the science crew on deck.The stern of the R/V Oceanus gets a salt rinse.Collecting fog samples shortly after escaping an offshore fog bank.Collecting fog samples shortly after escaping an offshore fog bank.
The Breakwater Beacon is an iconic landmark of the campus. It looks great lit up at night!
A big part of what makes studying marine science great is being able to travel around the world and see how different ecological systems operate. Although MLML’s location in the heart of Monterey Bay makes it ideal for studying the marine environments of California, as a student studying coral reefs, I relish the opportunity to travel abroad and see different reefs around the world. This past summer, I attended a three week summer workshop at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), located along the coast of the Red Sea in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In these three weeks, I was able to learn about the research being done in the university’s Red Sea Research Center, as well as spending some time exploring the coral reefs of the Red Sea and learning about the culture of Saudi Arabia.
We spent some days in the classroom learning about various faculty and student research projects, ranging from studies of microbes and genetics to the movement of whale sharks! However, we also spent some time in the field seeing the local reefs firsthand. And let me tell you, as someone with most of my experience in the Caribbean, these reefs did not disappoint! The reefs had amazingly high coral cover, and I was able to see some creatures that you can only find in the Indo-Pacific region.
Some of the reefs we saw were absolutely stunning!
A beautiful giant clam hanging out among the coral
We even got to see some clownfish (I'll spare you the "I found Nemo!" joke)
Despite seeing some amazing creatures and beautiful reefs, many of the large fish species were absent. We didn't see any large groupers or wrasses, and only one snorkeling group saw a shark. Unfortunately, many of the local reefs are fished pretty heavily, with a lot of the fish ending up at the nearby Jeddah fish market, which we got to visit towards the end of the trip. There were all kinds of fishes on display, including the large individuals missing from the reefs we visited. Some projects at KAUST involve monitoring the fish market for catch trends and even occasionally buying fish to use for genetic studies.
Although it was incredible to see the reefs and the marine life associated with the Red Sea, we had a few trips into the nearby city of Jeddah to experience the culture outside of the university's campus. One night, we went to the Al-Balad market in historic Jeddah to shop and see this famous landmark. Out of all the things in the market, I was most impressed with the spice shops. There were mountains of various spices, many of which I never knew existed, including salt that had a sulfur taste to it!
A view of the historic district from a rooftop
Overall, the workshop was a great experience. Aside from learning about cool research, spending time in the water, and the cultural excursions, it really served as a great reminder that science is an international effort. I met scientists from around the world, and I hope to collaborate with some of them in the future. It's very easy to get absorbed in what's happening along our west coast and working with local scientists, so it's good to get out and see what other scientists are doing around the world.
But for now, it's about time to get back to working on that "thesis" thing I've been hearing so much about...
Funny story: I started writing this blog post a month ago, and then was so blindsided by the fury of end-of-semester squeeze that I've only now just gotten around to finishing it. Perhaps you can empathize, and in so doing forgive me my lack of posting. But(!), I've decided to keep it as is. If anything, the benefit of time makes it a bit more complete.
It's a Thursday night around 9:30, and I have just been rudely awakened from an unintentioned nap on my couch. It's my phone buzzing, eager to alert me to the fact that a coworker is requesting a cover at my job as a baker, which runs from 2-7...in the morning. I rise from my supine position and contemplate my schedule: the day which is now drawing to a close began with the sun. I had class from nine to noon, a meeting with my lab supervisor, some lab chores, and a guest seminar in the afternoon, and then I was racing the sunset to collect data in the field for a class project. I started my analysis, putting me home around 8, but I'll need to spend the entirety of the next two days bent over a microscope to get it all done before I dash off to Sacramento for an ecological conference.
"The Thinker," as interpreted by a marine biologist.
So no, I will not be available to cover a shift for work. As I curse myself for having slept in my contacts and consider the day's last coffee, I'm reminded of what we refer to in climbing as Factor 2 fun. There's a whole spectrum and methodology to this, but the general principle is that when something isn't fun to do, but is fun to recall later, it's Factor 2. Which explains, for instance, how one of my favorite climbs I've ever done was in Smith Rock, Oregon, many hundreds of feet high (it took hours), and I wept audibly for most of it. And maybe, it's an apt description for the last three months of life at Moss Landing. For the first time, I have that inevitable thought that every single graduate student in the annals of history had tossed around: “What, in the name of all that is good in this world, have I gotten myself into?”
But before I plant the dagger entirely too far in the heart of academic pursuit, a little context, if you please. I think it's worth discussing the reasons for being so busy. Because when the days are filled up with field trips and research cruises and diving in kelp forests, you can't really complain too much. So, if the goal of my involvement in this blog is to chronicle a “day in the life,” I figured I'd take a little time to talk about my various classes. You can not only get a sense of the process, but also a little background information on the classes themselves, if you're eyeing Moss Landing as a potential graduate school.
Marine Ecology (MS 103)
We put in some early mornings on the John Martin.
This class has been all about tangible skill development, in the sense that each lab is meant to familiarize us with a particular piece of equipment, research technique, or aspect of experimental design. It's fairly hands off, in the sense that once we obtain the data for each experiment the handling of it is left largely up to us. We're expected to coordinate as a class and it's a nice contrast to our individual research projects for the course, during which we are almost entirely self-reliant. I'm working on a parasitic trematode infecting a non-native estuarine snail that we have here in Moss Landing, which plays in well to my lab's theme of invasive species.
Science!
As to the experiments themselves, we've performed chlorophyll analysis of mud samples from the harbor, we've done sampling design using quadrats and UPC (Uniform Point Contact) to monitor motile (moving) and sessile (non-moving) species abundance. We chartered the university's largest boat, the John Martin, to go out trawling and see what we could bring up (result: a lot). And we got our hands dirty dissecting all the bugs and critters out of kelp holdfasts (the "root" of kelp plants that holds it to the rock).
Geological Oceanography (MS 141)
I approached this class a bit tepidly, mostly because I didn't really see much relevance to whatever thesis I might come up with. I'm an invertebrate molecular ecologist. But, I took a marine geology class as an undergraduate and really enjoyed it, and the alternative was physical oceanography, the uttering of which causes me to break into hives.
Class fieldtrip to Pinnacles National Park.
Fortunately, I've been similarly pleased with this foray into geology. The class is interesting and engaging, our professor knowledgeable and eccentric, and I feel a certain affinity for the “fly by the seat of your pants” way this course proceeds. The syllabus is never up-to-date, but that's generally because we're trading out a lecture on igneous rocks for an overnight fieldtrip to Point Reyes. It's plastic, much like the convecting mantle churning away below our feet. I've come, in this way, to learn a lot about places I've been visiting for years. Suddenly a tidepooling excursion on West Cliff in Santa Cruz isn't just about how many crabs I can torment. It includes phrases such as “Miocene authigenic carbonate vent structures” and “biosiliceous unit.” There's an intricate relationship between the geology of a region and its associated ecosystem, and I gravitate towards the multiscopic lens that interdisciplinary approaches lend to a discerning eye.
Samples of cores taken from Elkhorn Slough.
For my class project, we went out to take sediment cores from Elkhorn Slough, a process that was entirely new and exciting for me. We managed to nab about 1,500 years of history, and what it tells us is that the slough, like any habitat, is largely dynamic through time. While human hands have altered it pretty drastically in the last century, the slough was once a lagoon, an estuary, and a nearshore environment, each with its own chemical and biological signature. In an artistic sense, I find the cores to be quite beautiful.
Marine Science Diving (MS 105)
The Scientific Dive class tests out our species ID skills at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
A class where all you do is dive, what's not to love? This is the class you take if you want to be able to dive for research here at Moss (or beyond), as it awards you with your AAUS (American Academy of Underwater Sciences) Scientific Diver certification. Over the course of the semester it touches upon underwater sampling methodology, species identification, and general diver competence. But really, it's just a class where we talk about diving while eating and then go diving, which has been pretty spectacular. I've been diving locally for years, but through 105 I've added several new dive sites to my roster: Hopkins, Stillwater Cove, Butterfly House, Del Monte Beach, and even the kelp tank exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Having dove around the world, I can honestly say that nothing touches my watery heart quite like a healthy kelp forest does.
The Other Stuff
Portrait of lab work, complete with Boba Fett mug.
And then there's all the other Moss Landing-centric stuff that I've gotten up to that are outside of my classes. I took a boating course to be able to drive the whalers we have available for research. I fainted during it, but we'll pretend it's due to the innate beauty of the four-stroke engine we were learning about and not the truth, which is that I'm incapable of “adulting” properly. In any case, the small boats crew has earned my eternal gratitude, and I've been continuously impressed by their approachability and skill at what they do. It's a goal of mine to get more involved in boat operation while here at Moss, and I love that they make it easy for students to get access to and experience with boats. My time on the water has been some of my favorite at Moss Landing thus far.
A nudibranch we found during a kelp holdfast dissection.
November marked the annual meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists (WSN). You can read about it HERE . I'll just add in my bit to say it was a great way to bring scientists together in a creative space. WSN is the platform from which many graduate students present their first poster or give their first talk. I'm hoping I'll be on the docket before long. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the society, being held in Monterey, and promises to be quite the affair.
Lastly, I'm working in my lab, as all students do. For someone who works in an invertebrate molecular ecology lab, I have staggeringly little experience in molecular technique. So, it's definitely been a learning exercise. Over the last three months I've been trained in DNA extraction, which along with subsequent sequencing is the bread and butter of what my lab does. It involves a lot of pipetting, which is...difficult for someone with my level of caffeine consumption. But it's been really exciting to be involved in science that is being conducted in real-time, that is tangible and meaningful.
As we speak I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Las Vegas, contemplating the upcoming year and trying to coalesce a thesis topic out of thin air. It's still a bit early to say, but all signs seem to be pointing towards my involvement with a grant we have aimed at studying biodiversity and promoting education among international scientists. I think this is a good fit for me, as I loved tutoring and think science can always benefit from an atmosphere of inclusion.
Here's to some warm-water diving in 2016.
If it all pans out as I hope it does, 2016 will start with a(nother) trip to Thailand to visit my better half, followed by a 2-week research trip down to Baja California Sur in the spring, and then a summer visit to somewhere in Southeast Asia as part of the aforementioned grant to promote proper research techniques to undergraduates. I've also been elected as Secretary of the Student Body here at Moss, am charged with running the bake sale at the open house, and applied for a job as a Program Assistant for Friends of Moss Landing Marine Lab, who helps raise necessary funding to keep the labs running. So...busy is really the only word I can summon. Stay tuned, dear readers, and we will see what is to become of me. And Happy New Years! I hope 2016 is shaping up well for everyone.
"Since many of our speakers were past MLML students sharing their current involvement in fishery issues, this made the course feel more like a window into our career futures!"
“I thoroughly enjoyed the fisheries course at MLML. It was an extremely enriching class that gave me insight into multiple complex components of fisheries and fisheries management. As a first year fisheries student, the presentation and paper of a specific fishery was particularly helpful… and helped spark ideas for potential thesis topics.”
Some of the reefs we saw were absolutely stunning!
A beautiful giant clam hanging out among the coral
We even got to see some clownfish (I'll spare you the "I found Nemo!" joke)
A view of the historic district from a rooftop
