Marine Biology Maestro in Mexico

I spent the better part of last month in Akumal, Mexico, co-instructing a field course in marine biology for juniors and seniors at the University of Texas at Austin (my alma mater). This course and I go way back, actually: I was enrolled as an undergraduate in summer 2007, I was a guest researcher in 2009 (when it was held in Puerto Rico, due…

Sailing through plastics, tsunami debris, and Hawaiian islands to Jack Johnson’s house

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated this blog! So here goes: First, to bring you up to speed, I arrived safely back to shore (in this case, the Hawaiian islands), after sailing from San Diego through the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, or as the media often call it “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. Here is a very cool summary video of the research…

Sailing away from an epic summer field season

Well, I am finally back in the US of A, after a 3-month field season in French Polynesia. This was my 6th trip to the island of Moorea and my third summer there, conducting my dissertation research. But on this trip in particular, everything seemed to work out very well, on multiple fronts: several successful (and, as is expected, several not-so-successful) field studies, reuniting…

Magical Moorea: The Stars, the Moon, and, of course, the Fish.

The past few weeks have been intense here in Moorea–tons of snorkeling, diving and science, mixed with rough seas, wet weather and sustained gale-force winds. But I’m happy to report that all of my experiments remain under control (for the time being anyway 🙂 ). And at the end of every storm in paradise, there is a rainbow: I’ve even been fortunate enough to…

Science Vs Nature!: The Wildlife of Moorea React to GoPros

To pick up where I left off, after the Great Vermetid Surveys of 2012 (see previous posts), for the past few weeks I have been focusing my efforts on deploying several field experiments out here on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. These experiments are part of my dissertation research, and this summer in particular, I am looking at the effects of coral…

Diving ’round the Island of Moorea

Our third and final island to survey for vermetids (snails that are linked to coral die off in French Polynesia—read more in my previous post) was our home island: Moorea (pictured above). We surveyed each shoreline—north, east and west, over three days. To give you a better idea of what our surveys are like, I’ve uploaded a video clip of one of our dives…

Island Hopping Adventure!: Volume 1 of ?

At 5 am Monday morning, we set off under cover of darkness to travel across 60 miles of open ocean on a 26 ft boat to reach the remote Polynesian island of Maiao. ……….. To give you the inside scoop on this expedition, Maiao is the second of three islands that we are surveying for vermetids—small snails that live on top of corals and…

Little Cayman Underwater: A Snapshot

Unfortunately, poor weather plagued my last days on Little Cayman before I made an abrupt exit, just missing the hurricane. Despite the weather, I did make a couple of dives and a handful of snorkels, which gave me a better feel for the quality of this reef ecosystem. In a nutshell, the reef seems to be in great shape, with large, abundant carnivores (grouper,…

A new perspective on Caribbean reef potential

We dodged a storm in South Florida and made it to Little Cayman Monday night, as planned. Upon viewing it from the island-hopper prop plane, Little Cayman was smaller than I’d expected. It is just 10 x 2 miles, but the limited land cultivation on the island contributes to its ‘small feel’. This was my first impression anyway. The station where we are staying…

Cayman Islands Reconnaissance

Hello! I am back in the blogosphere! It’s an exciting time to start a new blog/website, as I am leaving this Monday for a week on Little Cayman Island. The purpose of this trip will be to scout out potential sites to conduct my research in 2012. It should be a great trip, with a lot of SCUBA and snorkeling to get as broad…