Eric told me about the trouble he and his dive buddy, Joe, are having with the old scooter they’ve been using to collect data for Eric’s thesis. The scooter belongs to their Dive Safety Officer (DSO) and is an older model. They’ve been nursing it along, but it doesn’t work as well as it used to and there are few replacement parts with which to repair it. The propellor is cracked and the batteries are not holding their charge. On the last dive it completely died on them. They had to push it all the way back. A half of a mile is a long way to push a scooter against the current. We’ve also been dealing with a lot of red tape with any funding, which has been frustrating, to say the least. So I thought, enough of this garbage, why don’t we raise our own funds?
The obvious question is, “How?” We barely get by right now. We were forced to live off of our savings and house downpayment a long time ago. The first thought that came to my mind was a bake sale. Why not? Other people have done it. Eric was skeptical and laughed, thinking I was joking. I was dead serious. You don’t know if something will work until you try and regular channels aren’t working. We have to get creative to get what we want.
So I suggested my idea about CafePress again. He’s had an account set up there, but never did much with it. When I was brainstorming for ideas on how to make money to cover our bills if the PhD offer doesn’t come through, I thought of printing our leaf art onto T-shirts to sell. Eric read about other scientists who have turned to the online community for help and thought, “Well, maybe we CAN do it.” And so, Science Bake Sale was born.
Diver on Gray's Reef - Leaf art inspired by research dives on Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary
Eric took pictures of the leaf art Johann and I did while he was at Gray’s Reef last year on a research cruise. Eric told us the animals he saw while they were diving one day: a guitarfish, a leatherback sea turtle, and a cobia. The art project helped us feel more connected to Eric and gave Johann’s mind something to focus on besides missing Daddy. Johann was so excited to show Eric what we had done. Now it is the first design in our Science Bake Sale CafePress store.
Please go take a look and see if you like what we have so far. We have plans for more CafePress designs and some marine biology and ocean themed original artwork and dyed clothing that will go up on an Etsy Store as well. Our first goal is to buy a replacement scooter, so Eric is sure to be able to complete his research dives.
Yesterday I was really jazzed to get in to the dive locker. I had emailed my normal dive buddy, Joe, an ex-navy undergraduate who seriously loves to be underwater, over the weekend and invited him to do a fish count and proficiency dive. I need more time in doubles to get really familiar with them. Naturally he said yes, so we were on. We set 11:30am as the time to meet at the dive locker.
After working a bit from home, I got ready to bike in to campus and walked out the door at 10:40am for a 45 minute commute, taking the cyclocross route along the coast that I like best. I felt well rested and my legs were ticking over really well, but as I got down to Noank, which is about 5km in, I had a sinking feeling. Had I remembered my dive computer? A quick check of the panniers confirmed that I had not.
Longer, but more scenic commute to school
I decided I really wanted the computer, so I turned around and added an extra 15 minutes to the commute. Now I would, at best, be 10-15 minutes late. The rest of the commute was great, with a new personal best for the route, minus the false start. It was a bit late to see much wildlife on the route, but I did see several herons and one scrambling woodchuck.
Joe was waiting in the dive locker when I arrived 10 minutes late. The tanks were already filled, so as I verified the blend and fill of my tank, we talked about the amazing women’s world cup game from the day before. Before heading off to get some lunch, we went up to see our dive safety officer (DSO) who had just gotten back from vacation. While he was away we had several dives and on one of them I flooded one of the locker’s canister lights. I wanted to tell him in person and find out what needed to be done to get it fixed.
Unfortunately, it was not just any light. It was his favorite light from Salvo (now Light Monkey) with a custom made cable so it would fit his rebreather rig perfectly. Ouch.
WLIS MySound Data Buoy
What’s more, I knew he had a buoy maintenance dive in the Western Long Island Sound (WLIS) on Wednesday. Diving in Western Long Island Sound is a bit like diving in a giant cup of dark tea. Pea soup plankton blooms this time of the year, plus lots of tannins, particulate matter, and other crap in the water make it the ultimate low vis dive. At the surface vis can be as low as 1′ and at depth it gets so dark, you can’t see your hand 5 inches from your face without a GOOD light. Considering we have instruments at depth on the buoys, Western Long Island Sound is the ultimate testing ground for our dive lights. Salvo’s and Light Monkey lights are the dive locker’s favorites out there. Spendy, but they really cut through it all and deliver a lot of light, plus Light Monkey has a great reputation for service.
After taking my ass-chewing for flooding the light, I called Light Monkey, who set up a repair for us. They told me they could turn the lights around in one day. No way we could get them back in time for the WLIS dive, but we should still have them back by the end of the week. I boxed up the flooded light and a second light with a shorter cable that also needed some routine attention. Dive lockers are notoriously hard on gear! After almost 3 hours we managed to get everything taken care of and the lights off to Florida with express service.
Finally, we could get back to the dive. Instead of our original noon start time, we crawled over the seawall by the dive locker (that’s a real joy in doubles, mind you!) and into the water at 3:04pm. It was a great dive too. Visibility in the cove was about 5′ and filamentous algae covered the bottom. But as soon as we got out of the shallows, vis opened up to maybe 10′ and the filamentous algae disappeared, revealing a thick carpet of macro algae and sea grasses. It seems to be an especially good year for the sea grasses and kelp, denser and much larger patches than I remember any year before.
Beach to beach swim - Dive Locker on right side, sail boat launch beach on left.
Our original plan was to go all the way around the campus from the dive locker beach to the boat launch beach on the opposite side (a swim of a little over a half mile). I had 200 cubic feet of air at 3500psi and Joe was on a rebreather, so we had plenty of air. Unfortunately, the tides were not really with us. By the time we reached the halfway point, the tidal currents had turned, so that the second half of the dive would be straight into them. We decided to turn around and let the currents give us an easier swim back to the dive locker.
The fish count went great. We saw fluke (a.k.a. summer flounder) (Paralichthys dentatus), cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus), grubby sculpin (Myoxocephalus aeneus) and tautog (Tautoga onitis), as well as blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), spider crabs (Libinia emarginata), and three horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus), including a very large male. There were many young of the year winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), from a half an inch to 2 inches long.
As we were finishing our surface swim into the beach (too shallow to dive with the surge, too deep and rocky to walk), we noticed the DSO’s pickup truck parked right at the sea wall. As it was a bit late, we knew he was waiting for us. As we climbed up on the beach, he asked after the dive, what we saw etc., then casually asked who the lead diver was. Joe and I had never really settled who the lead diver was. He has ten times my experience, but I had suggested doing the dive, so I took the responsibility (knowing the other shoe was about to drop, most likely on my gluteus maximus). Sure enough, in all the confusion about the lights, I had forgotten to fill out the dive plan log on the marine operations bulletin board. We had fully briefed the DSO, but someone asked the marine operations manager if the divers off the Point were university divers. He didn’t know, but went down to the marine operations bulletin board to see. Ooops! Lesson learned and reinforced well.
Ass-chewings, by the way, do obey the laws of gravity, picking up momentum as they go downhill.
Grubby Sculpin
Still, all in all, it was a great day. I got some good news about a potential discount on some equipment I need for my research and I got in a 2 hour and 14 minute dive!
As I begin the home stretch for my MSc in oceanography I have been looking very hard at the job markets and the world of research science out there. It is not pretty right now, but then, with the help of a loving and supportive family we’ve weathered this type of climate before. I know we’ll find our way through this and come out the other side, happy. Because that is just what we do Tammy and Johann and me. We cling tight to what matters most – each other and our closest family and friends.
One of the things I have to keep coming back to is “What do I want to be when I grow up”
But that has never been a simple question. When I was young I wanted to be a scientist and an explorer. I was excited and my imagination ignited by archeology, marine biology and the space program. I devoured national geographic magazines, Wild Kingdom and Jaques Cousteau’s specials. I remember reading and re-reading the articles by Dr. Eugenie Scott on the amazing fish of the Red Sea and sharks in general. I remember reading about Dr. Sylvia Earle’s descent to 1250m in a hard suit and her Tektite mission. I know it may sound crazy, but one of the highlights of my brief science career so far was to dive on the Aquarius site as a science diver… the descendant of Tektite, it was, part way to an old dream come true – to live and work in an underwater habitat studying the seas for hours and hours at a time. One day I still hope to make that dream come true.
Science diver approaching the NOAA/UNCW Aquarius Habitat off Key Largo, Florida
But my path took a strange turn and instead of going to Woods Hole or Scripts or Harbor Branch, I ended up in the Army working as an advanced communications specialist using, trouble shooting and fixing just about every type of communication technology in the Army, but specializing in satellite systems. It could be a challenging job, especially in remote combat deployments, but it really didn’t make me stretch. I spent my spare time reading and improving my animation skills as a form of entertainment. In Central America I learned to scuba dive and spent as much time on Roatan Island as I could, doing 3-4 dives a day. The more I dove, the more I needed to learn about the fish and invertebrates I was seeing. I subscribed to several diving magazines and bought every marine biology book my scuba instructor could get from the States. I invited my future wife to meet me in Roatan, unfortunately she declined.
Sunset on the Meso-American Reef. Copyright E. Heupel
After the army I worked in the computer industry in engineering and eventually web development until the bubble burst. When that happened I returned to school, studying computer systems and graphic design. Unfortunately returning to school also revealed that I had a memory issue. Tammy knew before, but I denied it of course. Unfortunately the tricks I had learned to use on the job, didn’t translate well to the academic environment. I struggled to find a new way of learning and studying, while my grades sank, eventually forcing me to admit defeat temporarily as I withdrew from school.
Fast forward to five years ago when I took advantage of an opportunity to again return to school. This time in Oceanography. I had since learned to deal with my memory issues with new strategies. I started slow, with only two classes, but soon took on a full course load completing the four year degree in three and a half years with a job, a family and still managed a 3.5 GPA. My old skills in electronics, optics, video production and web design all served me well working in labs and earning me opportunities to work with Remotely Operated Vehicles. At the end of undergraduate I knew I needed to take this further, I needed to revisit my old dream of being a scientist working in, on and under the ocean.
The motley crew of the SHRMP 2010 habitat monitoring program mission. Copyright E. Heupel
I was accepted to the graduate program and began learning more about sustainable fisheries and GIS than I thought was possible to learn (and yet I have still only learned a spall portion) . It has been a good run, but now it is almost over. I want to go on further, but I know I need a change in direction. My interests lay more with larval and juvenile marine organisms and their ecosystem roles (besides the stock answer I get from many: “as food” – too damn easy), or in the ecology of deep sea and mangroves and with invasive species in connection to any of the previous. I have at least a hundred questions banging around in my head, and I am loathe to even try to pick only one and say -> This is it.
One of my favorite fish of the mangroves is the juvenile sergeant major. Very cute, shy and nervous - darting constantly around the patch of mangrove they call home. Copyright E. Heupel
More than that there is the question of what good is a PhD, and is the cost too high to justify. I have put my family through a lot already. It has been financially very hard, and we have done without a lot. I have been fortunate that this program knows me, and knows the type of contribution I can make, and also understands that my family is the most important thing in my life. I will never be one of those scientists (or PhD students) so driven by the research that I sacrifice my family (which I have seem too much of in the past 5 years). Driven yes. If I had a spare $10,000 right now I would be on a plane to Belize to chase down one of my burning questions on invasive species and My Seascape of Fear (actually budgeted with no salary it a hair over 10,000). But I’m not going to throw my family under the bus to get there.
Which brings it once again back to what I want to do with the degree. I would like to be able to design and conduct my own research, which I would need a PhD for. I enjoy teaching small to medium size classes, as long as there is at least one or two kids turned on to learning. At a University or college a PhD is generally the ticket for admission to that. At community colleges, a PhD can be required, or a hinderance.
As for the most singlehandedly enjoyable thing I have done in the past 5 years – it would be the outreach efforts at Aquarius. Doing the science, putting on a live show, broadcasting it to kids in their classrooms and online – both doing science and helping to communicate it to a larger audience. That was for me a real rush. Many of the people involved in that team effort did not have PhD’s, but then again many did. I enjoyed the fact that we were communicating conservation, physics and biology directly and passionately to an audience eager to learn.
The marvelous crew of the Aquarius 2010 If Reefs Could Talk mission. Copyright E. Heupel
If I stopped right now, my ideal job, would be either as a freelance science communicator specializing in video and online production or it would be with one of the NURC centers or a similar scientific research organization or NGO where I can put my myriad skills to work – oceanography, diver, science outreach, video, animation, web, database, photography (normal and U/W) and ROV pilot (in training right now). But… likely I would not be able to do my own research, which is important to me.
If I were 23 and single, the answer for me would be easy – go for the PhD and study larval and juvenile ecology issues, especially in the mangroves and deep sea. But I’m not 23, or single. And I wouldn’t trade my family for anything, but it does mean I need to figure the 4-6 years of making (if I’m lucky) $30,000/yr while working very long hours into the equation.
One of the major concerns with climate change relates to habitat changes for the plants and animals. Will aspen survive anywhere in the United States? What trees will be able to survive in Connecticut in 2050? 2100? Where will elk be able to survive in 2100?
Of course these aren’t easy predictions to make since each species has distinct environmental requirements. Even more troubling though is that many have complex relationships with other organisms, both beneficial and detrimental. Then there are the often complex food webs that each species is a member. some webs are resilient to loss of several species but others collapse with the loss of only one.
While sea temperatures are generally more stable than air temps in terrestrial systems, many of the marine animals have even tighter requirements for temperature. Even a change in just a few °C can prevent reproduction, reduce lifespans, or even cause death. That is the case with the Icelandic Scallop. In some recent experiments it was found that the scallops had a significantly higher mortality in temperatures above 12°C. Average summer sea surface temperatures off Iceland’s southern coast have been in excess of 10°C in recent years and have been rising. A +2°C change over the previous decades has brought the average summer sea surface temperature very near the scallop’s maximum threshold. While the scallops are still able to survive, there has been a marked increase in adult mortality.
Icelandic Scallop - Image from http://www.osl.gc.ca/guide_sp/en/invert/sp/c-islandica.html
Increasing temperature may not directly be the primary cause of the recent increases in mortality of the scallops, though it has been strongly implicated. In recent years, a protozoan parasite has affected much of the stock of C. islandica around Iceland. As with the scallop itself, many protozoan parasites have been found to have temperature thresholds and ideal temperature ranges. For instance Perkinsus atlanticus populations under controlled experiments did not grow, in temperatures of 5°C, grew slowly at 16°C, and grew quickly at 20°C and 26°C. It also failed to grow and died out after 4 days at an experimental temperature of 37°C. Similarly, two other protozoan parasites of interest on the Atlantic Coast are also temperature controlled: Parkinsus marinus, the cause of the disease dermo in oysters, requires temperatures above 25°C to thrive, Haplosporidium nelsoni, which causes MSX in oysters (although it can survive and multiply at temperatures of 5°C-25°C) requires temperatures above 20°C to infect a new oyster. Temperature is likely also a controlling factor in the spread of the protozoan infecting C. islandica.
While the Iceland Scallop is what instigated this post, the topic of climate change and its effect on marine animals, particularly fish, is one I have been thinking of a lot lately. In much the same way that the scallops are temperature limited, fish have ideal and survivable temperature ranges, and temperature can play a significant role on growth and reproductive success. Complicating the issue is that many of the fish have very specific habitat preferences or needs as well.
Atlantic Wolffish - Photo copyright Peter Auster from http://www.nurc.uconn.edu/bigmouthfishes/photos/SBNMS/content/neg7_large.html
Take for instance the Atlantic Wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) a species of increasing concern in the Gulf of Maine, if fact they are likely to be soon added to the Endangered Species Act. They are a wonderful (dare I say beautiful) fish with some great characteristics and a face only a mother, or a crazy marine biologist, could love! They feed mainly on molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms using their huge canines. They are a large benthic fish, growing up to 5 feet and weighing up to 40 pounds.
They are also a slow growing and late maturing species. Growth and maturity varies with temperature fluctuations, but generally they are reproductively mature by 6 years or about 16 inches total length. Spawning pairs of male and female form in the spring with actual spawning period varying, possibly as a function of temperature. As with many species, reproductive success increases as females grow larger and older, producing both more eggs and more viable eggs (ranges from 5,000 to 12,000 eggs per season). The female lays her eggs in holes and around boulder reefs. The male then begins a fast, loses his teeth, and guards the eggs for four to nine months of egg incubation (again a function of temperature). Four to nine month fasting and guarding the eggs. Think about that one guys!
One of the cool things about wolffish is the presence of anti-freeze in their body, which allows them to survive, even thrive, in extremely cold waters. In the wild they have been caught in trawl surveys in waters from -1.9°C to 14°C. In the laboratory they survived temperatures as high as 17°C, but feeding was strongly negatively correlated with the higher temperatures.
So temperature is a major factor on the wolffish, but so is habitat. Wolffish are most often found in rocky reefs or seaweed beds on hard substrate from 80m to 180m depths, but range as deep as 650m and can, on occasion, be found in coastal shallows. My most memorable dive in New England remains being about 3 feet away from a 4 foot wolffish in the cove just off Avery Point in late November.
Young wolffish keep to the deeper, colder part of their range where temperatures remain -1°C to 4°C. Only mature fish are found in shallower ranges and higher temperatures with an upper temperature limit of 10°C.
My thoughts recently have related mainly to mapping the current and potential future ranges of some of these animals using habitat suitability modeling techniques in geographic information systems (GIS), including especially ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA). Using what we know of their habitat requirements (for the wolffish: -1°C-10°C, boulder reefs for spawning, 80m-200m depth, and abundance of lobster, crab, urchin or molluscs) we can map the current optimal and sub-optimal ranges. It doesn’t mean they’ll be there, but it is where the potential for finding them should be highest, based on our understanding of their requirements. By altering the temperature and depth components to match forecasts based on climate change models, we can look ahead to forecast the likely range of the animals, and even the decade by decade march or retreat of suitable habitat.
An example of using mulitple habitat factors with multipliers to determine ecological niche. From http://www2.unil.ch/biomapper/
For some animals the outlook is pretty bleak. The combination of habitat requirements and temperature requirements will drive them completely out of the Gulf of Maine and potentially out of the Western Atlantic entirely. There are many fish that are at their breeding temperature limits in the Gulf of Maine already, including many commercially important species. Some marine animals are existing in virtual islands of suitable habitat formed by complexities of depth, substrate type and complexity, currents and temperature, among many other factors.
The challenge is to identify, for each species or community, which of these factors are most important for both the organism’s survival and our modeling efforts. Unfortunately, especially in the marine realm, there is still so much we don’t know about the ecological requirements of may of the animals and communities. Even mapping the seafloor at resolutions comparable to our maps of terrestrial areas continues to be challenge. It often surprises many people I talk to when they find out that almost all our knowledge of marine animal populations and habitat characteristics comes from commercial fisheries and from sample trawls by the NMFS. Most species that are not targets of fisheries or considered commercially important have not been studied extensively, if at all.
Trawler bringin up it's haul - from http://en.wikivisual.com/images/f/fb/Fish_on_Trawler.jpg
In the marine environment it is very challenging to accurately predict how communities will respond to warming waters and how individual species ranges will change, simply from lack of direct observation. We are getting better at using the important data we do have, and have identified proxies for the data we simply do not have, but we need more time in the water with ROV’s and DSV’s for direct observations, especially of the continental shelf and deep sea ecosystems.
Burreson, E., & Ford, S. (2004). A review of recent information on the Haplosporidia, with special reference
to Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX disease) Aquating Living Resources, 17 (4), 499-517 DOI: 10.1051/alr:2004056
Hagen, N., & Mann, K.H. (1992). Functional response of the predators American lobster Homarus americanus (Milne-Edwards) and Atlantic wolffish Anarhichas lupus (L.) to increasing numbers of the green sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis (Müller) Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 159 (1), 89-112 DOI: 10.1016/0022-0981(92)90260-H
Jonasson, J., Thorarinsdottir, G., Eiriksson, H., & Marteinsdottir, G. (2004). Temperature tolerance of Iceland scallop, Chlamys islandica (O.F. Muller) under controlled experimental conditions Aquaculture Research, 35 (15), 1405-1414 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2004.01159.x
King, M.J., Kao, M.H., Brown, J.A, & Fletcher, G.L. (1989). Lethal freezing temperatures of fish:
limitations to seapen culture in Atlantic Canada. Proc Ann Aquacult Assoc Can., 89 (3), 47-49
Ordás, M., & Figueras, A. (1998). In vitro culture of Perkinsus atlanticus, a parasite of the carpet shell clam Ruditapes decussatus Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 33, 129-136 DOI: 10.3354/dao033129
What a difference two weeks makes! I had an opportunity at UCONN for my M.Sc., but with no financial support and working a project that is not related at all to what I want to study. When I turned that one down, which was in itself a scary – some might say stupid – move, I thought that would be the end of the road for grad school at UCONN. But then a surprise opportunity presented itself for graduate studies with another professor at UCONN. When I was applying I considered him, but he didn’t have funding available to support a new graduate student at that time. With the economic cutbacks no new department assistantships are available, so support is entirely up to the professors. The department is also requiring that advisors can provide proof of substantial support for any new grad students this year. Fortunately, Prof. A. was able to rearrange some of his funding so that he could provide a research assistantship. To say the least, I’m ecstatic about the opportunity: GIS, conservation, a smattering of policy and lots of fish (my focus being larval stages and recruits), and fish habitat.
The Johnson Sea Link II being deployed from the R/V Seward Johnson for Life on the Edge 2005
Prof. A. is also with the National Underwater Research Center for the North Atlantic & Great Lakes at UCONN (NURC-NA&GL or just NURC for short). Working for NURC, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing video footage from dives they have done with many different platforms, including Alvin out of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and both the Johnson Sea Link I and Johnson Sea Link 2 (collectively “the JSLs”) manned research subs out of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI). Unfortunately HBOI and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have decided to retire the the Sea Link I and II and sell off their surface support vehicle, the R/V Seward Johnson. With depth ratings of 1000m these are two of the deeper diving vehicles in the U.S. science fleet. While the Alvin and Pisces V (out of Hawaii) both go far deeper, the JSLs are unique human operated vehicles (HOVs) for deep sea exploration with their distinctive full transparent acrylic sphere for the pilot and scientist. The sad thing is these are still highly productive vehicles (two of the youngest in the fleet) and there are no similar subs out there, in fact there are only about 16 manned research subs currently in operation world wide. It would especially be a shame if two of the research subs most suited to intermediate continental margin and continental shelf exploration were retired by the very same institution that was just selected as the lead institute for the Harbor Branch Consortium, which will be NOAA’s new cooperative institute. Two of their new primary missions will be “exploration and research of frontier regions of the eastern continental shelf and beyond, and improved understanding of deep and shallow coral ecosystems.” I would think this would be an excellent fit for the Sea Links. On a personal note, Alvin and the JSLs were inspirational to me when I was younger. I remember the National Geographic spreads from JSLs especially. To this day when someone says manned sub, my mind’s eye sees the Johnson Sea Link II* (Sorry Alvin!). Kevin also has a more powerful connection to the JSLs since he’s been down in them before (Check out the pic of Kevin in the bubble! Very Cool!). He also has a top ten list of JSL accomplishments, including over 1000 publications reliant on JSL.
Some people question the real need for manned submersibles, arguing that ROV‘s like Hercules, Jason and Kraken II can do anything a manned vehicle can do, only better and safer. It’s a valid question, and one that needs to be repeatedly asked, especially as more advanced ROV’s designed from the ground up for science come on line. But my answer today is that there is a need for both of them still. ROVs can not go everywhere an HOV can, and their mobility and responsiveness are limited, compared to HOVs, by the ever-present tether to the mother ship. An ROV also lacks the ability to provide 3D visual-spatial analysis and true in-situ contextual observations which only a scientist and pilot on the spot can provide, at least with todays technology. ROV’s while extremely capable are still a telepresence technology, and many of those that have used both HOVs and ROVs, such as Dr. Craig McClain at Deep Sea News, attest that something significant is lost in that translation.
These experiences combined to give me a first hand knowledge of an environment, that previously I had only studied remotely. I studied the deep sea for three years before my first deep dive and my understanding, although incomplete, of this environment has radically changed since those dives in the JSL.
Perhaps more important, these manned submersibles stir the imaginations of young minds, leading them, like me, to dream abut exploring the sea, maybe one day sitting in awe within a submersible 1 kilometer below the surface, surrounded by organisms we are still only beginning to comprehend fully.
Please help us let those in control of the JSLs fate aware of the JSLs importance to science and to our ability to understand the seas and stir the imaginations of the young explorers in our midst. Young explorers like Johann. Please GO SIGN A PETITION TO STOP THEIR LOSS.
So, a bit more on the new NOAA Cooperative Institute, since that also directly affects my future. NURC-NA&GL, along with all the other NURC centers, are NOAA supported, non-federal organizations under NOAA’s National Undersea Research Program (NURP). NURC-NA&GL’s mission is as a center for excellence in research related to the North Atlantic and Great Lakes region. They work with NOAA scientists on long term research goals including developing oceanographic research technologies (such as the Kraken II), fisheries and conservation research, historical site identification and documentation along with major outreach efforts. They are also tasked with Postdoc and graduate student training to provide the next generation of oceanographers. Unfortunately NURC-NA&GL may lose all NOAA funding with the establishment of the new center at HBOI, as it will replace the four existing East Coast NURC centers, including the one at UCONN. Personally I think cutting support for the existing centers is a mistake, even though the new Cooperative Institute sounds wonderful.
So my summer and the next two years are set, sort of. There are still some questions (second year funding, nailing down the thesis topic, now that we have health insurance, do we have another baby, etc., etc.), but at least the path forward is clear enough to begin charging down it! The summer will be hectic, split between two projects for NURC (video and GIS outreach products for high school teachers and students to use and possibly video highlights from a recent deep sea cruise), two projects for Prof. A. (both habitat related), a cruise for Prof. A, and then the remainder of my time will be dedicated to finishing up an outreach book and cards for grades K-12+ on molluscs. Whew!
