Research funsies.

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but one of my favorite professors at Ross is doing research on artificial reef supplements. I was on her the moment I found out about it that as soon as she put it into motion I wanted in! I get to dive twice a month at one of the "AR" sites and document anything I see utilizing the supplements. I don't want to go into more detail than that (what the ARs are made of, how many there are, etc.) because I don't want to upset Dr. Grigg. Researchers don't like details about their studies getting out before hopefully publishing their findings in a journal.

This semester we finally got started and so far everything is going great. I'm getting stronger in my fish ID skills and soon I'll be able to go out and conduct surveys at our dive sites myself without a PI present to assist me. I'm thoroughly enjoying the research and actually have a real sense of pride in my growing knowledge of reef life. Before when I snorkeled I would just admire all of the pretty fish, but now I can identify most of them, and which are immature forms and which are adults (this is actually REALLY hard, as sometimes the juveniles look nothing like the adults - take stoplight parrotfish for example: juvenile vs. adult). It's actually really satisfying.