-- A day in my life but with pictures --
7:30 AM: Prepare for a day in the field, which means copious amounts of coffee, or liquid energy as I like to call it. Discover a large insect, usually a beetle or spider, in/on one of my personal belongings (this is why I don't keep my tennis shoes outside even when they're dirty).
8:30 AM: Pack the boat with gear for the field, including scuba tanks, life jackets, an appropriate amount of water and snacks, medical equipment, tools and corals. The corals on the right have been in the lab for four months and finally get to go back in the field!
10:00 AM: Arrive at our field site, suit up into field gear and prepare for the tasks that we have for the day. Most of our experiments include corals, so we are either placing coral colonies back into the water at the field sites, or taking coral out of the water for experiments.
10:30 AM: I hop in after helping my lab mates get their tools and gear into the water. I am usually "on snorkel," so I work in some of the shallower areas close to the mangroves and shore. If anyone can guess what I am doing with the two utensils in this picture, I will send you a souvenir from Panamá. (Photo credit: Noelle Lucey)
How ridiculous do I look?
- An appropriate amount for field work
- 1000% ridiculous
- I would pretend not to know you next time I saw you
12:00 PM: The weather switches from perfectly smooth and sunny to rainy and choppy water. This happens at least once a day and can mean that you're rained out for the rest of the day or the showers will only last 30 - 60 minutes.
1:00 PM: Eat a very nutritious field lunch, which is most likely melty from sitting in the boat for the last three hours. The most important part of a field day is snacks because they fuel you physically and boost morale, especially if they are cookies. Not pictured, but a peanut butter sandwich usually accompanies me on every boat ride.
3:00 PM: Arrive back at the station where we sort corals and prep them for their new homes in the resting tanks before experiments. Here, my lab mate, Esme Klein, is holding a piece of Diploria labyrinthiformis, a type of stony, reef-building coral.
(Di-plor-ee-a lab-rinth-i-form-iss)
6:30 PM: End the night with dinner and a view. Dinner usually includes someone from the field station who is studying frogs, bats, clams, etc., bringing back a new food from the field that they found or were given. In this case, my peers brought back an entire massive jackfruit. This is what the fruit looked like when it was cut in two. From the Smithsonian dock, you can see the sunset, which it usually beautiful when it's not cloudy or raining. The sun sets around 6:45 PM all year round and is very quick, so it is almost completely dark by 7:15 PM.
That's all for this week!
Sincerely,
the miss in (miss)adventures
Fun Fact
The bananas that you eat are genetically modified. If they were not, you would not be able to enjoy them as you normally do for breakfast! Swipe to see a wild banana and why you probably don't want to eat a *non-modified* banana (it's a really crunchy experience).
Animal of the week
The reef urchin (Echinometra viridis)
(Eh-kino-metra vir-i-dis)
These urchins love to hide under rocks or in crevices during the day, but are active algae-eaters at night!
[1] Source: Echinometra viridis - Wikipedia
As always, thank you Elizabeth Zerrien for the blog design!
Sources