Since then, I have been a Research Assistant (RA) for two dissertation students (1/week). I also assisted several other dissertation students by: collecting live food (crabs, shrimp, and fish) to feed samples of species such as lionfish being studied in the wet lab; trekking to the mangroves to assist with site characterization, collect sample species (mudskippers), and take photographs; and fixing software issues. I have offered the use of my equipment to help dissertation students and researchers with their projects, and this has been especially helpful to the one I am currently serving as RA since her camera has malfunctioned (she uses my underwater GoPro system to video her transect and take photographs) . Unfortunately, one of the groups that departed Hoga Island took several of my items from the computer room, one of which was the battery charger for my underwater light so it is no longer of use while here.
I have attended multiple lectures and presentations, and look forward to more. I also continue to prepare for graduate school by reading and watching videos. At the moment, I am somewhat neutral about my experience so far, in part because my expectations were different; I’ll discuss this after I return, but I’d like to note that the staff and dive masters have been great.
Upcoming weeks (likely schedule):
Unit 7: Coral Reef Monitoring (video transect and utilize software to analyze the video)
Unit 8: Research Assistant
Unit 9: Scope out sites
Special thanks to Arni for helping me get this e-mail out.
Christian
