Week Two USFSP!

Well this week was too short. That was literally the only down fall. I enjoyed my time there thoroughly. Dr. Judkins is an amazing instructor! Monday we did not meet for class because of the Memorial Day holiday. If we did not miss that day there would have been a few more things we would have done like go to the aquarium. That would have been really fun, but due to the timing of things I understand why we did not go. However, the day on RV Weatherbird was great. I was a little under prepared but now know what to do to make the most of another experience like that. We toured the engine room which was amazing. I have been on RV Bellows before so the boat aspect wasn't as new and exciting, but I had not seen an engine room in action for something so large. It was really pretty awesome even though I honestly couldn't tell you that much about how it all works. They have generators running all the time, multiple engines for all sorts of different maneuvering, and it was kind of cool but maybe not that the walls were also holding the diesel. I also learned a lot about diesel fuel that I did not know before. We also got to see my favorite fish, a batfish! They are really cool because a synapomorphy for the order is backwards facing opercula that can be used for jet propulsion. The top photo is the Ogcocephalidae (I don't remember the genus and species of this particular one). The bottom photo is me taking a sponge out of the otter trawl.