Where do I even begin? This trip has
already been absolutely amazing to say the least! I cannot believe it has
already been two weeks. Every day I feel like I am exposed to so many new
things, most of which I have never even heard of before. I am so thankful for
this class! We started at my home base at the University of West Florida in
Pensacola and have since gone through USFSP and today we arrived at FGCU!! Even
during the first full week at UWF, I learned so much every single day -
probably more than I have learned in many of my traditional classes over a
whole semester. It’s hard to choose what to write about because for me,
everything was new and exciting and I could probably write an entire essay
about just the first week.
At UWF, we focused our attention on
working our way through the water systems of the area. Starting from streams
and working our way to the gulf, we compared and contrasted each water system
and discovered how human influences impact each one. I loved being able to tie
in my love for learning about the environment and how humans impact it with
learning all of this new information about marine environments! Starting with
the rivers and streams, I was shocked to see just how heavily development has
affected these areas. Ferry Pass Creek had pretty much no biodiversity left and
was so overrun by sedimentation that there was hardly any creek to see! It was
really sad to see that… I wish that our school would not develop on these
areas. It hurts me to see so much life being destroyed, but I know that my new
found knowledge is going to take me on the path towards reversing this damage.
Seeing how extreme the impact was is pushing me even harder to keep learning so
that I can make a difference.
On a brighter note, we were broken
into small groups at the beginning of the week and each group was assigned a
different subject area that we were to make a presentation about on the last
day. The subject areas included stream ecology, sea turtles, seagrasses and
more. I worked with Emily, and our
project was on bacteria production. At first, I was not that excited to work
with bacteria, but since all of the topics were new to me I was okay with
taking any of them! Plus, Emily made me excited about it by telling me how cool
it was going to be to work with Dr. Jeffrey.
It turns out bacteria is much more
interesting than I anticipated and working with Dr. Jeffrey was definitely
awesome. He really knows how to explain things in a way that is both very
interesting and easy to understand, even if the subject does not at first seem
interesting or easy to understand. To acquire the data for our presentation, we
collected water samples at each site we visited, including four sites going
down Perdido Bay, one on the Gulf of Mexico, and one on the sound. We treated
these samples on site, and brought them back to the lab on Friday to complete
treating them and to analyze them. Along the way, I was exposed to several
different lab techniques that I had never seen before. My favorite was treating
the bacteria samples with a blue dye and looking at them under a microscope
hooked up to a computer software that counted the number of bacteria on each
prepared slide to compare the bacteria levels at each site that we visited. It
was really interesting to be able to work with that equipment and to be able to
work with Dr. Jeffrey, who was incredibly knowledgeable about this subject. He
made sure that we really appreciated the importance of bacteria - without it we
would be up to our eyeballs in decaying matter!! I was happy to be able to
share these techniques and knowledge with the class during our presentation.
Although I had a blast at UWF, I was
super excited to travel somewhere new! Our next stop was the University of
South Florida in St. Petersburg. This city was beautiful and the campus was
amazing! We did a good portion of our studying indoors, but that did not mean
that there was a lack of hands on experiences! I was filling my brain up with
so much new material every day and it has been making me so happy and excited
to continue on! The most exciting part of the trip was definitely going on the
R/V Weatherbird for a 14 hour day! I have never been on a research vessel
before so this is an experience I will certainly never forget. We got to
experience so many different sampling techniques and we were exposed to so much
biodiversity that I did not fully appreciate until that day. Pulling up the
dredges and the Otter Trawl was absolutely incredible. We saw all sorts of
fascinating marine life like crabs and starfish and squids and so many
different species of fish! Identifying these creatures was no easy task, but we
worked as a team and got the job done. I feel like a whole new person already
with all of these experiences under my belt! I guess I never really thought
about how truly diverse the marine life is in the Gulf of Mexico. We must have
caught at least 30 different species of critters in just a few net pulls and
dredges. The only part that I did not enjoy about our trip on the Weatherbird
was the fact that so many lives were lost in the process of collecting these
samples. I do not like to see animals suffer or die, so that part was very hard
for me and I don’t think that I will be doing much more of that. However, I am
so glad that I got the experience and being able to see all of the diverse
marine life and actually hold most of it in my hands was incredible. Another
amazing part about being on the Weatherbird was when I was standing on one of
the decks towards the front of the vessel and a whole family of spotted
dolphins came by and swam alongside the vessel. I have never seen dolphins that
close up; it was really a magical experience. I still cannot believe that
happened! They are such beautiful and intelligent animals; I know that they
came up to us just to show off and we were all freaking out! I think I may have
even got a little teary eyed when I saw that one of the dolphins had her baby
on her side and they were swimming in unison together.
In addition to being able to travel on
the Weatherbird and visit those gorgeous dolphins, we also got to do some hands
on lab work. We took a close look at some water samples that we gathered on the
Weatherbird using two different types of plankton nets - the bongo nets and the
neuston net. Seeing all of these tiny microscopic creatures that we swim with
every time we go to the beach was fascinating. I almost couldn’t believe how
much diversity can be found in just 5 mL of sea water! There was everything
from copepods to tiny fish larvae to itty bitty eggs and other plankton. My
least favorite lab work was looking at the vase sponge that we collected using
the dredge.. That thing smelled AWFUL! It was probably the worst smell I have
ever experienced and I will definitely never do that again! I love marine
plants and animals but keep me far away from dying sea sponges! I am sure there
is plenty of fascinating material to learn about sea sponges but if researching
them involves that putrid smell every day, I will definitely opt out of that
one and focus my attention on something else.
Over all, these past two weeks have
been unbelievable. I have met so many amazing people and working alongside
students that love marine life has been a blast!! Every day I learn so many new
things that I think I’m gonna be a whole new person by the end of this journey!
The professors that I have met so far have taught me so much - even beyond what
we have been learning in the field. I feel so privileged to be able to work
with them so closely and learn about how they got where they are today. Before
this class, I was so unsure of what I wanted to do and I felt like I was stuck
in a strange place in my life. I knew I wanted to make a positive impact on our
planet, but I was nowhere near being sure of what exactly that impact was going
to be. Seeing how all of the instructors and professionals that we have met got
where they are today has really opened my eyes. I know that I just need to work
hard and share my excitement for the environment and I am going to be able to
do great things. I have met a lot of other people on this trip that I feel will
do the same. It has been awesome to be able to share this experience with my
classmates, who seem to be just as excited as I am to be on this trip! Being
exposed to so many brilliant people has certainly relit the fire in my heart to
work hard and make a difference! I cannot wait to keep meeting more people and
experiencing new things. This is the best summer ever (and I promise I am not
just saying that to get a good grade on my blog!)
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