I woke up at 7:00 AM and immediately put on my swimwear. At 7:30 is when the our experiment site will be at peak low tide. My partner similarly gets ready, and we are at the dredge site on time. The wind is choppy at the site, and the water is not the most calm, though it is not as bad as I have seen. I set up my camera, and we record what we need to for the first sight with little to no issues. We are finished after ten minutes in the water, having collected our first twenty photos before the tide has shifted enough for us to need to catch the next low tide for the dredge. Despite the tide rising, we had decided to go a secondary site nevertheless and take footage of slightly rising tides in our secondary area, just to have something to compare our first site with when we return back. The second site is very similar to the first in terms of water quality. After our series of images, we return to the lab to analyze them and to wait for the next opportune moment to return to the water. I extract our photos onto my laptop, but we do not look at them quite yet, as we have lecture a few minutes after I extract the photos. Lecture goes well, and takes approximately one hour to complete. After lecture, my partner decides to take a short nap, and I spend some time relaxing as well, though I do not take a nap. My partner returns after approximately one hour, letting me know that our project is not going to happen, and that we need to speak with our professors again. I am confused, but he informs me that our professors are on their way to speak with us. As it turns out, the only dredge site on the island is under strict regulations, and it impedes upon our ability to collect any more data, and requires us to change our project. This is unfortunate news to me. After speaking with our professors, we decide that our alternative project regarding Parrotfish diet is able to be conducted. This project involves us entering at high tide at the lagoon to monitor schools of parrotfish and what they are eating so that we can broaden our personal understanding of parrotfish diet. Fortunately, high tide was conveniently only approximately fifteen minutes from when we finished speaking with our professors, so we immediately suit ourselves to head back into the water, which is arguably much less easygoing than my previous swimming experience. The water was very evidently moving, with strong wave movement and high wind. We enter the water, which is much colder than what I was fifteen minutes ago, and I am not pleased with chilling myself up again, but enter the water regardless. We record two schools of parrotfish during our first session, before deciding that the water was much too difficult to work in for our swim strength, and we return to shore. I shower and dry myself. I also notice that one pair of my water pants is gone, and I search for a few minutes searching for it, but I am unable to find it. I am down to one pair of water pants, which is not good. Again, I extract the photos to my laptop. We do not assess our data yet, as our results were very skewed given our lack of visibility and ability to maintain ourselves, so we decide to catch the next tide and prepare ourselves better. I spend much of the rest of the day relaxing, as today was our designated relaxation day. I have every intention to catch up on sleep tonight. Other than that, today has been fairly productive, though our data needs to be reworked due to the unfortunate water circumstances.
1 Comment
Eric
6/6/2018 12:16:13 pm
This is awesome Serafin! You are a very good writer.
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AuthorMy name is Serafin Cardeli. I am Twenty years old and studying to become a Conservation & Restoration Ecologist. I wish to combine education, outreach, and legitimate scientific research to better environmental health and increase public awareness through applicable and relatable methodology. I attempt to specialize in all Canids. Categories |