From Thursday through Friday, we have all started our day with breakfast around 6:30 am and our adventure at 7:30 am. Each day, we were responsible for gathering our personal gear, which included a snorkel, buff, dive booties, fins, mesh bag, transect, camera, quadrat, and a clipboard. Around 8 am, we would board our boats and head off to our destination! At every location, the groups would start with benthic surveys. If we were lucky, we would have to measure the levels of seagrass that were present in our quadrat. For the most part, I was tasked with the surveys that had a variety of coral, which made me so happy. I'm a coral girlie at heart, and to see a different species of coral alive in the wild made me so excited! Every day, one specific group was assigned to assist Dr. Matich with setting up BRUVS (underwater camera systems) and gathering sediment cores from the different sites. My group was given that job on Tuesday morning, and though it was a challenge, it was worth every second. The rest of the day, we would spend our time in the lab processing our sediment core data and/or counting phytoplankton from our water quality samples. I love being able to use the skills I have learned over the years at TAMUG directly in the field. I'm forever grateful to be a part of this journey and trip!
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