NOAA, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries | Jan. 2014 - Dec 2014

Research Assistant

NOAA, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Silver Spring, MD

Mentor - Dr. Steve Gittings

Videos from Conch Reef Deep Diver Surveys 

Dr. Steve Gittings and I are studying the potential importance of deep reefs as nursery grounds. I am collecting data from twenty hours of video footage taken from Conch Reef in Florida Keys from different habitats (reef top, reef wall, flank, hardbottom, and softbottom) and recording the relative abundance of species observed in each habitat and the species life stage.

Below are some fun clips from the video footage.




High abundance of juveile bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus,on tilefish mounds

Green moray, Gymnothorax funebris, ready to forage

Octopus in conch shell with a Jackknife fish swimming around the conch shell! 

Squid :)

Invasive and venomous Lionfish, Pterois volitans 

Two sharksuckers attached to one another

Okeanos Explorer 2014 

Assisting Dr. Steve Gittings with the biological characterization of 19th century shipwrecks during the third and final leg of the Okeanos Explorer Gulf of Mexico 2014 expedition. 

Adding to the discovery of archaeological artifacts on a mission to explore three early 19th century shipwrecks, the important benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration to explore the sea were also discovered.  Scientists with diverse expertise, together with thousands of people around the world, saw an unprecedented time capsule of life on the ocean 200 years ago and worked together to record it. Below are some photos taken during the expedition. 

A king crab, white anemone, and stoloniferous corals perch on ship hardware

Ctenophora (comb jelly)

 

A dumbo octopus uses his ear-like fins to slowly swim away

2014 Oceans Awards Gala #Oceansprom

Every June in conjunction with Capitol Hill Ocean Week, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation recognizes our nation’s ocean heroes at its annual Ocean Awards Gala (formerly the Leadership Awards Dinner). At the dinner, NMSF presents its Leadership Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, and NMSF Volunteer of the Year Award. Since 2003, honorees have represented a shared committment to a healthy ocean. 

Photo by: Matt McIntosh, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

2014 Ocean Awards Gala at the Ronald Reagan building 

Photo by: Matt McIntosh, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
U.S. Senator Carl Levin was presented with the Leadership Award for 2014

Photo by: Matt McIntosh, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Robyn Walters was presented with Volunteer of Year for her exceptional service with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Robyn logged over 450 hours in 2013 alone and over 15,000 hours since she started volunteering in 2010. 

Photo by: Matt McIntosh, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Dr. Sylvia Earle with Dr. Kathryn Sullivan at #oceansprom

Photo by: Matt McIntosh, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2014 

Capitol Hill Ocean Week plays a critical role in providing dialogue in all the sectors in the ocean community by bringing together leaders in industry, government, academia, and nonprofits groups from around the nation. The week was full of exciting seminars and interactive discussions on everything from the importance of our ocean economy and its linkage in ocean exploration to the need for marine conservation. 

You can view the many panels from this past June on the CHOW website or they can also be found on youtube. 

My favorite panels were: State of the Ocean, Climate Realities: Preparing for the Worst, The Ocean and Human Health, and the Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse empowering speech.