So since we have this new blogging feature for the TCBES website I figured I would have a go to try and test it out. Hopefully this blogging option allows everyone in the department to open up discussions or answer questions easily by using the TCBES website. For my inaugural blog I thought I could let everyone know about the summer courses I recently took at MOTE Marine Labs in Summerland Key, Florida. If anyone is interested or has any questions they can just respond to this post and I’ll do my best to answer, or if you are bored and just feel like typing feel free to respond and humor my idea that someone will read this. So basically, MOTE is a non-profit research organization which was originally created in Florida to conduct research on sharks. What they may have done to the sharks I don’t know, but they had some cool 70’s photos of guys with sharks that looked very ‘Life Aquatic’-esque. They must have done something right with the shark work as there are now MOTE research stations throughout Florida, they have a cool logo, and are involved in lots of monitoring and research projects. That’s all I know folks, if you want to know more just check their website. They do, however, rent out their facilities at a very reasonable cost. This means you can get boats, tanks, flowing seawater system, and labs at your fingertips if you need to do some research in the Caribbean. Dr. Esther Peters takes advantage of the facilities and runs two coral courses in the summer, one focuses specifically on histology of corals and the other is about coral diseases and diseases of other reef organisms. Combined the courses are two weeks long and very intense, basically all day and into the night with diving in the afternoon. I did learn a lot, especially about coral histology, and one nice aspect is that since it is so intensive each course is equivalent to a semester’s worth of credit. Typically Esther transfers credit through George Mason or Nova University but we were able to conduct my classes as independent study for UH Hilo. They also offer a biomarkers of coral stress course at the same time as the histology course which is taught by Dr. Mikhail Matz from the University of Texas. So the whole point to this ramble is…..if you are interested in corals, specifically coral diseases, and you would like the opportunity to learn from a few experts in the field, get to dive in the Caribbean, and knock a few courses out of the way this is not a bad option. If anyone has any questions just reply to this post, otherwise hopefully this post inspires some more ‘blogging’ and we can put this website to use. Take care,
John