My first semester of Conservation
of Marine Resources CI is in the books, and it was pretty great. Being the only
new member of the lab (at least for half the semester), I wasn’t sure what to
expect. Everyone else was used to the weekly lab meetings and knew all about the
research being done, so I was a bit behind the rest. It didn’t take long to get
caught up to speed, though. I quickly got used to doing animal care each week,
and through the lab meetings I learned a ton about parrotfish and their
potential impacts on corals. While getting adjusted to all this, I also got to
work on research with the spiny lobsters. Ashley and I began researching the
den sharing behaviors of spiny lobsters collected from the Keys, observing to
what degree they choose to share dens together by placing two lobsters together
in the cattle tank overnight. We also took GoPro videos of them to record
interactions they had, observing their social and aggressive behaviors. From
these experiments, plus more we carry out next semester, we hope to find
results that could give insight on factors that affect the den sharing
behaviors of lobsters, and that can also help explain why lobster attraction is
decreasing.
Getting to be a part of this
research has been great, but another reason I enjoyed this semester so much was
getting to know everyone in the lab. They welcomed me in like the little
brother Randi never had, and I quickly was given the nickname Tommy Boy and the
crane as my spirit animal. I got to have many good experiences with them, like
going diving in Lake Jocassee and going to the Georgia Aquarium with Kylie,
Randi, and Abby. From passing the friendship rock underwater to taking blood
samples of lobsters, I made many good memories this semester, and I look
forward to the experiences to come!
