Interview

I interviewed a graduate student, Chris LaPointe, at Nova Southeastern's Oceanographic Center. I learned alot from Chris and actually found we had similar qualities. We are both originally from the north and he is doing alot of studies on coral reefs, which is what I want to persue. I learned what Coastal Zone Managament was and what exactly was studied in the field of Marine Biology. I also learned how he took samples from sea grass and the reefs by doing "sweeps." I learned that Chris was using satelitte imaging, underwater cameras, and GPS coordinates for his graduate project on studying the ocean floor of a specific section in Hawaii. When Chris told me about what other students are doing for their projects, it got me excited and thinking about what I could possibly be doing in the future.

Seagrass Restoration:
http://www.edc.uri.edu/restoration/html/tech_sci/restsea.htm

Coral Reef Conservation:
http://coralreef.noaa.gov/

Ocean Floor Mapping via Google Earth:
http://earth.google.com/ocean/

4th Observation-Lauderdale Diver

Today I visited a local diving shop, Lauderdale Diver which is located in Fort Lauderdale. The shop had a variety of supplies and everything you need to start a diving adventure. They had top selling brands such as: Aqua Lung, Oceanic, O'Neill, Body Glove, and Sealife. The products they sell were all in regards to diving and snorkeling. They were supplied with tanks, snorkels, fins, goggles, wetsuits, rashgaurds, bags, cameras, dive lights, gloves, hoses, knives, sunglasses, and masks, basically anything and everything you need. They also had diving lessons available to sign up for and that covered all levels. Lauderdale Diver also provided daily dive trips and even had a special feature that allows you to organize a dive trip anywhere in the world! The dive levels range from Open Water, Advanced Open Water, EFR, Rescue Diver, Dive Master, Assistant Instructor, and other specialty courses that zone in on a certain aspect, such as Coral Reef Restoration. They also allow children as young as 10 years old to get Discover Scuba and Open Water Training. Lauderdale Diver also allows you to rent equipment if necessary. The staff was very friendly and insightful on diving and all of the products. The shop made me excited to obtain my scuba license, which I plan on getting this summer. It showed me all the cool things I would be learning about and eventually will be extremely accustomed to and comfortable with. Scuba Diving is obviously a huge aspect of Marine Biology and that is how most graduate students start the projects they do for their master's degree. The shop basically just got me excited and ready to jump in the water.

3rd Observation-John U. Lloyd State Park

I visited the John U Lloyd State Park which is located in Dania Beach right where the Oceanographic Center lies. This park consists of very lush plants and interesting wildlife. It is a beautiful site and is a beach that is being preserved. John U Lloyd himself was a Broward Country attorney for 30 years and the site was named after him due to the fact that he led the efforts in preserving the area. John U Lloyd Park is home to many sea creatures and marine plants. Many mangroves are present in this area which are of huge importance to the environment. They are contorted trees that extend into shallow edges of the sea and there are three different species; the red mangrove, the black mangrove, and the white mangrove. Mangroves are an essentially tropical tree species and usually do not appear in regions with temperatures under 66 degrees F. Mangroves serve as nurseries for many juvenile fishes, crustaceans, and are rookeries (nesting sites). Some creatures which I came across at the park were: Man O War, Cowfish, and Ghostcrabs. The beach was beautiful and the park is 251 acres. John U Lloyd State Park is also home to Loggerhead sea turtles and is one of 33 parks that have beach indexing that provide valuable sea turtle data to researchers around the world. This is the perfect location for me to observe since it resides so closely to the graduate school, and many NSU OC graduate students and faculty study, observe, and research this park.