Fighting the current

I have blisters on my toes from kicking so much with my fins! There is swell outside the barrier reefs, so current is insanely strong everywhere we go! We try to swim against it going out, so that when we can't fight it any longer, we turn back and have to dodge the coral heads as we are swept back to the boat. It's exhausting, but there's really no escaping it... The fish make it look so easy.

It's been a busy last couple of days, finishing up collections and working on adult coral colony sampling. We have been to many different sites to collect, and seen things like giant crown-of-thorn starfish, huge leopard print sea cucumbers and an octopus! Most importantly, though, we are finding the corals we came for, and plenty of them! Two of the species we were hoping would spawn on the full moon (as they do in Hawaii), sadly did not. So, we are crossing our fingers that the other two species will act as their Hawaiian relatives and spawn for the new moon in about a week. Until then, we will continue to fight the current and sample from adult colonies in the field!


Between our research agenda and my school work (which so far I have been diligently keeping up with...), I have been finding some time to soak up this wonderful place I am in. Yesterday, I commandeered an abandoned kayak at the station to watch the sun set from the water, and today I went for a walk to the nearest town, taking a few detours along the way to find mangos and starfruit growing off the beaten path.