Day 2, USFSP

Today was my first time ever on a research vessel and the 6-8 ft seas had me glued to the side of the boat for the first 8 hours or so very sea sick. A few minutes after others had started sorting through the catch from the otter trawl I decided I was going to jump in and help sea sick or not. Once I had the task of helping everyone identify different species of fish and invertebrates(something I really love to do) the sickness stopped bothering me and went away. From that point on I had the time of my life seeing some species for the first time ever in person. I enjoyed seeing how my fellow students shared the desire to become efficient and be able to collect our data quick enough to get the fish back in the water alive. In the second photo above I am measuring a scrawled cowfish, my favorite species of cowfish. One interesting fact that I learned today was that those cylindrical metal frames with cylindrical tubes all the way around them that I have seen I in many photos of research vessels is a CTD which stands for conductivity, temperature and density. The CTD can check many different parameters of the sea water such as salinity and temperature at various depths. My word of the day was  Rypticus maculatus the scientific name for the white spotted soap fish. This was the first time I had heard of that species and experienced why they have the name soap fish. They were as hard to pick up as a wet bar of soap due to the protective mucus on their skin. The trip was well worth dealing with seasickness because at the end of the day I got do enjoy doing what I love to do, catch new species I have never seen and to be able to observe them and learn about them.