We are delighted to announce that the winner of our 2018 Summer Scholarship writing competition is UC Santa Barbara student Anshika Bagla!

While at UCSB, Anshika has gotten the chance to take courses in marine science and to have some pretty cool lab and field experiences, including working with ROV's in the Gulf of California, collecting temperate-water invertebrates as a scientific diver, and helping with lab work studying tropical fishes and corals. She's planning to go on for a MS degree in environmental science or marine biology, and ultimately plans to pursue a career working as a conservation biologist. Her experience, hard work, and passion for marine science impressed us so much that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have her out with us this summer! We also had several awesome honorable mention students who received partial scholarships for our courses, and we're hugely looking forward to meeting them all in June!

Miss out this time? Our second elasmobranch course (June 25-July 1) still has a few spaces remaining, so please reach out if you're interested in joining us!

Field School is very excited to report that instructor Danielle Quinn will be returning to Garvin September 1-3, 2018, for a repeat of her immersive three-day workshop teaching R programming and ecological modeling techniques. No experience is necessary to participate, though the workshop is appropriate for both beginner and intermediate users of R, and students are encouraged to bring their own data sets to work with. For more information on the modules covered in the course, or to register, go to the course page here.

Our team was in Dry Tortugas National Park this week as a support vessel for elasmboranch researchers from Florida International University. Dr. Mark Bond, the principal investigator, uses baited underwater remote video (BRUVs) to study the effectiveness of marine reserves in conserving sharks and rays.

Dry Tortugas National Park is made up of ocean and a tiny group of seven islands 68 miles west of Key West, in the Gulf of Mexico. These islands (called "dry" because they have no surface water, and "tortugas" because Ponce de León saw a lot of sea turtles when he became the first European to visit them in 1513) represent less than 1% of the park's total area--it's mostly water. Garden Key, the administrative center for DTNP, also contains the largest brick masonry structure in the western hemisphere--historic Fort Jefferson. While we had a great time seeing the sights, the real attraction for most visitors is the amazing variety of marine and bird life that calls the park home.