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Puerto Rico Cruise Day 8 - Meet the Science Party
There are five scientists aboard Nancy Foster from NOAA’s Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research (CCFHR) in Beaufort, North Carolina.
Dr. John Burke is the Chief Scientist aboard the ship. John’s research
interests include fish behavior and ecology. John is leading the fish-habitat
surveys on the cruise.
Amy Uhrin is the lead scientist for the seagrass blowout project. Amy
is a diver on the fish team, conducting habitat surveys. In addition,
she has been responsible for preparing and submitting web page content
for the cruise, including harassing scientists and crew for photographs!
Brian Degan and Abigail Poray are the Field Party Chiefs for this cruise.
It is their job to assist the Chief Scientist in scheduling the Plan
of the Day, to log all data in the appropriate spreadsheets at the end
of the day, and to make sure that all of our GPS and camera equipment
are well-maintained. Brian and Abby are both divers on the fish team
as fish and habitat surveyors respectively.
John Hackney is part of the seagrass core sampling team. In the absence
of Dr. Jud Kenworthy, the lead scientist on the project, John has been
tasked with organizing the seagrass core teams and ensuring that the
day’s sampling plan is carried out.
In addition, we have several colleagues joining us from other branches of NOAA, the State of Florida, and two universities:
Sean Meehan and Kevin Kirsch are from NOAA’s Office of Response and
Restoration (ORR), specifically, the Damage Assessment Center. Sean focuses
on habitat restoration and is involved with community outreach while Kevin
deals with oil spill injury assessment and also plays a role in ORR’s
Vieques project (see Day
3). On the cruise, Sean is chief spear-fisher and Kevin is part of
the seagrass core team.
Mike
Judge is with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in Miami, where
he runs the fishing logbook program. Mike is a diver with the fish team
and has done a great job of photographing our underwater exploits, especially
our encounter with Moises!
Clockwise (from top left) Marc Julian, Kevin Madley, Manuel Merello, and Jennifer
Kunzelman, and are with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) in St. Petersburg. Manuel is assisting with the organization
of the seagrass core sampling effort and Jennifer, Marc, and Kevin are participating
in that sampling as well. Marc also has kept us well stocked with air, by
filling SCUBA tanks at the end of each day.
Brooke
Landry is part of the seagrass core sampling. She recently completed
her Master’s degree at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington
(UNC-W) and has remained there as a technician, creating and maintaining
a web site for the UNC-W Fisheries Habitat Assessment Program’s 10-year
data set.
Giuseppe
Di Carlo is the final member of the seagrass core team. He is a post-doctoral
researcher at the Horn Point Laboratory of the University of Maryland
where he is studying the importance of sand bar systems in creating and
maintaining seagrass habitats in the Chesapeake Bay. In July, Giuseppe
will depart Maryland to begin a post-doctoral position at CCFHR.