Countin' Conch

We've started doing conch population assessments daily now. We take the boats out to randomly determined sites both inside and outside the local Marine Protected Area, run 30m of transect tape along the bottom on either side parallel to the boat, and then count the live and dead conch that are within 1.5m on each side of the tape, measure their size, shell lip thickness, and position on the transect. What is cool is that this data that we collect isn't just practice, or even just research to do our own thing, it goes straight to the DECR, the governmental organization responsible for managing fisheries and stock populations. Each group of 4-5 students only has to do 3 transects a day to get it all covered, so its not even that tedious.

A picture one of my friends took of me when I was on my way down to film this spotted eagle ray.