Untitled By Artan

Family 1

Family

Dogs

Friends

Girlfriend

Today marks the 13th day that I've been in Costa Rica (including the night I arrived at the airport). I'm adjusting to my second and permanent host family and to Heredia, and classes don’t start until tomorrow. Now that I'm here and mostly settled in, I have tried to make sure I contact friends and family in the U.S. on a regular, but not too frequent basis.

Aside from my first weekend here where I called home three days in a row (not everyone was available to talk at once) I've only texted my parents and my sister a few times or vice versa. The first time we Skyped (I did not have internet for a few days so it was not right away), our dogs were confused since they could hear me (an maybe see me) but I was not there. I miss all of the dogs, especially our new puppy, Vader, since he won't be small the next time I see him. The same is true for my family, but if I were not studying abroad, I would still be away from them since I'd be at college, and I usually don't come home until breaks. So currently, this doesn’t feel that different from a regular semester at Susquehanna, for me and them.

The same is also true for friends at home, however, not for friends at college. One of my closest friends is also studying abroad, so I would not see her even if I were at Susquehanna, but it is a bit odd not seeing my other friends. I have texted a few of them to see how their semester is going, but not too frequently. I think that at this point, this still does not feel like it will last until June, so it has not sunk in for me that I probably won't see a lot of them until August.  

Undoubtedly, the adjustment is hardest for my girlfriend. During the semester, we spend to most time with each other, so it's difficult for both of us to not see each other, including over long breaks. While the adjustment is difficult for my parents too, they have grown accustomed to not seeing me for a few weeks at a time. This is different for both of us. We've talked frequently through texting, but I am going to try to restrict calling/Skyping to a maximum of once a week (I'm going to try to do the same with my family). Since I'm still dealing with a completely new environment, it is currently harder for her, but as I grow accustomed to my routine and classes here or confront new difficult challenges, I could see it becoming more difficult for me too.

With all of that being said, I'm going to do my best to not focus on what I'm missing from the U.S. all of the time so I can focus on what I can experience here.

FROM PANAMA TO MARIANA TRENCH:  FEMALE WHALE SHARK MADE A RECORD!

For two and a half years, scientists followed the movements of Anne, a whale shark, during which she swam from the coast of Central America to the Mariana Trench.

In 2011, researchers put a transmitter on Anne near Coiba Island in Panama. In the following 841 days, Anne’s transmitter sent a signal to the ARGOS satellite when it swam close to the surface. These trasmitter allowed the team to follow its movements to the south to the Galapagos Islands and throughout the Pacific to the Mariana Trench, to the south of Japan and the east of the Philippines. She traveled a distance of 20142 kilometers.

-Whale shark route from Panama to the Mariana Islands (black track) tagged in September 2011, and old record from Mexico to the Marshall Islands (red track, tagged in September 1995).

The finding reinforces the position of the whale shark as one of the animals that travels most, along with leatherback turtle, gray whale and the arctic tern. In 2016, the IUCN cataloged the species for the first time as threatened. Biologists calculate that tropical and subtropical seas have less than half of whale sharks that they had 75 years ago, which increases the urgency of their protection.

Read also: This is why whale shark aggregate just in 20 sites!

Photo: A whale shark at Gladden Spit, Belize. Source Heyman et al.,2001. 

Reference (Open Access): Guzman et al., 2018.  Longest recorded trans-Pacific migration of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Marine Records

A mariachi band playing at my host dad’s mom’s 86th birthday party.

Phytoplankton (Coccolithophore) bloom!

Phytoplankton bloom in the Bay of Biscay.

The waters off the western coast of France show swirls of green and turquoise as a result of a phytoplankton bloom associated with increasing springtime temperatures.

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#4—Fun Facts for World Whale Day

Whales are the biggest creatures to ever live on the earth. The largest whale, the blue whale, can be over 90 feet long. The sperm whale, on the other hand, may not be the biggest whale, but it has the biggest brain to have ever existed on Earth.

Learn more about how whales grew to such massive sizes here.

Photo: Smithsonian Institution

The Ghost, Craig Parry’s photo of the famed white whale Migaloo won first place in the underwater world category at the 2017 Golden Turtle International Photography Competition in Moscow this week.

Darwin is most famous for his theory of evolution. But did you know that much of his life’s work was influenced by his time at sea? 

In the spirit of Darwin Day, here is one of his observations of bioluminescent plankton while aboard the HMS Beagle on October 24, 1832:

“The night was pitch dark, with a fresh breeze. — The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful & most beautiful appearance; every part of the water, which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, & in her wake was a milky train. — As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright; & from the reflected light, the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens.” Charles Darwin

Learn more about Darwin’s connection to the ocean from this article at the Ocean Portal.

Photo Credit: unknown, Turin Museum of Human Anatomy

Meet MBARI: This team develops innovative new technology to map the seafloor 🤖🗺️

With marine life and ecosystems facing a rising tide of threats, the ocean exploration community needs nimble, cost-effective tools for measuring and monitoring ocean health. MBARI’s Control, Modeling, and Perception of Autonomous Systems Laboratory, known as the CoMPAS Lab is up to the challenge.

MBARI scientists and engineers build and adapt advanced technology that enhances ocean data collection. Led by engineer Giancarlo Troni, the CoMPAS Lab team develops scalable marine technology that can easily be modified for use in a wide variety of vehicles and platforms. 

Working with other teams across MBARI, the CoMPAS Lab leverages vehicles like the MiniROV to deploy and test new tools in Monterey Bay's submarine canyon and then adapt them for other mobile platforms. By sharing open-source design specifications and advanced algorithms with the wider ocean exploration community, we hope to expand access to MBARI’s engineering innovations.

MBARI technology is transforming what we know about the ocean and its inhabitants. Our scientists, engineers, and marine operations staff work together to create innovative tools for a more sustainable future where autonomous robots and artificial intelligence can track ocean health in real time and help us visualize ocean animals and environments. Studying our blue backyard is revealing our connection to the ocean—how it sustains us and how our actions on land may be threatening its future.

We’re spotlighting various teams at MBARI to showcase the different ways we’re studying the largest environment on Earth. We hope this series inspires a new generation of ocean explorers. Dive in.

It’s the biologists turn

Having recently shared images from the Nikon Small World (see http://bit.ly/2xQdOHd) and the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 awards (see http://bit.ly/2ipNvkn), here are some photos from the Royal Society of Biology’s 2017 Photographer of the Year and Young Photographer of the Year competitions in a week of the year that seems to have all these events announcing their honours more or less simultaneously.

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