The Aquarium's teen diving expedition Sea TURTLE is reporting live from Rhode Island. This post is from Catherine. 

Today was filled with field studies, scuba diving and the affirmation of the fact that I was in awesome company.



“So here’s a joke, Helium walks into a bar, and the bartender says, ‘We don’t serve noble gases here.’, the helium doesn’t react.” When a joke like that receives a bout of laughter in return, you know you’re surrounded with fellow science lovers. Here, there is no limit to just how nerdy you can get. Want to make a joke about having an air bladder? Go ahead! Want to shout out scientific names and terms while jumping off a dock? Everyone will join in! There really is no better feeling than to be surrounded by those with the same passion for science and knowledge that you have. Then as a group, you can combine all of your excitement and love for science and use it while you’re conducting population counts or thinking of stewardship projects or examining plankton under microscopes. Being surrounded by such dedicated, wonderful, invertebrate loving people makes everything fun.



One of the most memorable moments of the day for me was trying to catch a fish using a seine net (a net with weights on the bottom). A few people grabbed onto the net and started bringing it towards the shore. While people brought the net towards the shore, one or two people tromped through the water like wild beasts, scaring the fish towards our waiting net. Eventually we caught a fish and identified it as a blue gill. We then spent the rest of our free time snorkeling through the water and running from horse flies. All in all, today was an eventful, wonderfully nerdy day.



-Catherine