Today was the second to last day of the Marine Biology course at Jesuit. Our schedule today went differently than usual. We began class by going into the lab to complete our dissection of the dogfish. We got to open up its “skull” to take a look at its brain and the nerves connecting to it. The head was surprisingly easy to infiltrate. We then returned to the classroom for the article presentations.
The articles, in which one of them was presented by yours truly, discussed the use of echolocation by porpoises and the effects of rising temperatures on elkhorn coral. I felt that my article never posed a serious, if not consistent, question (the reason for the porpoises buzzing after their catch remained “unknown”). What was the purpose of that study? Why was it significant? Why was that important? How was that useful? I felt that it was based on already established facts. It’s already common knowledge that porpoises (and their relatives the whales and dolphins) use echolocation to navigate and detect things such as prey in their surroundings.
I felt that the coral article was also based things many people already knew. Many experiments in the past have already shown that the Earth’s rising temperatures harm several species of coral and their development. So I asked myself again, “Why was this study important?” Maybe to raise awareness about the threat of a crucial species? I’m not completely sure (especially because the article never proposed a solution to the issue). However, i did find the discovery of the white pox disease on coral originating from humans interesting. Who knew we could have that much of an impact on them? I felt that this may be a way to grave people’s attention to see what we’re doing and perhaps take action to help repair the damage we’ve done (like keeping the oceans clean and pollution-free). We may not be able to address natural environmental stresses on the coral but we sure can ease it by making sure we’re not contributing to their struggle.
I’m excited to see what’s in store for tomorrow’s class! One more day of class then it’s off to the anxiously anticipated British Virgin Islands!
