I signed up for marine biology 2 because of the great experience I had last year in this course. Not only did I get to spend a week with some of my closest friends in the BVI, but I also got to experience and learn about the beautiful nature that surrounded us through Mr. Kirby and Dr. Groningen, as well as our dive instructors at Dive BVI. I wish to enjoy the same beauty I did last year in this course. I’m most looking forward to our dives in the BVI. Snorkeling and enjoying the beach are both great, but being able to go down into the water and experience a completely different world is most definitely mind-blowing. For the first two days of this class, we refreshed our memories on coral and coral reefs, relearning the connection between coral and zooxanthellae. On Wednesday, we learned about mangroves and their effect on the ecosystem because of our planned trip to go kayaking through a mangrove forest in the BVI. On Thursday, Doc and Mr. Kirby tricked the whole class into believing Jesuit was being fined for killing coral during our trip to Virgin Gorda last year. As a class, we wrote a paper on why transplanting coral is safe and effective, and although we are new divers, our methods were appropriate. On Friday, Doc retaught some basic biology to the class so we could then move into the lab and be prepared to put that knowledge to the test. We used extracted fish DNA, primers, sterilized water, and DNA polymerase to copy the single DNA of a fish and make an exponential amount of new copies. All in all, it was a great start to another great summer in marine biology.
Clayton Caldwell
