We are famous!

On Friday our open house was featured in the local USVI newspaper! Before we immersed ourselves in setting up the science gear, on Thursday we got the opportunity to host an open house for 40 Charlotte Amalie High School science students. The 9th and 10th graders eagerly toured the research vessel and climbed to the bridge to learn a little about navigation directly from the NOAA Corps Officers (thank you NF officers!). In the lab, the students got a little insight on why larval fish are important and even tested their skills at trying to find teeny tiny larval fishes amongst other plankton! Finally they were able to look at some real specimens under our stereo-microscope and test what they had learned - many were able to pick out fish from the plankton.  
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Charlotte Amelie High School student looks at plankton and larval fish during Open House event

In other news... today we are north of St. Croix!

And last but not least, here are some smiling faces from some of the science team working aboard:

Top: Ryan Smith (NOAA AOML, Chief Sci) on the back deck, Daniel Otis (USF) filtering some water samples. Bottom: Vanessa Wright (UVI), Trika Gerard (NOAA SEFSC), Sarah Privoznik (UM/CIMAS) sorts through the plankton sample and Josue Millan Lugo (UPR) gets the filtering apparatus ready for the next station.