...and then it was July

Friends, time is a funny thing. Sometimes, it seems to crawl along, but other times, it flies past me with a nearly-audible whoosh. The past few weeks have been a waterfall of events - and then it was July. 

Our dive site, Outer Brewster island

I want to highlight two events. First, I went SCUBA diving with a friend in Boston Harbor. It was so good to get in the water again, and trust me, my trim was much better this time. Another friend had actually emailed me to ask for a few sea stars, so I spent part of my dive gathering specimens off the seafloor for her. The sea stars are safe in my freezer now, waiting for shipment to her lab. Soon, they will contribute to research!

Another key part of my summer has been preparing for my scallop project. The last two years, I have gone out on scallop fishing boats to collect samples. This year, my schedule was full enough that I didn't go out to sea myself - but I still had to do all the prep work. I spent a few days gathering all the sampling gear, testing each method to make sure everything still worked, and packing the gear in boxes for transport to the boat. There was one extra step: briefing the technician who would take my place on board. Thankfully, she's an experienced sea-going oceanographer. We ran through all the procedures once, and then she was ready to go! We got great samples, thanks to her hard work!

It's been a full summer so far - and it's only early July!