Author: Helen Scales
-
Getting ready for science
It’s been a while since I’ve been part of a research team or travelled with more than one other person (often I’m by myself or with my husband). And so far, on this trip to Fiji it’s been a delight to spend time with five other people who share many of my views on the…
-
Seamonster in Fiji – it doesn’t all go to plan
Today we were supposed to catch a ferry out to our field site. But the ferry is delayed so instead we’re catching a bus-boat combo and arriving a day late (and we only have a week set aside for science). That’s tropical fieldwork for you. And just to show you that things don’t always go…
-
Introducing the Drew Crew
Bula. I’m in Fiji with Joshua Drew and his team from the Columbia University. We’ve been in Fiji’s capital, Suva, for a few days getting prepped for the field – sorting permits, meeting people, setting up equipment, all the things that need to happen before we head off to the study site. When Josh very…
-
Meeting marine predators (aka diving with sharks) – Part 2
I’m in Fiji on a research expedition with Joshua Drew from Columbia University. Before the hard research work started I took off a day and went diving with bull sharks. Read part 1 of my encounter with some of the oceans biggest predators here. Within a minute or two of being surrounded by forty bull…
-
Meeting marine predators – Part 1
In the lead up to my first dive in Fiji a lot of people asked me if I was scared. Was I nervous? It was going to be my three hundred and somethingth dive, so by now I’m used to being beneath the waves. But the conversation that I had a few times ran like…
-
How to extract lionfish otoliths
Do you need to know how to get ear bones out of lionfish? Or are you just curious to know what the inside of a lionfish’s head looks like? Either way check out this film shot on location in Abaco, Bahamas featuring the crack lionfish catching team, Serena Hackerott and Katie Dubois. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/67320381[/vimeo] Otoliths are teeny…
-
Fiji fish – Napoleon wrasse
Another coral reef fish I'm hoping to see in Fiji (on my upcoming expedition with Joshua Drew) is the Napoleon wrasse or humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus). They are fish that are especially close to my heart because I spent four years studying them for my PhD. Here's a splendid male: So I'm biased – clearly –…
-
Fiji fish – Emperor Angelfish
I'm stoked to be going to Fiji this June with Joshua Drew from Colombia University and his crew of PhDs and masters students. My main role on the expedition is going to be documenting the science and spreading the word to the rest of the world about reefs and conservation and all things fishy (I like to think of myself…
-
5 things everyone should know about ancient oceans
Here’s the first in the series of 5 videos I made with researchers at Cardiff University’s School of Ocean & Earth Sciences. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE4PN1GdilY[/youtube] Check out all 5 in the playlist here.
-
Ocean problems made small
In a brand new series of miniature underwater scenes, Jason Isley turns his eye to some of the greatest problems of the oceans.