PhD candidate studying coral reef resilience in the Pacific Islands
In just over a month, I'll be boarding a plane and heading to Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati. I'll be staying in Tarawa and the nearby Abaiang Atoll for about a month to conduct the first stage of my Ph.D. fieldwork. It's been a long, dark, rainy winter in Vancouver and… Continue reading Counting down to fieldwork in the Gilbert Islands
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With the April 22 March for Science in Washington, DC quickly approaching and the current anti-scientific stance of the American government, the scientific community is abuzz with debate over what role scientists should play in activism. In the midst of these contentious times comes a new paper published in the journal Environmental Communication from George… Continue reading Recent study of scientists and advocacy overlooks gender and racial biases
Recently, I was invited to be a part of last weekend's episode of the CBC radio show, Quirks and Quarks. The episode explored the ways that scientists spent their summers. It was my first recorded interview, and I was thrilled to be asked to participate. I was also extremely nervous. Fortunately both the producer, Mark Crawley, and the… Continue reading Interview: Scientific research and beauty mix on the Marshall Islands
In Marshallese, iokwe means hello, goodbye, and I love you. Translated literally, it means "you are a rainbow." It's not a word that's reserved for family members or even for friends; if you walk down the street in Majuro, strangers who pass you greet you with iokwe. It is, in my opinion, a beautiful way to tell people… Continue reading Bar loe kom (see you later), Marshall Islands!
This is the second of a two-part series about my time in Ebon Atoll. The first post can be found here. Ebon Atoll is known for two things: its beauty and its mosquitos (which are gigantic and plentiful). The main island, Ebon Ebon, is long and narrow. In many places, the ocean is separated from the… Continue reading A glimpse of Ebon (Ebon Atoll part 2 of 2)
This is the first of a two-part series about my time in Ebon Atoll. The second part can be accessed here. Last Thursday, I hopped in a terrifyingly tiny airplane and joined staff from the Marshall Islands Marine Resource Authority (MIMRA) on a visit to Ebon, the most southern atoll in the Marshall Islands. We were… Continue reading Hard at work in paradise (Ebon Atoll, part 1 of 2)
This week, I started my internship with the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Agency (MIMRA), rented a bike for the summer, and generally got settled into a day-to-day routine. Everyone here has been fantastic, and I've made some wonderful friends who have gone out of their way to make sure I feel at home, both inside… Continue reading It’s official, I’ve fallen in love with Majuro
On Thursday, we wrapped up our final day of diving in Majuro. Our first day was a bit of a rude awakening compared to the relatively clean reefs of Arno, but we were pleased to discover some beautiful sites on our last three days of diving. My first impressions are pretty much what we hypothesized,… Continue reading Wrapping up our research
We couldn't dive on Friday and Saturday (July 1 and 2nd) because of a national holiday in the Marshall Islands, National Fishermen's Day! We also ended up not diving today (Sunday), because one of our core team members wasn’t feeling well, so we took an extra rest day. I think it’s turned out to be… Continue reading Settling in to life in Majuro
On Saturday (Friday in North America), we arrived in Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. We went to work pretty much immediately after our plane touched down. Our research team is Simon Donner, my advisor at UBC, Diane Thompson and Emma Reed from Boston University (read Diane's blog here), and me (with a HUGE… Continue reading Adventures in Arno Atoll
