Introducing the Benthic Team

I thought tonight would be a good time to introduce my fellow benthic team members. As a group, we survey and monitor all aspects of the coral reef that are not fish or chemistry related. So without further ado, we have:

B - Kerri Grimshaw hails from the sunshine state of Florida and is so devoted to Key Limes that she special ordered a tree that is now growing quite well in her living room. Kerri is a coral biologist that Ben and I knew from the Florida Keys.

E - Stephanie Schopmeyer joined CRED last year from Georgia but is a transplanted midwesterner from Ohio. Steph is also a coral biologist and is the person that inspired me to start taking pottery classes from UH.

N - Sun Kim is a biologist joining us on this cruise from the University of Guam. He will be an invertebrate biologist, studying anything that is not a fish, coral or algae. He was the most eager member of our team to be the 'N' and will be my dive partner while we are at Wake.

T - Rodney Withall is a Canadian algal biologist who some how found himself in Texas (not the good part) prior to coming to Hawaii late last year. Rodney has an addiction to chocolate milk and (in his own words) claims to have invented sock-suspenders even though he never wears socks.

H - Russell Reardon also comes from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is a connaisseur of guitars and key lime pies (of course). He will be filling the role of invertebrate biologist during our dives at Wake.

I - Russell Moffitt is currently an invertebrate biologist for CRED and is a cowboy ninja living in Hawaii with a hippopotamus named Stella (he used to break horses, is a black belt in karate and has a very large gray dog).

C - And if you haven't guessed who the C is you might be reading the wrong blog. But nice to meet you anyway.

So that is our team for this part of the trip. We have a crew change when we arrive in Guam on April 1st and then again in Saipan around the middle of April. But that is all for tonight. I hope you are doing well and that spring weather comes your way soon.

Good night and take care, Cristi