Interview

On my first visit to Nova Southeastern’s Oceanographic Center, I was so excited to be there. There was hardly anyone around and when a boy, who looked like a student, walked by I politely said, “Excuse me,” and told him about my Comp 2000 project. He gave me a woman’s email that goes by the name of Missy. Her real name is Melissa Dore and she is the Departmental Administrator of the center. I emailed her and she kindly volunteered to let me interview her.
As the Departmental Administrator, she is in charge of the graduates, the budget, research and statistical data, she updates the academic schedule on the online calendar, confers student’s degrees, and more. In college, Missy obtained a biology degree and a minor in English literature. Through time her interest in marine biology naturally progressed because since she was a child she has lived on the water. At the center there really is no such thing as a typical day. Each day brings something new to the table, but of course there are simple daily tasks that must be done, such as checking your email. Lab research, dive journeys, studying, classes, and maintenance are other rituals that most likely happen quite often at the center. As for research projects, there are several people who go out on the dives and some people who stay in and study what was obtained out in the field. Only 1 percent of the student population of Nova, study at the center and 75 percent of all grants go to them. The center just recently received a $15 million dollar grant from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to construct a new building for the center. The three-story building will be called the Center of Coral Excellence with coral labs, classrooms, and offices. It is a $30 million dollar building and Nova is going to match what NIST has already granted.
As for the students, usually after graduating 20 percent of them go for their PhD. Some go into the consulting field, but a majority of them receive state, county, and federal jobs and some work for NOAA fisheries. Obviously, people do not go into this field for the paycheck, but for the love and degree of concern of the environment. Marine biologists tend to be on more of the adventurous side and love to go out exploring and diving. This field is so important because the ocean has the most biodiversity than other ecosystem in the world. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the sea and you can find more biodiversity in corals than in any tropical rainforest. Marine biology is also one of the fewest and most rare fields studied and there is so much information to be learned and researched to enhance the world’s knowledge. The center is doing just that. All the research they do is put out to inform the people. They have peer review publications, articles, seminars, conferences, and also the Dean of the center has written and published a book. Nova’s program at the Oceanographic center has benefited not only Missy, but also the students in so many ways. They have active research, great grants to be able to conduct the research, hands on techniques and not always just in the classroom, a good networking system, the opportunity to travel abroad, and the center has the family sense. Missy has been working at the center for 18 years and has seen it progress and grow so much because it is now 4 times the size it used to be. She says that she loves the center and would not have it any other way because they all know each other, it is in a great location, you never know what will happen from day to day and, “I get to be in the center of it all.”



http://marinebio.org/

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/

Fourth Observation

As most of you may know, I am doing the subculture of people who study marine biology. I have specifically narrowed it down to studying the people of Nova Southeastern's Oceanographic Center. I finally was able to make my first trip to the center. At the center there are 15 full-time faculty members, 6 research scientists, and 11 professors that specialize in different marine science research. There are many graduate students there that are research assistants, which, is great because then they can do work in their area in which they study. The center has three buildings on its ten-acre campus. The largest building is known as the Forman building, which contains classrooms, offices, laboratories, and a library which has 83 subscriptions to journals, 3000 books and monographs that can all be accessed by the online catalog. The next building is called the Shore building, which contains the graduate program offices, administration offices, the National Coral Reef Institute, the Guy Harvey Institute, and laboratories for advanced research like fish biology and coral geology. The smallest yet busiest building is called the Mellon building. This houses the wet lab classroom, which holds the fish, coral, and invertebrate collections. The center is so close to the ocean that they go out into the field and study very often. They can study the deep-sea because they have access to it in minutes. From this easy access they can gather and research specimens from the ocean. With actual specimens and artifacts the students learn much more from their field of study. They rely on these things to discover and explore the ocean’s elements and all the variety of different life forms. This is a great way of learning because most people learn from hands on experiences and this is not only hands on, but also out in the environment where the specimen came from.

The people were all very friendly and I had the chance to interview Melissa Dore, who is the Departmental Administrator of the center. She was very informative and provided me with so much information, about the center, their research, daily tasks, and much more. She took me to a lab classroom to show me what some students are currently working on. They are working on sorting out protists, which look like tiny grains of sand. Protists provide much information, with some new technology they provide the ocean's temperature, salinity and more at the particular time they were obtained. After I was down with the tour, interview, and lab observation I got the chance to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in south Florida. With a view like that I cannot wait to one day study at and be a part of the Oceanographic Center here at Nova.

Third Observation

I have specifically chosen for my subculture to study the graduate students who are majoring in marine biology at the Oceanographic Center at Nova Southeastern University. I have yet to make a trip to the center because I do not have a car. It is very difficult for me to get off campus without a car. I ask other people to help me out with rides, but they are just really busy with their own lives. I am hoping to make a trip out there this weekend somehow. If only the shark shuttle could offer rides there. I could possibly make an appointment with the dean and speak with him to see if the shuttle could help those students without cars out. Anyway, I was able to make a third observation through a undergraduate marine biology class. I was able to go on a trip with them during their lab class. They went to the Biscayne Bay National Park and luckily I was able to tag along. I talked to a professor here who teaches the course and told him about our subculture project. Now, I know this is not specifically about my certain subculture but the graduate students of today did indeed have to take a course like this when they were younger to have gotten where they are now.

The Biscayne National Park was one of the most beautiful parks I think I have ever been to. The water was so clear and there were little mangrove islands that made the scenery even more enjoyable to look at.We took a boat ride out to the sites and it was very relaxing as we drove out unto the middle of the ocean. We saw several flying fish on our way out. It was really neat to see them flap their tails and glide across the water. We also saw dolphins from a distance and sea turtles. After about a forty-five minute drive we got to our first reef site. It was a shipwreck and so many fish were around it. It was really beautiful watching the fish swim and all of the colors mesh together to make this wonderful community. I saw Mangrove Snappers, Yellow Tail Snappers, Stop Light Parrotfish, a Hogfish, a Spanish Hogfish, General Major Fish, and many more. After about 30 minutes we were called back to the boat to go to another site. The next site was much smaller and we only stayed about 20 minutes. Here I saw starfish, Spanish Mackerel, Bermuda Chubs, Great Barracuda, Lane Snappers and most of the fish I spotted at the other site. We then headed back inland and swam around the mangroves for a few minutes. I looked at the roots of the trees and saw how they were planted in the ground. It was so cool because you could see so many roots under water and above the water it looks like an island. Under the water you see that it’s not an island; in fact its roots that form a protective shelter for juvenile fish and many other species. Visiting the mangroves and reefs really helped me to understand the different types of ecosystems that form about the ocean. The ocean fascinates me and has made me realize that it’s a whole world inside itself.

As I was making observations about this class trip, I also was able to study the students themselves. Some of them had underwater cameras and they took pictures of the fish and the habitats. Others had waterproof notepads and were taking down notes as they made observations and while on the boat some had fish charts to identify the fish they saw. I could see that they had great prospectives in becoming marine biologists one day. It was quite inspiring to see other people with the same interests and having the strive to learn more about the ocean and its community.