Baby Clownfish Bringing Tears of Joy

Emma Francoeur, Boston University

This morning began with a seven am wake up and a delicious breakfast. After eating with my fellow mates, I did a bit of journaling and was able to read a bit before class. It has been a little difficult getting used to the time zone here in Hawai’i, but today I woke up feeling happy and refreshed. 

Today in class, Dr. Page taught us about coral reef diversity, ecology, and biogeochemistry. We also worked on our invertebrate and fish classification. For our activity in class, we used flashcards in order to come up with ways to distinguish different fish families. Fish and invertebrate classification is going to be incredibly important for when we hop on the boat so we can complete our research projects and it is pretty cool knowing what type of marine organisms we are swimming with.

After class, we ran to lunch to eat quickly before we headed to the vans for our adventure of the day. Today we went to the Hawaiian Pacific University’s Oceanic Institute for a wonderful tour of the campus. Our tour guide Elsa took us through various labs throughout the institute and then talked us through their aquaculture set up. We learned about genetically modified shrimp and my personal favorite was looking at the clownfish. The institute works on breeding clownfish and today we saw tanks of male and female clownfish taking care of their young. The tank next to the adult male and female were about 30 baby clownfish swimming around. They were so tiny and so cute to the point where it brought some to tears. 

Adult male and female clownfish working together to take care of their young

After an amazing tour, we headed back to the van and drove to the Waiahole Poi Factory in Kaneohe, where we learned history about Poi and Taro, which are two ingredients typically used in Hawaiian cuisine. We then enjoyed our meal that was filled with laughter and fun. 

We finally ended our day back at home base, where Captain Rebecca taught us about knot tying and played a fun Kahoot, made by Isa, to help us remember fish classification. 

Sending all my love to Manchester MA. Love you Mom, Dad, Caroline, Lily, and of course Kenai! 

Emma Francoeur, Boston University 

Some parasite protected shrimp that will go breed with other shrimp to make the next generation