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Date: 8/23/00 Time: 22:00 Lat: 29°39' Long: 87°10' Wow! Its our last night here on the water of the Gulf of Mexico. This trip has been one big adventure for me. I cant explain how much I enjoyed it and learned from it. I think I have done things that some teenagers and adults have never done or even seen in person. I believe that I can honestly say that I would have never thought I would ever be this close to jellyfish or even touching and handling them. I have learned which jellyfish sting and which do not. I learned from Robbin how to tell the sex of a jellyfish. Every person on this boat has taught me something in some way or form. Grant and I did the C.T.D., nutrient, and chlorophyll samples. I also got to help John with the tucker trawl and helped take down data for him. I tried to help Heather any way I could since it seemed like she was doing everything and never seemed to loose her smile. I learned about jellyfish, squid, flat fish, dolphin fish, crab zoea, and even plankton. I could go on and on about everything that I have learned but I don’t know where I would start. One of my classes I will be taking my senior year is earth science. In that class we will be studying some oceanography. I have a very strong feeling that this trip will help me in that class. I will more an likely study something that I have learned on this trip and that will make that class a lot easier since I will be prepared. I don’t know any better way I could have spent two weeks of my summer. I would have never thought that I would be helping people research jellyfish. I can now go out to the ocean with my friends and tell them which jellyfish sting and which do not. I feel like I could use the knowledge that I learned here anywhere I go. I am so excited to go home to my family and friends and tell them everything that has happened and everything that I have learned. Everyone on this trip has made it extremely pleasant for me and they have made me feel very welcome. I would just like to say thank you to all the crew on the R/V Pelican and to all the researchers here on the boat. Most of all I would like to thank Dr. Graham because of him I am here. He is the one who made is possible for me to come of this trip. He has taught me lots of things over these past two weeks and has been very patient with me and explained things when I didn’t know what was going on. Thank you everyone I will never in my whole life forget this trip or anything I learned here. I had so much fun from driving the boat to going snorkeling and seeing all the jellyfish up close. As we pack all our supplies up I will not pack up the information that have learned here I will go home and tell everyone about this wonderful experience that I have had these past two weeks.
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