One of the reasons I wanted to go to the University of Otago is that it had some really interesting Marine Science courses. Surprisingly I was able to convince the department to let me into both MARI 201 and MARI 302 despite having absolutely no academic background in Biology, Ecology or any sort of subject that would be appropriate. I was delighted to hear that this very first weekend the MARI 302 class had a scheduled field trip on the university research boat to test out some fishing methods. My first week of classes and I'm already on the water!

The weather was really great for our trip out there with only a bit of wind kicking up as we headed back into the Otago Harbour. The sun was out in full force though and it was really pleasant to be on the water again. The university boat, the Polaris II, is much larger and nicer than the Irish, the boat I worked on last summer. It even had a big screen TV in the bunks downstairs and a huge back deck for doing research. I could definitely see myself working on a boat like this and I'll be checking out what sort of opportunities there might be for research down here. I know that the Polaris II often goes down to Campbell Island and Antarctica... which would be such a neat voyage!


Here's the captain and his deckhand unloading our catch from the brief bottom trawl we did. It didn't seem like a lot of catch, but there were some interesting fish in the mix like the two Globefish which were all puffed up with water and perfectly round. We also caught a Torpedo Ray which can stun its prey with a jolt of electricity. Our professor noticed this ray a bit after some people had been sorting through the fish without gloves on, but luckily no one got a nasty shock.

Here's my professor Steve Dawson releasing the bottom trawl. He seems to be a demanding professor, one who makes you work for every single point, but a nice guy as well. I know I'm going to have my work cut out for me trying to do well in this course, but it's always worth it when the class is interesting!