What a whirlwind the past few days have been!

Fresh off the plane in Honolulu, we are greeted by our collaborators Nicole Krane, Dr. Giacomo Bernardi, and Dr. Michelle Paddack from One People One Reef. Having just returned from Ulithi, they give us a debriefing.

It suddenly hits me that this is going to be a major adventure and learning experience. It will be unlike any research project I have participated in to date. What have I gotten myself into?

The rest of the night was spent preparing for the symposium and planning for which sessions to attend. The 2016 theme is Bridging Science to Policy, meaning there is a lot of applied research and a lot of focus on human impacts.

Needless to say, I found I had double-booked myself on more than one occasion…