You might wonder - I rather hope you wonder - why the Oyster’s Garter has been so silent this week. I have been running frantically about preparing for a month-long research trip to Curacao, off the coast of Venezuela. (as well as helping Eric host our Very First California Seder.). I’ll be studying an invasive tunicate, Trididemnum solidum, that is overgrowing Curacao’s coral reefs. I will also be serving as a dive buddy for a classmate studying traditional Curacao fish traps.

I’m not sure how frequently I will have internet access, but I will post on my adventures as much as possible. And I’ll be contributing a mighty deuterostome-related entry to Coral Week. I’ve never been diving in warm water before, and I expect to be spoiled utterly rotten. I also expect to come back totally jacked, since I’ll be filtering liters and liters of water (for particulate organic carbon, if you’re curious) with a hand pump.