I recently had the opportunity to take part in the Smithsonian Institute’s MarineGEO Bio Blitz with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. Our group, consisting of scientists and students from Texas, the Washington D.C. area, and around the country were able to collect and document over 600 unique invertebrate and fish species from several sites in the Corpus Christi and Port Aransas areas in just under two weeks. This effort generated a solid biodiversity dataset for the region, voucher collections for the Smithsonian Institute and the University of Texas, and a multitude of tissue samples for genetic analysis.
In my role as a volunteer, I helped to coordinate field sampling logistics for the Corpus Christi sites, sample collection and lab processing, data entry, and assembling voucher collections. It was truly amazing how much we were able to accomplish in such a short timeframe.
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