By Kassandra Sevila, Florida State University
I have been in Bonaire, an island in the southern Caribbean, for almost a week now. I am
here conducting juvenile coral surveys alongside a graduate student, Laurel Field, while
continuing to develop my scientific diving skills. So far, I have been adjusting to diving in a
new setting, diving more frequently, and learning how to manage task loading underwater
while maintaining my buoyancy and staying aware of the reef environment around me.
It has been exciting to use and continue developing my scientific diving skills. I am a newly
certified scientific diver, so it has been great to build my confidence while surveying the
reef. Since being here, I have been adjusting to diving with many tools attached to my
diving harness (BCD) and I have nearly doubled my total number of dives.
The FSU Rasster Lab (Drs. Lester and Rassweiler) research team in Bonaire is working
with the local conservation organization, STINAPA, to monitor the coral reef and track
ocean temperatures. I am helping to complete monthly monitoring of temperature
sensors and cleaning of mooring lines. Temperature sensors are connected to a mooring
line at depths of 65, 40 and 20ft at each site and take a reading every 15 minutes. At each
site we also survey the number of juvenile corals, identifying them to genus, at 65 and 33ft
deep on the reef. I have been working on reeling the transect tape, coral identification, and
getting more comfortable being so close to the reef.
Kassandra cleaning the mooray line.
The project team I am part of in Bonaire includes seven other FSU scientific divers who
are working on different research projects. I am learning so much from each of them, both
from their past experiences and from their current research projects. Forming these
connections with other scientific divers who are graduate students or professors at FSU is
very inspiring. I look forward to helping with their scientific diving research projects in the
future, especially those in the panhandle at the FSU Marine Lab. I have also met several
researchers at STINAPA Bonaire and would be interested in future opportunities to work
with them here in Bonaire.
My IDEA project utilizes my background in scientific diving and allows me to build on it by
spending more time in the water, helping to collect my own data and applying my diving
skills in a real research setting. This project is helping me gain experience with reef
surveys, transect work, task loading underwater, and working as part of a research team. I
have been involved with reef health research at FSU since Fall 2024 studying differences
in coral health between sites in Bonaire. As a UROP student, I focused on analyzing reef
photos to identify coral and their health status. Last year, I began to develop my own
research ideas, which were funded by the FSU IDEA program.
At this point in my project, my biggest area for improvement is gaining confidence in my
diving skills, in particular my buoyancy. While SCUBA diving, I find myself getting nervous
when I am close to the reef, whether I am picking up the transect tape or even just trying
to get a closer look at the reef. I will make progress in this area by continuing to practice
buoyancy control and task loading during each dive. Since I will be diving 2-3 times daily
while I am here, I will have a lot of time to practice!
Kassandra and Laurel Field ready to dive Thousand Steps!
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