Question: do you ever have to go on holoday for a month to investigate different parts of the sea to see different fish.

Diva Amon answered on 27 Jun 2012:

Hey jakelk,

Well it ‘technically’ isnt holiday, its actually work as it is part of my PhD. But I do get to go to lots of really nice places far away. Since I’ve started my PhD I have been to:

1) Jamaica 2010 – to get on a research ship which then went on a month-long expedition to do research in the Cayman Trench, the deepest part of the Caribbean and Atlantic. There is a picture of the ship on my profile. On that expedition, we discovered the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents (which are like small underwater volcanoes!) They were 5km deep!
Here is a link to the video of what we found:

All of the animals were completely new to science – never seen before by any human eyes! We also left some experiments of wood and whale bones to see what would come to feed on them. That’s what I work on for my PhD

2) Rhode Island in the USA 2011 – to take part in a the controlling of a special internet program which beams back footage live from the deep-sea floor that you can watch anywhere once you have internet. This program was actually started by Dr. Robert (Bob) Ballard, the person who discovered where the Titanic had sunk to!

3) Jamaica again 2012 – to pick up the experiments of wood and whale bones which we had left in the deep sea in the Cayman Trench in 2010. The expedition was for 10 days.

4) the Bahamas 2012 – to collect some shallow-water experiments of wood and whale bones which had been left on the seafloor for 6 months. We were there for 10 days. This wasn’t a very successful trip as sharks had destroyed and eaten our entire experiments! The only things we got back were some shark teeth and the weights that had been holding the experiments down on the seafloor.

At the end of this year, I am going to Chile to get on the same research ship (seen on my profile) to go to the Antarctic! This is the trip I am most excited for. We are going to re-visit some more of these hydrothermal vents that were discovered in 2009 and also the visit the skeleton of a dead whale which is on the seafloor 2km down! Ive heard that I will get to see icebergs, penguins, whales, albatross and of course – lots of snow!
My PhD is really exciting and I am very lucky to have gotten this opportunity to do so much traveling.