Join us in welcoming our speaker, Andrea Whitaker, a biologist who has a heart for all critters big and small. She will be discussing the local South Florida blackwater dives, what they are, and highlight the vertical migration of billions of marine organisms that travel from deep waters to the surface to feed, then back down before dawn. This talk will showcase her close-up macro photographs of these fascinating creatures that are smaller than 2 inches, showing the intricate details of these animals that we are able to witness as underwater photographers and citizen scientists.
About the Presenter: Andrea was born and raised in Iowa and studied Biology at UNC-Charlotte in North Carolina and at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Throughout the years, she has conducted and participated in floral/faunal relationship studies, wetland surveys, Bull shark pup research in the Everglades, and various fish and coral citizen scientist surveys. Andrea currently conducts permitted sea turtle nesting surveys in Southeast Florida and spends much of her time on Blackwater drift dives observing and photographing larval stages and deep-sea species during this incredible migration. She has contributed her Blackwater creature images for scientific purposes and has been published in scientific papers.
Speaker: Andrea Whitaker, Instructor, Pura Vida Divers
When: Sunday, October 18, at 2:00 p.m.
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: 6000 N. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, FL 33407
Cost: FREE, registration recommended.
