Eco-discovery: An interview with Cassie Raker

Today at the Eco-discovery center there was a young lady that volunteers there named Cassie Raker who also works at the Mote Marine Laboratory where she is doing a research project on reskinning corals. She is also an aquarist biologist at the center and helps keep the live fish tanks clear from algae by doing water tests (which she was having a problem with the big tank and was trying to get the algae bloom under control). she also helps identify fish pictures that people bring in from different countries and on Saturdays she teaches people about the different corals and why they are so important for our ecosystem. So today i did an interview with here:

First question: How did you get started? Cassie got started by finishing her undergrad as an environmental science major and interned at the Mote Marine Laboratory until she got the opportunity to work for the Eco-discovery center. 

My second question was what research projects have you done or are working on? Cassie said she is working on a project called the reskinning project to grow new corals, like the branching coral that grows 1cm a month and bolder coral that grows 1 cm per year. The idea of this project is to take pieces of good healthy coral and cut the bolder into small polyp plugs and then drill holes into other corals and place the plug in the hole and use marine epoxy to keep it in place. The corals would only take to one another if they were of the same species, if they were not of the same species the corals would fight each other or try to eat each other because they are different. 

I also asked her about the ocean acidification and coral bleaching and the fact that they are not adding more herbivores in the water or nutrients so what's the point of doing this research? She said because of the genetic strains and that because they are doing this research they can pay attention to which corals grow the fastest and also which ones are not being effected by the acidification and the coral bleaching and place them together and hope that they spawn to make stronger corals. Cassie also said that for the not adding herbivores or nutrients that there is still hope because they have made the fishing regulations stronger and there are not as many algae blooms as before. She said the fish are starting to come back but not strongly, but hopefully with the regulations the population will become stronger and the corals will also survive more because there will be less trolling in the reefs.

To find out more about the Mote Marine Laboratory

To find out more about the reskinning coral project