Christian In His Natural Habitat: A brief explanation about the purpose of my research

I realized today that despite the numerous posts I have put on this blog, I have been pretty terrible about actually explaining what in the world I am hoping to accomplish during my time down here in Roatan, Honduras. Despite what it may appear, most of my days are not full of gibbering monkeys, cawing macaws, and crazy food. Rather I spend most of my time diving, getting ready to dive, organizing data collected from diving, and scheduling dives for the next week. The goal of my research in Roatan (Which I somehow utterly failed to mention at the start of this job) is to determine the effects (if any) of scuba diving on hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) behavior. Scuba diving has been expanding rapidly in the Caribbean over the last 64 years, but little research is being done to determine how this increase in diving is effecting large marine organisms that divers interact with. During the brief 2.5 months I am down here, I am conducting daily dives to observe hawksbills both in the presence and absence of divers to determine if the substantial amount of diving that occurs off this island (The entire island is ringed by a beautiful fringing reef) is negatively effecting turtle behavior. I am working with ProTECTOR, an NGO set up by my advisor, Dr. Stephen Dunbar, for the protection, and conservation of turtles in Honduras, and the Roatan Marine Park, a local NGO here on the island. I won't go into all the specifics of my research here, but suffice to say I am doing a lot of diving and staring at sea turtles while writing underwater. Typically I spend about 4 hours a day moving equipment, 2 hours a day diving, and the rest of the day analyzing data and eating food. Needless to say it is quite a tiring job but I believe the results will be worth it. From the data I am collecting here, I hope to create guidelines for how scuba divers should interact with turtles in Honduras and marine protected areas around the world. Additionally I plan to publish my work in a peer reviewed journal to make my research available worldwide. My goal, personally, is to graduate from Loma Linda University this coming Spring with a Masters of Science in Biology and continue following my passion for God's world and conservation wherever God may lead me. If that means going on to get a doctorate then so be it. I'm open to suggestions (anyone?).
Now for you people that don't really read these posts and just want to see some fun pictures here you go (I have thrown a few random ones at the end that have absolutely nothing to do with research, just for your enjoyment). In addition to the diving and random pictures, I have also put in some pictures from our recent tagging and release of three turtles (2 hawksbills and 1 green) that were rescued from a local restaurant and let free in the bay (I apologize for not donating an entire post to the occasion but at this point I simply don't feel like it. For more info on the event take a look at the protector facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ProTECTOR/199247040225339)

Enjoy,
Christian Hayes