Having landed in Rarotonga a day earlier than the rest of the team, I took the time to try out my fancy new torch to excite fluorescent proteins. I began taking images during the daytime where it was very difficult to see fluorescence but nonetheless was there. Unfortunately I’m still processing the images so they’re not shown in this post. I then took images of the same coral (and many others) after sunset, which produced some fantastic results of green fluorescence (below).

I met the team from CSUCI on Monday and have spent the last few days getting to know them, familiarising myself with a lot of American words and trying to explain how tea is better than coffee! Not great results for the latter but there’s still time …

Hard work begins soon and I expect some problems to crop up, as they always do. But with help from Paul, Chris and the team I’m under no illusion we’ll be able to overcome them with relative ease. As for now, I look forward to getting to know everyone better and getting some fantastic fluorescence pictures!