Amada Kahn's encrusting invertebrate talk showcased local critters
Oliver Edwards | Published on 4/1/2022
Dr Amanda Kahn is an invertebrate zoologist and ecologist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. She's also an Aqua Tutus member! While her research focuses on sponges and other filter feeders, Amanda's training spans the range of invertebrates: their form, function, and evolution. Though not a SCUBA instructor, she teaches marine science classes underwater to help graduate students in the MLML Scientific Diving program learn to recognize species and understand ways to study them in their natural habitats.
Amanda comments: “I am going to cut down the list of species because, eep! We had 134 that we require the students to learn. But, I think this should be pretty good…”. Amanda’s being humble here – Based on the questions and comments from attending Aqua Tutus members I’d say the presentation was very well received indeed! I found the presentation particularly engaging because I could recognize most of the critters she showed from my Monterey dives. Yet before Amanda described them, I had only a vague idea of what they actually were. In addition to describing each “invert” Amanda also told us how they related to the other invertebrates around them. Now, when I dive in Monterey, I’ll be looking more closely at the invertibrates and trying to recall Amanda’s talk. I guess Dave Chervin’s diving style has something to it after all :).