Aquatic Ecologist: When I was little, I used to come home from the creek behind our house covered in mud. I still do. I love that I get to study fish, insects, and shrimp in really amazing streams, wetlands, and mangrove forests. It is always exciting to put on my mask and snorkel and stick my face in the water to see some brightly colored fish or shrimp looking back at me (unless it’s an eel). One particular moment I remember was when we were sampling fish from a mangrove out on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The moon was not visible that night, and it was pitch black as we kayaked out to the mangrove forest. Every time I put my paddle in the water, it would light up with bioluminescence from all the little microbes in the water.