As a child, I didn’t have many waterways near my home growing up in Brooklyn, New York. During the summertime, I would take the train to Coney Island beach for about an hour and a change. I would spend the day searching the shoreline for washed-up sea creatures. As discoveries grew, my interest piqued. A few feet from the shoreline, I dug a hole in the sand and filled it with seawater to create a makeshift touch pool. Then, unknowingly, I took my first steps towards my future career. Now it is hard to get me away from the water as a seagoing oceanographer.
