Hello! I'm Salome, a marine scientist who investigates and explores species that live at the edge of the light zone, including kelp forests, my latest obsession. I’m from Trinidad & Tobago, even though I am equal parts British, German & Venezuelan, and I often find myself code-switching between those identities. I originally studied Geography -- I never imagined a marine career. I was actually afraid of the sea and never saw people like me doing this kind of work. But in my mid-20s, I got a scholarship to learn SCUBA diving and coral reef surveying in Tobago. This experience flipped a switch, sparking a deep, lasting connection to the ocean. I went on to complete a Master's on Caribbean reefs and climate change, followed by a research job in the Galápagos at the Charles Darwin Foundation, exploring and characterizing deep-sea ecosystems. There, I led a pilot study using small ROVs to find deep reef habitats between 40-150m and accidentally discovered kelp forests. The rest is PhD history...(More in the next post) #Kelp #Seaweed #Galapagos #hopespots #galapagosnationalpark #blackinmarinescience