 Jim Bishop, Prosanta, and I in Kuwait City Over the past three years, my advisor, Prosanta Chakrabarty, and I have traveled to the Middle East to sample fishes from the Persian Gulf (also called the Arabian Gulf there). We have visited Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates twice each and have always had a good time on these trips meeting new friends and learning new fishes. These trips began at the invite of LSU museum associate Jim Bishop, who works at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). Jim has always been the most gracious host, and KISR has provided excellent facilities for us when we visit Kuwait. During our last visit to Kuwait in 2015, Jim, Prosanta, and I were discussing places we've been, field work we've done, and exchanges funny field stories. While we were talking we began to realize some common themes in the places we've been and experiences we had, and as we talked more we came up with some strange similarities (and differences) between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. These two seas were created by the same geological events, but are quite distinct. However, it was when we were discussing this that I began to relate our discussion to field experiences in the Gulf of California that I had as an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona. There are some striking similarities between the Gulf of California; some aspects were more similar to the Red Sea, but certain areas were complementary to the Persian Gulf (especially the northern regions). This eventually led to a publication comparing the marine biodiversity of these three seas that was recently published in the journal Marine Biodiversity. This publication wouldn't have been possible without the initial invitation out to Kuwait by Jim, or without the hard working efforts of my co-authors, including an undergraduate in our lab, Link Morgan, who gathered the majority of the data for this study. It is always a pleasure to publish with friends, and this publication will always remind me of our visits to the Middle East. If you're interested in the article, please click the link below, and if you have any questions or don't have access to the article please don't hesitate to send me an email. Enjoy!
A quantitative and statistical biological comparison of three semi-enclose seas: the Red Sea, the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, and the Gulf of California |