DISL: The Place to Meet

Within a month’s time, the Sea Lab has played host to three major conferences/meetings on its grounds:  The Southeastern Phycological Colloquy; Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Limnology and Oceanography symposium (DIALOG VI) ; and the Southeast Association of Diving Officers (SEADO) Regional Meeting.

“I wanted to convey our thanks to everyone at DISL for being wonderful hosts,“ writes Dr. Chuck Amsler of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who organized the phycology meeting. “The Sea Lab was a perfect venue for the meeting and everyone was impressed by the staff’s hospitality. Lots of the participants commented on how special the Estuarium mixer was, how good the food was, and just in general how nice it was to be at the Sea Lab. A fair percentage of the participants had never been to Dauphin Island and all left impressed.”

DIALOG brings together an international cohort of recent PhD graduates to foster interdisciplinary understanding and peer networking. This enables new professionals to make connections that might never happen or take years to develop otherwise.  The sixth DIALOG symposium was held Oct. 30 - Nov. 6 at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

Dr. Susan Weiler of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, who organized the meeting with Dr. Monty Graham of DISL, said, “The location provided a near-perfect setting and the enthusiastic participation of the DISL graduate students made the otherwise ‘remote’ location extraordinarily accessible.”

DISL’s Diving Safety Officer (DSO) Mike Dardeau reported yet another successful meeting (Nov. 12) with SEADO.  DSO’s from six institutions exchanged tricks of the trade as they toured vessels, wetlab facilities, the dive locker and other support facilities at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.  Afternoon discussions centered on Mike’s analysis of American Academy of Underwater Sciences annual statistics on diving incidents over the past six years.  Incident rates among organizing members compared favorably with both Bureau of Labor statistics and numbers collected by Divers Alert Network. The evening banquet featured boiled shrimp and wings at the lab’s aquarium, the Estuarium.  Dr. Monty Graham, the featured speaker, offered an entertaining view of the history of Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia, as a preview to spectacular footage, filmed while blue water diving at night in the Adriatic, of the denizens of the deep scattering layer.