Mike Feeley
University of Miami
Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

I am a Ph.D. student in the Marine Biology and Fisheries Division at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. An Aquarius saturation mission is something I have dreamed about doing since I was young, growing up in Massachusetts. My family would spend our summer vacations together on Cape Cod and I always loved the water and spending time near the ocean. My brother and I would spend countless hours snorkeling, swimming, fishing and following the tides. I always wondered what it would be like to live and breath underwater. Later, my family moved to Michigan where we had the Great Lakes, but I still missed the ocean. I decided to study fisheries at Michigan State University and enrolled in an intensive four week coral reef ecology course in St. Johns, USVI. After spending everyday in warm clear water, I was hooked!

I entered a masters program in Biological Oceanography at the University of Connecticut where my major advisor was Dr. Richard Cooper. I worked for the National Undersea Research Center as a graduate research assistant and was given incredible opportunities to study and participate in programs utilizing SCUBA, submersibles, and ROV technology. My thesis focused on shell disease and contaminant loads in a commercially important deep-sea crab that lives on the northeastern continental slope of the United States. I then worked in marine fish aquaculture for several years rearing food fish species for research and production before deciding to go back to school for a Ph.D. My studies focus on comparative physiology and bioenergetics in the early life history of fish. I am interested in how fish grow and how well they can swim during this dynamic and physiologically demanding period of their development. Specifically, I want to determine sustainable swimming speeds and metabolic rates of late stage reef and pelagic fish species. My experiments are conducted on young fish captured in the wild or supplied from a marine fish hatchery located in the Florida Keys. Results from this study will help scientists make better fishery management decisions through a better understanding of larval dispersal abilities, first year growth rates and energetic requirements.

Even though I work and live near the ocean now, it doesn't seem like I spend enough time in the water. The Aquarius mission will give me a the chance to observe and be part of the ocean like never before. In addition to collecting a substantial amount of data in a brief period of time, I hope the experience will give us new insight and perspective to the sea.

Away from school I like to golf, play hockey and (when I can find the time and the money!) travel and ski.