It was June 13,1974, and we were performing bioassays (courtesy of a grant from Exxon). Dr. Dick Gude (head of the dept. of Science and Mathematics at the Univ. of Tampa—he got his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, can you believe it? The summer session course name was Marine Ecology. We had to bioassay these semi-tropical reefs of limestone outcroppings in the Gulf of Mexico several miles west of the mouth of Tampa Bay. We would collect samples on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays and catalogue them in the lab on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (no rest for the researchers!). The lace murex I pulled out of the reef that day was a species of conch not known to range as far north as the Jacks Hole reef. Along with my dive partner George Dunn, my dive log notes the visibility of the water that day as, "infinite". A partly cloudy day, the depth about 43 feet, the water temperature 76° , Air temp 91° . Not until yours truly had the courage (or impetuousness?) to reach under a limestone outcropping and "discover" one of these critters. There are still plenty of morays in that range, which made the peeking a little risky.

Industrial Ecology International’s corporate culture characterizes that measure of risk taking, in order to make progress in whatever endeavor it takes on for our clients.