Greenversations

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Doug Pabst is the chief scientist for the OSV BOLD’s Puerto Rico voyage. He leads the dredging, sediments and oceans team in EPA Region 2, comprising New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Gone Fishin’

Feb. 13, 2009 – 8:00 pm (Day 5)

The crew of the OSV BOLD spent today fishing with University of Puerto Rico (UPR) scientists and students. It’s not what you think; we towed bongo nets—they’re called that because the opening looks like the drums—behind the ship to collect floating marine debris (garbage, plant material, plastic, etc.) and plankton (small animals and algae).

Marine debris is a problem in oceans, coasts and watersheds throughout the world. It can result from human activities anywhere in the watershed, from an overturned trash can many miles from the ocean, or from litter left on a beach. Detergent bottles, plastic bags, cigarette butts, and discarded fishing line can become marine debris. Birds, whales, turtles, dolphins and other marine animals become injured or die by becoming entangled in debris or by confusing it with their natural food.

To collect marine debris, the bongo nets are towed through the water at the surface for 30 minutes or longer. We then retrieve the nets onboard and examine the contents. The UPR scientists also collect and preserve animals and algae in the bongo for counting and identification back in their laboratory.

Our first stop was off the north shore by Arecibo. The trade winds continued to blow hard, making our “fishing” all the more difficult. We continued west off the Rincon Lighthouse for more floatable fishing. Here we were more protected from the large ocean swells on the north coast. Several humpback whales appeared out of the water upon our arrival as if to say hi and welcome us to the west coast. Our last fishing stop of the day was off of Mayaguez. The good news, so far, is we found very little garbage. Our main catch was small jellyfish and the blue variety of a little animal called a copepod, which looks like a blue flea. We were treated to a spectacular sunset as we completed operations for the day and sailed east along the south coast towards our next mission off Jobos Bay.

Hunting for Treasure

Feb. 14, 2009 - 6:00 pm (Day 6)

The day started at 5 a.m. in the darkness off the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, a chain of 15 tear-shaped mangrove islets known as Cayos Caribe and the Mar Negro area in western Jobos Bay. The Cayos Caribe islets are fringed by coral reefs and sea grass beds with small beach deposits and upland area. The Mar Negro area consists of mangrove forest and complex systems of lagoons and channels interspersed with salt and mud flats.

The reserve is home to the endangered brown pelican, peregrine falcon, hawksbill sea turtle and West Indian manatee. It is commercially important for marine recreation, commercial and recreational fishing and ecotourism. The area is managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and our data will be provided to the two agencies to assist in their management of this important and beautiful area. Our main goal is to map of the seafloor south of the reserve.

We towed the side scan sonar, which resembles a small rocket, off the side of the ship. The side scan sonar uses sound waves to detect seafloor types (sand, mud, silt) and objects (coral, rocks, manmade debris, ship wrecks, etc.). With good images you can see sand waves and identify objects about size of a car tire. In order to produce a map of the survey area, we tow the side scan sonar in tightly spaced overlapping lines. We call this mowing the lawn because our survey pattern mimics how you’d typically mow your lawn. Sadly we didn’t find any sunken treasure, but several resident dolphins paid us a visit, which was reward enough.

We left Jobos Bay and conducted several bongo net tows looking for marine debris and marine life on our way to our next port of call in Ponce. We arrived in the Port of Ponce around 9 p.m. to transfer scientific personnel and stayed overnight.

The Midnight Watch

Feb. 17, 2009 - 12:30 am (Day 9)

It’s just after midnight and we’re 20 miles south of La Parguera conducting water column profiles, a series of scans that help create a cross-sectional view of the sea. Our crew, along with University of Puerto Rico (UPR) researchers, is sampling down to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) every two hours and made one profile down to 8,200 feet (2,500 meters). The ship and scientific crew are working around the clock in 24 hour mode (four hours working and eight hours off).

This far out at sea, you are unable to see the lights of land, but the moon is brightly shining. However, by looking out from the opposite side of the ship, staring out into the abyss, you can’t help but be humbled by the stars and seemingly endless ocean night. You tend to get philosophical on the midnight watch. It seems like we left Ponce a week ago, but we only left at 6 a.m. yesterday and have been working out here since about 9 a.m.

Our water column profiler consists of an electronics package with many sensors that measure ocean parameters (salt content, temperature, density, depth, dissolved oxygen, and many more) as the instrument is lowered through the water column. Water sampling bottles are placed around the instrument package and allow us to collect water samples at up to 12 different depths. We’re providing ship time to UPR to allow them to collect information to better understand this area of complex ocean water layers.

There are many different layers of water in the deep ocean. Some start in the North or South Pole and slowly work their way deep below the warmer surface water of the Caribbean Sea. The surface temperature in this area starts at 81 degrees Fahrenheit, drops to 41 degrees at 3,280 feet and seems to level off at 39 degrees at 8,200 feet. Cooler water is heavier and sinks below the warmer, lighter water. In addition to using the data to protect the environment, scientists are also studying this layering of ocean water as a potential way to generate energy using the different physical properties of the water layers.

I’m off watch now and getting ready to get some sleep. We plan to tow the bongo nets later today on our return trip to Ponce. We will be transferring scientific personnel and mobilizing for our next adventure off La Parguera later today.

February 13, 2009 - 11:45 am (Day 5)

About the Author: Beth Totman is a press officer in Region 2, New York City. She covers Superfund, Emergency Response and Pesticides. She’s been with EPA since June 2007.

Yesterday’s Open Ship was a huge success. Over 600 schoolchildren and teachers passed through the ship to see the two labs on board, the captain’s bridge, the living and sleeping quarters, the side scan sonar room, the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth recorder), which is a piece of equipment used to test water quality, and the diving operations room, with the different kinds of wetsuits for the divers. It was pretty remarkable to see how excited each child got when concepts like radar and sonar were described. My role was to take groups through the ship from station to station, so I heard each scientist and crew member describe her station over and over again. It really helped me understand, even better, just what happens on the ship.

It was good to spend the day talking about the science that happens on this ship, but now it’s time to go out and do that work. Right now, we are heading to the northwest coast of Puerto Rico, off of Arecibo to look for marine debris. The goal of this leg of the trip is to test out various types of gear and methods to provide information to develop an Agency-wide, uniform protocol for marine debris monitoring. All debris that is collected will be counted and categorized.

Then tonight we will sail around the western end of Puerto Rico to Jobos Bay on the south coast. There we will use side scan sonar to map the outer reef area, at the request of Puerto Rico government and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We’ll gather data to help create maps to show the extent and condition of essential recreational fisheries and habitat types.

It’s amazing what this ship can do! In just four days, this ship has been used in an unplanned mission, as an educational tool for schoolchildren, as a means to collect crucial information and data for the Agency, and as a helping hand to other environmental agencies that have like-minded goals in protecting and conserving our environment. I am mid-way through my trip at this point, and will continue to report out on the OSV BOLD.

February 12, 2009 – (Day 4)

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

When the OSV Bold was deployed Monday to do work along the northern coast of Puerto Rico, all EPA employees on board were asked to place themselves in various observation points throughout the ship and inform our Chief Scientist of any material floating around. About a half an hour into the sail, I spotted with binoculars a big box. The ship circled the item for a closer look and found out it was an old refrigerator floating in the ocean.

According to EPA’s Marine Debris website there are two sources of marine debris. The first comes from land related activities and it includes stormwater runoff and solid waste carried by rivers and streams. The second source of marine debris is from the ocean and it includes waste and trash from other ships and recreational boats, including fishermen.

I have been wondering ever since how this refrigerator ended up in the midst of Puerto Rico’s north coast. Could heavy rains have carried it from somewhere up in the mountains to the ocean? Was it not properly disposed of – perhaps just thrown into an illegal dump next to the coast that had eroded with time? We will never know for certain, but one thing is clear – in addition to presenting a navigational hazard, this refrigerator must have leaked all of its contents into the ocean, affecting marine life.

They say a picture says more than a thousands words. From now on, I will bring this picture with me to presentations and let the picture speak for itself.

February 9, 2009 – 9:00 am (Day 1)

About the author: Doug Pabst is the chief scientist for the OSV BOLD’s Puerto Rico voyage. He leads the dredging, sediments and oceans team in EPA Region 2, comprising New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

After weeks of arduous planning, we are excited to be kicking off our Caribbean voyage on EPA’s ocean-going vessel, the OSV BOLD. We’ve got a full boat, no pun intended, of people – University of Puerto Rico researchers, teachers, students and EPA scientists – and several missions.

Our adventure begins today in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we will be towing nets offshore during the day to collect marine debris (basically anything that floats or remains suspended in the water near the surface). At night, we will switch operations to collect side scan sonar data from the seafloor offshore of San Juan Harbor. The side scan sonar survey will produce detailed images of the sediment that covers the sea bottom.

We will be back in port on February 12 and open for public and school group tours. Survey operations begin again on February 13, as we resume marine debris sampling enroute to Jobos Bay on the south side of Puerto Rico. We will again conduct side scan sonar during the evening off Jobos Bay as part of a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

On February 15 and 16, we will be conducting water quality measurements with the University of Puerto Rico offshore of La Parguera. On the 17th and 18th, we will be collecting bottom samples around the coral reefs of La Parguera to catalog the types and number of living organisms. We are scheduled to arrive next in Mayaguez on February 19 for public and school group tours. The last leg of the mission has us leaving Mayaguez on the evening of the 19th to conduct more marine debris investigations on our way back to San Juan.

Hoping for fair winds and following seas!

February 10, 2009 – 1:00 pm (Day 2)

About the Author: Beth Totman is a press officer in Region 2, New York City. She covers Superfund, Emergency Response and Pesticides. She’s been with EPA since June 2007.

As you can see from Doug’s blog post above, we were hoping for smooth sailing…but that all changed when EPA got a call from the office of the Governor of Puerto Rico yesterday asking for assistance after a small plane went down off the northwest coast of Puerto Rico. It has been reported that six passengers were on that plane, and now EPA has been asked to utilize the state-of-the-art technology that we have on The OSV BOLD to help in search and recovery efforts. This is by all means a major tragedy, and EPA is here to help in whatever way we can. The OSV BOLD has side scan sonar technology that will be employed to scan the bottom of the ocean floor for plane debris.

When I woke up yesterday in my small apartment in the East Village in New York City, I knew that I was in for a life experience that would open my eyes to areas of the Agency that I have not been privy to in my year and a half with EPA. Twenty four hours later, I woke up on a 224 foot long ship, The OSV BOLD, and already our mission has morphed from conducting a series of scientific studies aimed at protecting and improving the Caribbean environment, to aiding local, state and federal agencies in this search and recovery mission. Staff from the BOLD will provide updates on the search and recovery operations on this blog as they become available.

The seas are anything but smooth, and the weather is not ideal for what we were tasked to do. I was told when I first got on board that we are beholden to the desires of the sea. Anything can happen and I need to keep an open mind on this ship. Just because the itinerary is air tight, doesn’t mean unexpected changes won’t occur. At a time like this, those words cannot be truer.

 Editor’s note:  Click here to read an interesting news article describing the OSV Bold mission in the Caribbean Sea.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Montira Pongsiri, PhD, MPH, is an Environmental Health Scientist in EPA’s Office of the Science Advisor.

I was first associated with EPA as a STAR Fellow studying the risks and tradeoffs of using pesticides to control infectious diseases. Today, I’m an EPA scientist focusing on infectious diseases in the wider framework of ecosystem services, the direct and indirect benefits people derive from ecosystems.

The primary questions I am helping EPA explore are: What is the underlying mechanism of disease emergence, and do changes in biodiversity play a role?

Our research projects are unique in their interdisciplinary approach, involving ecologists, public health specialists, social scientists, and earth scientists, and also by including decision-makers early in the process to help ensure that new findings can be used to make better decisions.

At one field site in northwest Connecticut, an opossum is checked for ticks, which are removed and collected to test for the presence of the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi.

One area we’re studying is Lyme disease risk (chronicled previously by Melissa Anley-Mills and Aaron Ferster). Research partner Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies hypothesizes that a greater diversity of native mammal hosts could help decrease the risk of people getting Lyme disease. How? People get Lyme disease through tick bites, and ticks acquire the Lyme disease agent by feeding on mammals such as mice and squirrels. Not all mammals are equally efficient, or “competent,” in transmitting the disease agent to the ticks. So perhaps having a greater diversity of mammalian species, with their varying capabilities of transmitting the pathogen, could “dilute” the rates by which ticks get infected. Lower rates of tick infection equal lower risk of human infection.

There is also a connection between animal diversity and landscape condition. Forest destruction and fragmentation in the U.S. have been shown to reduce mammalian species diversity and to increase populations of the white-footed mouse—the most competent host of Lyme disease.

With the support of a new STAR grant, Ostfeld and his colleagues are testing this hypothesis by manipulating mammalian host communities in forest fragments and studying the effects on pathogen transmission rates.

When we better understand the mechanisms linking biodiversity and human disease through this and other research studies, we may be able to develop environmentally-based and behavioral approaches to both promote conservation as well as to reduce the risk of human disease – a win-win for environment and public health.

In addition to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, other EPA research partners include the CDC, Yale, NASA Ames, UCLA, the Institute for Bird Populations, Rutgers, and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.

This week we’re focusing on OSV Bold, one of EPA’s research ships. Two usually shore-based EPA staffers, Margot Perez-Sullivan and Margaret Ford, went out on the ship with the researchers a couple of weeks ago with one goal: come back and share what it’s like. They wrote and photographed each day, but had no Internet access at sea, so we’re posting their blog entries this week. And the EPA folks will read and respond to comments all week. We’ll resume our usual blog features next week: Question of the Week, Science Wednesday, and Lina’s multilingual musings. Let us know whether this kind of in-depth reporting floats your boat! — Jeffrey Levy, Greenversations editor.

Day 1 (9.5.08):
I’ve never been on a cruise. Never spent the night on a boat…at best it was a ferry here and there or the random tourist trap night cruise. When I found out I was invited to tag along and document science and research in action on the EPA’s Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV) Bold, I was thrilled. And a little scared.

The EPA uses the OSV Bold to monitor coastal waters throughout the United States. This summer marks the Bold’s maiden voyage to the west coast and this is her last survey before returning to the eastern seaboard. The Bold has an enormous mission and its surveys are carefully planned to maximize monitoring and research year-round. The Bold is 224 feet long, has a full crew of 18 and can accommodate up to 19 scientists on any one survey.

Our west coast scientists are excited to have the research vessel on this side of the country and are taking every opportunity possible to get out to sea and conduct research and sampling surveys on the Pacific.

A team of nine scientists descended upon Eureka, California this September and began mobilizing for the upcoming Humboldt Open Ocean Disposal Site (HOODS) survey. HOODS is an ocean disposal site for dredged materials. West coast ports are the gateway to Asia; the Port of Los Angeles alone receives 50% of the nation’s foreign goods. These mega ships need deep ports to come into, which is where dredging and ocean disposal sites come into play. In a nut shell, sites like HOODS receive sands and sediments from local ports that need to move this material to make sure large ships can come into ports. A sediment testing program is in place to make sure that only clean, nontoxic sediments are taken to HOODS.

That said, during this survey, scientists are taking samples to determine the chemistry of HOODS’ sediments to confirm that the sediment testing is accurate, ensuring the sand and sediment material being dumped from the ports meets EPA standards, meaning it’s clean and doesn’t negatively impact the ecosystem near the site. Our scientists are also documenting the presence of benthic organisms (tiny sea critters that live on the ocean floor) in and around the HOODS disposal site. The results will be put together to make sure the HOODS site is being taken care of properly. VIDEO: Scientist Brian Ross discusses the survey plan.

For our marine biologists, the benthic samples will give them a good idea of the health of the ocean floor. There is a direct correlation between the types and health of these tiny ocean floor critters and the overall ocean floor environment.

We’ve got nine environmental scientists on this survey with over 5 decades of education combined. Our nine environmental scientists are: Allan Ota, ocean disposal site expert and co-Chief Scientist; Brian Ross, ocean disposal site expert; Amy Wagner, marine biologist; Greg Nagle, chemist; Kevin Ryan, drinking water expert; Tina Yin, watersheds expert; Eugenia McNaughton, Ph.D in algae plankton and quality assurance guru; Carolyn Yale, Ph.D. watershed planner; and Chris McArthur, Chief Scientist from our Atlanta regional office.

Margaret Ford our videographer and I are on board to document the survey.

We arrived this evening and got our room assignments, a short orientation of the survey schedule and a walk around the work areas with Allan. Often, to maximize time at sea, Bold surveys run on 24-hour operations, luckily we are only on 8 hour shifts for this survey. VIDEO: See our arrival.

We are scheduled to push off tomorrow afternoon…

What did you know about ocean research BEFORE you read this blog? Very little (63%, 94 Votes) Some (19%, 28 Votes) Quite a bit (18%, 27 Votes) Total Voters: 149  Loading ...

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the Author: Melissa-Anley Mills is the news director for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. She joined the Agency in 1998 as a National Urban Fellow.

Usually I sit in a Dilbert-style cube-farm, a warm, calm, enveloping sea of beige, beige, and more beige. So it was a rare and truly delicious treat to be invited to tag along on a field visit. The mission was simple: help Dr. Montira Pongsiri communicate her biodiversity research examining the link between biodiversity, the abundance and composition of animals, and Lyme Disease risk. To do this, my colleague, Aaron Ferster, (who previously blogged about our trip) and I had to see the researchers in action. We wanted to bring this experience to others via the web, so we loaded up on the technologies that would help us do that, a blackberry for “microblogging” (or “tweeting” on Twitter), and still and video cameras.

This turned into an experiment for the communication crew – the first time someone had microblogged live to the EPA’s Twitter account from the field. The first challenge we encountered was, of course, technical: spotty cell phone service. Recording the time and saving tweets in draft mode until reaching cell coverage solved that. But the real challenge was keeping the tweets short and sweet. Twitter has a limit of 140 characters (including spaces!) for posts. But there was so much to say about what we were seeing: white-footed mice, voles, baby opossums, catbirds, warblers, thrushes and ticks, oh my!

So there we were in the forest, watching and learning, tapping away on the blackberry, capturing video and photos, and lending a hand to the researchers. You can see the fruit of this labor on EPA’s biodiversity web page. Here you can read the tweets, and see the slideshows. Soon we’ll post video clips, so stay tuned.

Let us know what you think, suggestions are welcomed. What you would like to see in future “Field Notes” or visits with researchers?

Hopefully, through the images you’ll get a taste of this exciting research. Maybe it will encourage you to consider an environmental career as a field researcher, maybe a science teacher could use this as a teaching module, but I hope one thing is clear to see, the passion and devotion that these researchers have to gather the scientific data necessary to protect the environment and public health

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Nora Savage is an environmental engineer with EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Her focus areas include nanotechnology, pollution prevention, and life cycle approaches for emerging technologies.

I became interested in science after learning about the scientific method: observe, develop a hypothesis, and test—if it holds you have a theory! If not, alter the hypothesis and try again. I used this process when I was a kid to discover that addressing an envelope backwards would get my letter delivered without a stamp. Woodsy Owl (‘Give a hoot, don’t pollute’) showed me the importance of protecting the environment and reducing pollution. The EPA merged these two interests with nanotechnology and a career was born!

Nanocrystals can have different colors depending on their size. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.

Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, observe and control at the atomic and sub-atomic level, where new material properties arise that are unlike those of the same material at a larger size. Take gold, for example. The kind used in jewelry is yellow, not very reactive, and melts at 1200°C. At about three nanometers gold is red, very reactive, and melts at 200°C.

How is this related to the environment? First, nanotechnologies can help protect the environment. New nano-compounds and engineered nano-materials can quickly and inexpensively detect and remove pollutants, even very small amounts located in difficult-to-access areas. Utilizing nanotechnology can lead to more efficient manufacturing processes, cutting down on toxic materials used.

We are also aware of the potential for unintended consequences. For example, our use of certain chlorinated compounds to improve aerosol dispersions harmed the ozone layer.

My job is to help tap the potential benefits of nanotechnology while developing a better understanding of the potential trouble they might also bring, and consequently eliminating or minimizing it.

How? By looking at the “life cycles” of new materials and products. By that I mean considering the product from a holistic perspective, including the acquisition of raw material, its manufacture, its use, and eventually its disposal or recycling. My goal is to advance the science that helps determine the exposure potential at each stage, assessing potential hazards, and developing ways to eliminate or reduce them.

Nano Sites:
National Nanotechnology Initiative
The Adventures of Nano

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Matthias Fripp is a doctoral student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. His work is funded by an EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Research Fellowship.

Before I started my studies, I thought that graduate students were free to study any topic they liked. That’s true in principle, but in practice we need to find funding for our research. Fortunately, I was granted an EPA STAR fellowship in 2006, allowing me to pursue a question I consider particularly important: how much wind and solar power should we use in the electricity system in upcoming decades?

Over the last couple of years, I’ve gathered data on the amount of power that could be produced every hour at potential wind farm sites and solar power facilities all over California. I’ve also collected information on existing power plants and transmission lines, and forecasted the cost of building new wind, solar or conventional power plants or transmission lines in the future.

Next, I built a computer model that determines which combination of new and existing power plants and transmission lines will give the least expensive electricity between 2010 and 2025, while also ensuring that the state has enough power every hour. I also use this model to see how much our power bills might change if we work seriously on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The results of this research are exciting. I found that wind and solar power are available at complementary times in California, so we can use them together to make a more reliable (and cheaper) power system than we could if we just used wind or solar alone. I also found that even if we didn’t care about greenhouse gas emissions, we should still plan to use a lot of wind power, because it is beginning to be less expensive than power from natural gas plants. Finally, I found that there is no sharp limit to the amount of renewable power we could use in California: power bills rise slowly as we build more and more renewables, but emissions could be reduced substantially with little or no extra cost.

The EPA STAR fellowship has made a huge difference, freeing me to focus all my efforts on this work, and providing the resources to do it right.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Darius Davis is a summer intern in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I recently graduated from Withrow University High School and plan to attend Ohio State University in Columbus, OH in the fall of 2008. I will be studying Chemical Engineering with a minor in Pharmacy.

This is my second year interning at EPA through the black employment program. I feel that this program has not only opened up many opportunities for me, but allowed me to get a hands-on experience in the science field. The last two years I have worked in two different areas at the EPA. The first year, which was my junior year in high school, I worked with microbiology and this year with drinking water. While in the microbiology area, I worked and did experiments with E.coli bacteria. The name of this experiment was UV Disinfection on E. coli Bacteria. I really enjoyed working in this area because there were many chemicals involved and we used a lot of different machinery in order to carry out the experiment. This year with drinking water was also very interesting. I was able to work with a database and observe a lot about the copper pipes, which were sent in from various locations throughout the country. I was then able to make reports about the pipes and what we observed from them. The objective was to figure out why the water that ran through these pipes were forming holes in the pipe and what could be done to prevent the holes from forming within the pipe. While at EPA, I was also acknowledged for my once in a lifetime achievement of receiving the Gates Millennium Scholarship. This scholarship covers ten years of my college education through my doctoral degree at the college of my choice with ALL expenses paid, including one year of study abroad.

I feel that working at the EPA really broadened my horizons on what all goes into making the environment a better place to live. This experience also made me more confident with studying the sciences when I attend college. Anyone who is ever offered an opportunity like this one should definitely take advantage of it, because in the end it will all be worth it!