25 things Ava Singh from Monterey, CA actually loves
- A kelp forest at 40 feet, the light filtering through
- The Monterey Bay Aquarium's open ocean tank
- Sea otters holding hands while they sleep
- Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us
- The first dive of the morning when the water is still cold
- Clam chowder from Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing
- My research partner Dr. Chen, who counts things I forget to notice
- The Pacific at Garrapata State Park
- A healthy tide pool, the whole miniature universe
- Jacques Cousteau, who made this seem possible
- Bioluminescence on a moonless night in the bay
- The sound of elephant seals at Ano Nuevo
- My field notebook, waterproof, always in my pocket
- The hypothesis that turns out to be wrong in an interesting way
- Humpback whales breaching, which never stops being astonishing
- Point Lobos State Reserve
- Joni Mitchell's Blue, especially California
- My parents' dal, the one constant across three continents
- The conviction that we protect what we understand
- Steinbeck's Cannery Row, set right here, still true
- A clean data set after months of fieldwork
- The smell of the ocean at 5am, before the fog lifts
- Sylvia Earle, who went deeper than anyone
- My wetsuit, 7mm, patched twice, irreplaceable
- The idea that the ocean is not empty space but full architecture