Rachel Richardson is an undergraduate researcher at the University of West Florida, where she is in her last year in the Marine Biology program. A Florida native, Rachel grew up along sandy beaches and rocky tide pools her whole life. She began scuba diving at the start of her undergraduate program and has been fascinated with the underwater world ever since. While diving various reefs in Pensacola, Rachel has seen first hand the devastating impacts humans have on our oceans. Between the massive amounts of derelict fishing gear covering the reefs and unregulated overfishing, this ecosystem is seriously threatened. She is now working on organizing various reef clean ups with fellow divers to remove the debris and planning future mitigation strategies to prevent them from being destroyed.