Dick and I just spent a very productive week at our favourite conference, Ocean Optics. This is a relatively small meeting compared to AGU or ASLO, there were about 2 hundred attendees and with only one session going on at a time you don’t have to make a decision between several interesting talks. I presented my work on Arctic CDOM in sea ice from the Catlin Ice Camp and Dick presented our work on modeling the light availability for seagrass growth in the Chesapeake Bay. I had some very informative talks with the guys from Satlantic and have made my decision on which light sensors to use on my new Arctic buoy system. This meeting is a great way to catch up with friends and colleagues, many of whom I only get to see at this conference. After all the science talk we spent a fun evening at the conference banquet, Dr Alex Cummingham entertained us with a brief history of Scotland, including pictures of the normally shy wild haggis, and a discussion on the Loch Ness monster. We then spent the rest of the night working off dinner with traditional Scottish country dancing. The conference included two very moving tributes to Andre Morel and Charlie Yentsch giants in the world of Ocean Optics who both passed away this year.