Kristina Fleetwood is a Master’s student in Marine Biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Her research focuses on the trophic ecology of deep-sea squids, and she is actively involved in a variety of research and extracurricular activities, including SCUBA diving, invertebrate identification, photography, and natural history illustration.
Kristina is committed to promoting ethical science in her work. In previous roles, she has updated project protocols to minimize animal mortality and advocated for the inclusion of local Traditional Ecological Knowledge, alongside pushing for increased support for lab members from marginalized communities. She is passionate about increasing transparency in academia, believing that sharing the challenges, doubts, and excitement of research, especially as an early-career professional, can help counter the imposter syndrome many face in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) fields.
For her outreach project, Kristia created two paintings that explored the relationship between art, science, and ethical considerations in the study of deep-sea creatures. One painting depicted a preserved dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis angularis) based on its holotype image, while the second showed a live dumbo octopus, more representative of recent deep-sea footage. Displayed in sequence, the paintings challenge the assumption that the preservation of a specimen is an inevitable step in scientific research. The project includes a short explanatory text and guiding discussion questions that explore themes such as the role of scientific nomenclature, the ethics of collecting specimens, and the value of life in scientific research. Kristina is currently working on looking for several platforms to showcase her work.
