Ian traveled to St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, with collaborator Mike Henson (Northern Illinois University) to work with Marilyn Brandt at the University of the Virgin Islands in May 2025 to perform an experiment examining the impact of decaying echinoderms on bacterioplankton diversity, and to continue survey of DaScPc at several sites around the island. While we were hopeful of funding our proposed work on Diadema scuticociliatosis in Brewers Bay, we had not yet received positive news about it. Securing institutional funding from NIU, we performed a coral swab and bacterioplankton survey to ensure we had sufficient background information for future, hopefully funded, endeavors. As it turned out, we detected DaScPc in several samples, and fortunately, funding came through over the summer!