It's amazing to think that I am only a couple hours away from August. In two hours, one of the biggest holidays of the year for LSI begins! Tomorrow is the opening day of lobster season here in the Bahamas. Everyone here has been counting down for weeks! We are meeting at 7am to hop into boats and go collect all of the lobsters Brenda, our island manager, has been scoping.
No scuba is allowed so all of the hunting is done with free diving and you're only allowed to use Hawaiian sling style spears not actual spear guns. Those spears are like 7 feet long and you cock them with the equivalent of a giant sling shot. It ought to be a total adventure since I have never been spearfishing before! Allegedly it's a great way to see sharks as well so I will let you know if we collect a little gang of them following us from site to site. Wish me tons of luck! If I have any skill I'll be eating lobster tomorrow night!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Patience is a virtue
These past couple days I have learned why exactly there are so few people who do field manipulation style experiments. It's super unique that Hixon lab does the kind of work that they do and with my rising stress level over the past couple evenings I can understand why. In the past four days since getting my experiment set up I have had six (6!!!!) of my experimental coney groupers die. Some died in the tanks but four of them jumped out the tops and ended up on the floor. It has been more than a little tragic each night when I walk into the lab to do evening feedings and find little crispy coneys. :( All of the fish in a block are supposed to stay alive together and have the same opportunities for food and all be measured at the same times and stuff so they match when it's time for analysis. So it's a major bummer to have random fish disappearing left and right, but there is nothing to do but keep keeping on. Patience is a virtue after all and I guess I will eventually outsmart all of the groupers attempts to destroy themselves. So everyone is getting a lid and maybe my experiment will get back up and running tomorrow!
We took a dry day today which was heavenly news when I sat down at breakfast. I had stayed up far too late working on some data entry and talking with some friends last night. Mark needed to review the grant proposal for the lab and submit an abstract so it gave me a chance to stay dry for a day. These days off always end up being some of our busiest which I find super hilarious, and this morning was no exception. The big NSF grant for the lab is due in a few days so it was time to get serious results to Dr. Hixon about what has been happening in all the feeding trials and stuff. So Mark grabbed a snorkel and checked out all of the experimental tanks while I reviewed all of the data sheets for the past threeish weeks and tried to fill in all the holes from things here and there that hadn't been recorded. When the dives and the days run together it's sorta an adventure to reconstruct weeks. I was able to piece together my life this morning which left me an afternoon of freedom. I laid down for a quick powernap and crashed out hard for like 5 and a half hours. I woke up to Mark knocking on my door asking me if I was planning on eating dinner (I was already like 45 minutes late). It was an awesome sleep and I think I am headed off right now to do the same. I have been awake for like 3 hours... that's plenty of time to deserve crashing out again!
I have tried to be better in the last couple days about taking pictures and I will try to upload some more very soon. We have had big thunderstorms the last few days including ones with lightning strikes hitting adjacent islands. It's pretty awesome to be diving and see the entire sky light up above you. Mark and I were up in the boat the other day talking and resting a little with the sky rumbling right over us. The radio antenna started buzzing (like static buzzing) and I don't think I have ever seen two people change out tanks and get back into the water faster! The storms are super beautiful because they are so gigantic and totally dominate the whole landscape. I got a great picture tonight at sunset when I just happened to press the shutter right as lightning struck. I will try to pull it up to share with you all soon! It's been great to hear from some of you the last few days. I really appreciate all of the emails and messages! It's nice to feel like I am not so far removed from life back in the normal world. Hope to hear from all of you soon! Have a great week!
We took a dry day today which was heavenly news when I sat down at breakfast. I had stayed up far too late working on some data entry and talking with some friends last night. Mark needed to review the grant proposal for the lab and submit an abstract so it gave me a chance to stay dry for a day. These days off always end up being some of our busiest which I find super hilarious, and this morning was no exception. The big NSF grant for the lab is due in a few days so it was time to get serious results to Dr. Hixon about what has been happening in all the feeding trials and stuff. So Mark grabbed a snorkel and checked out all of the experimental tanks while I reviewed all of the data sheets for the past threeish weeks and tried to fill in all the holes from things here and there that hadn't been recorded. When the dives and the days run together it's sorta an adventure to reconstruct weeks. I was able to piece together my life this morning which left me an afternoon of freedom. I laid down for a quick powernap and crashed out hard for like 5 and a half hours. I woke up to Mark knocking on my door asking me if I was planning on eating dinner (I was already like 45 minutes late). It was an awesome sleep and I think I am headed off right now to do the same. I have been awake for like 3 hours... that's plenty of time to deserve crashing out again!
I have tried to be better in the last couple days about taking pictures and I will try to upload some more very soon. We have had big thunderstorms the last few days including ones with lightning strikes hitting adjacent islands. It's pretty awesome to be diving and see the entire sky light up above you. Mark and I were up in the boat the other day talking and resting a little with the sky rumbling right over us. The radio antenna started buzzing (like static buzzing) and I don't think I have ever seen two people change out tanks and get back into the water faster! The storms are super beautiful because they are so gigantic and totally dominate the whole landscape. I got a great picture tonight at sunset when I just happened to press the shutter right as lightning struck. I will try to pull it up to share with you all soon! It's been great to hear from some of you the last few days. I really appreciate all of the emails and messages! It's nice to feel like I am not so far removed from life back in the normal world. Hope to hear from all of you soon! Have a great week!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Game On in the Lobster Lab!
It is officially official… my experiment is up, running, and awesome!
Mark and I spent the week running around collecting all the lions and coneys that I needed to create size paired blocks for all seven replicates of my experimental design. Included in this was live boat/ free diving all of the artificial reefs, all the trans-reefs not being used in the field experiment as well as a third set of reefs set up for a grad student’s experiment a bunch of years ago. This was A LOT of free diving! Mostly the freediving was lion collection; coneys are a bit too tricky to do on one breath. I was a little apprehensive about doing all of this myself but was super proud of myself for the length of some of my breath holds and how comfortable I was able to get by the end of the first day. I have a long way to go to match everyone else’s skills (Mark worked for NOAA as a free diver clearing abandoned fishing gear from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), but a week of free diving has certainly given me a head start. It certainly made me feel pretty hardcore to jump out of a coasting boat onto a reef, search around until I found a little tiny fish, pop up for a breath, have some nets thrown to me, and swim down to catch it solo. Coney collecting is harder since the fish are sneaky and super quick but we were able to get everyone captured with only a couple slightly hairy situations. Thursday, we decided to search for fish in the middle of one of the main feeder channels to the sand flats, which was a great idea until the tide turned. I am ready to declare that nothing will put you in better shape than dragging a full goody bag of fish and a mess of scuba gear up through a screaming current!
All adventures and misadventures aside every fish I need is now measured, weighed, and have gone through their first trial in the Lobster Lab! As previously mentioned, all fish are named, and the experiment has brought a whole new crew of heroes and mobsters in. The lions in the study are: Elasti-Girl, Quail Man, Iceman, Warpath, Space Ghost, Dr. Fate, Martian Manhunter, Nightcrawler, The Silver Surfer, Scuba Steve, Cyclops, Super Grover, Captain Planet, and Aquaman. The experimental mobsters are: Vinnie Two Shoes, Sonny Corlione, Stevey ‘The Rifleman’ Fleming, Babyface Nelson, Santo Trafficante, Anthony ‘Big Tuna’ Accardo, Tough Tony Anastasio, Joey Bananas, Little Nicky Scarfo, Trigger Mike Coppola, Ciro ‘The Artichoke King’ Terranova, Tony Soprano, Sabby Piscitelli, and Pepe LaScala. Also, the groupers from the native predation experiment officially have names. Remember that
I just finished the first round of feeding trials out at the lab and neither species has taken the clear lead. They are fed every 2 nights so there is plenty of time. Last night, was a late night getting the first half fed and all of the day’s data entered. I was about ready to curl up on the boat deck partway through the morning but hung in there. I rediscovered the magic of the power nap at lunch! It totally saved me; counting and sizing fish is not too easy when your eyes can’t stay open. So I don’t repeat the experience tomorrow, it’s off to bed soon for me. I am smiling a little extra on the way because Mark really went out of his way to give me a great compliment tonight. I was cleaning up after our dives, copying data sheets, typical stuff and he stopped expressly to thank me for all the work I have done this summer so far. He just said I had been doing an awesome job and was a fantastic assistant and it was just the pick-me-up I needed after a long day. Team Hixon continues to a great group and I am super stoked I’m here!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Four experiments running at once!
Hey everyone! My bad on it being a few days since an update- thanks for the patience!
Lots happening on the island here! Tim and Flower have taken off for another out-island trip working on the metapopulation study leaving Mark and I here to hold down the fort. Weeks seem to be flying by because everytime I turn around we seem to be working on recruit censuses. Our last day of this week's survey was today and only one coney was missing. We were so close to having a week of 100% stick. I am really excited to have a group of cooperating fish after the way the first few weeks looked.
I have been working lots on my own research projects (yes, notice it's plural). I have been working on an experiment with native predators to see if anything that's already here will eat lionfish and help control the spread of their population. There have been reports that Nassau grouper have been found with them in thier stomachs so I have three set ups with big (50ish cm) Nassau in large above ground tanks. They have been acclimating for a few days and tomorrow will be given their first lionfish. We will just have to see what happens! I also collected a baby nurse shark. Correction... I wrestled a baby nurse shark! It totally deserved a belt buckle! And we are planning to feed him a little lion and see what happens.
My other experiment is a tank experiment in this neon pink building called the Lobster Lab. There I am mirroring the study we're already working on at the trans-reefs but in a laboratory setting. I have three treatments (lionfish alone, coney grouper alone, and lionfish and coney together) and will have seven replicates of each treatment. We are feeding them equal amounts of fish and seeing who is competing with who for these limited resources. We are setting them up block by block as we collect the right sized fish. I think we will have two more blocks get up and running tomorrow so I am excited about that. Please continue to send me Superhero names for my lionfish or mafioso gangster names for the coneys. Creativity has its limits and I would love some fresh ideas from the outside world.
We have also been working on getting a third experiment for me/Mark set up on the artifical reefs. This project always includes hilarious adventures at trying to outsmart fish. We need to capture, tag, and release or move every Nassau grouper on the artificial reefs. The scientific term for this is Nassaaaaaauuuu Wrassslllllin. I'm all for this being a new Olympic sport! We're working out at the reefs made of cinderblocks aligned so the holes run all the way through the block. They are 4 blocks tall and 4 blocks deep and 3 blocks long creating a structure as long as me with 24 little holes for fish to hide in. The game goes something like this... One person sits on one side of the reef with a mesh goody bag over a hole where we see a fish we want to catch. They try to seal the edges of hole with two hands to keep the fish from escaping out sideways. Whenever they give the signal, the person on the other side of the reef grabs these two long PVC pipes "tickle sticks" and jams them into the hole trying to stare the fish out the far side. Seems simple enough except most fish aren't scared of PVC. So it turns into this totally ridiculous scene were you're banging sticks together or wedging an arm or two into this tiny hole. If you're the person with the bag you simply have to hold on! Eventually a VERY upset fish comes flying at high speeds out of the hole gets caught in the bag and tries to keep swimming off away from you. They make this deep thumping noise that you can feel in your chest and invariably try to stab you with their spines once they're all tied up in the bag and confused. It's hard to be upset with them though because Nassau groupers have about the same temperment as a big golden retriever, except more dumb cause they are fish after all. Catching them can be quite the rodeo though and certainly is leaving me with good memories from experimental setup.
Besides the work we have had some time for fun as well. Pat Lyons was a researcher who came to LSI on the same day we did back in June. He was only here for half the summer researching mutualism in shrimp and sand gobies. Besides being a shocking reminder that the summer is nearly half over, it was a bummer to see him go on Sunday morning. However, we certainly did throw him a big going away party on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Pat, Mark, and the interns just being goofy. The main hall/dining room has a disco ball that we found out that night is actually operational and we threw an impromptu dance party after a few drinks were consumed. Pat and Mark are both really talented musicians so we also spent a few hours just singing along and listening to them play. Pat, a great guitarist, after a little coercion was super nice enough to teach me a few chords on his guitar. Now you all know my musical talent is limited so you can imagine how excited I was once I could rock a G, D, and C chord. I was EVEN MORE excited when I realized that I could now play a Johnny Cash song. Be prepared to listen to Folsom Prison Blues if you get anywhere between me and a tuned guitar once I am home. It's the only song I know so I apologize in advance if you have to hear it over and over again. :)
The weather continues to be hot and beautiful. My hair gets whiter everyday and my shorty wetsuit tan gets even more awesome! The island is very pretty and very small. I think it's lucky we are so busy all the time so I haven't really realized how small of a rock I live on. The most beautiful part is the water although every morning I am struck by how gorgeous the sky is. Because there is so little land (and what there is lies so low) the sky looks truly huge. There are always great clouds of pinks, yellows, and orange, and the bottoms turn blue or green with the reflection off the shallow water. Every morning when I see them I am thinking fondly of you all and sending you big hugs and smiles.
Lots happening on the island here! Tim and Flower have taken off for another out-island trip working on the metapopulation study leaving Mark and I here to hold down the fort. Weeks seem to be flying by because everytime I turn around we seem to be working on recruit censuses. Our last day of this week's survey was today and only one coney was missing. We were so close to having a week of 100% stick. I am really excited to have a group of cooperating fish after the way the first few weeks looked.
I have been working lots on my own research projects (yes, notice it's plural). I have been working on an experiment with native predators to see if anything that's already here will eat lionfish and help control the spread of their population. There have been reports that Nassau grouper have been found with them in thier stomachs so I have three set ups with big (50ish cm) Nassau in large above ground tanks. They have been acclimating for a few days and tomorrow will be given their first lionfish. We will just have to see what happens! I also collected a baby nurse shark. Correction... I wrestled a baby nurse shark! It totally deserved a belt buckle! And we are planning to feed him a little lion and see what happens.
My other experiment is a tank experiment in this neon pink building called the Lobster Lab. There I am mirroring the study we're already working on at the trans-reefs but in a laboratory setting. I have three treatments (lionfish alone, coney grouper alone, and lionfish and coney together) and will have seven replicates of each treatment. We are feeding them equal amounts of fish and seeing who is competing with who for these limited resources. We are setting them up block by block as we collect the right sized fish. I think we will have two more blocks get up and running tomorrow so I am excited about that. Please continue to send me Superhero names for my lionfish or mafioso gangster names for the coneys. Creativity has its limits and I would love some fresh ideas from the outside world.
We have also been working on getting a third experiment for me/Mark set up on the artifical reefs. This project always includes hilarious adventures at trying to outsmart fish. We need to capture, tag, and release or move every Nassau grouper on the artificial reefs. The scientific term for this is Nassaaaaaauuuu Wrassslllllin. I'm all for this being a new Olympic sport! We're working out at the reefs made of cinderblocks aligned so the holes run all the way through the block. They are 4 blocks tall and 4 blocks deep and 3 blocks long creating a structure as long as me with 24 little holes for fish to hide in. The game goes something like this... One person sits on one side of the reef with a mesh goody bag over a hole where we see a fish we want to catch. They try to seal the edges of hole with two hands to keep the fish from escaping out sideways. Whenever they give the signal, the person on the other side of the reef grabs these two long PVC pipes "tickle sticks" and jams them into the hole trying to stare the fish out the far side. Seems simple enough except most fish aren't scared of PVC. So it turns into this totally ridiculous scene were you're banging sticks together or wedging an arm or two into this tiny hole. If you're the person with the bag you simply have to hold on! Eventually a VERY upset fish comes flying at high speeds out of the hole gets caught in the bag and tries to keep swimming off away from you. They make this deep thumping noise that you can feel in your chest and invariably try to stab you with their spines once they're all tied up in the bag and confused. It's hard to be upset with them though because Nassau groupers have about the same temperment as a big golden retriever, except more dumb cause they are fish after all. Catching them can be quite the rodeo though and certainly is leaving me with good memories from experimental setup.
Besides the work we have had some time for fun as well. Pat Lyons was a researcher who came to LSI on the same day we did back in June. He was only here for half the summer researching mutualism in shrimp and sand gobies. Besides being a shocking reminder that the summer is nearly half over, it was a bummer to see him go on Sunday morning. However, we certainly did throw him a big going away party on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Pat, Mark, and the interns just being goofy. The main hall/dining room has a disco ball that we found out that night is actually operational and we threw an impromptu dance party after a few drinks were consumed. Pat and Mark are both really talented musicians so we also spent a few hours just singing along and listening to them play. Pat, a great guitarist, after a little coercion was super nice enough to teach me a few chords on his guitar. Now you all know my musical talent is limited so you can imagine how excited I was once I could rock a G, D, and C chord. I was EVEN MORE excited when I realized that I could now play a Johnny Cash song. Be prepared to listen to Folsom Prison Blues if you get anywhere between me and a tuned guitar once I am home. It's the only song I know so I apologize in advance if you have to hear it over and over again. :)
The weather continues to be hot and beautiful. My hair gets whiter everyday and my shorty wetsuit tan gets even more awesome! The island is very pretty and very small. I think it's lucky we are so busy all the time so I haven't really realized how small of a rock I live on. The most beautiful part is the water although every morning I am struck by how gorgeous the sky is. Because there is so little land (and what there is lies so low) the sky looks truly huge. There are always great clouds of pinks, yellows, and orange, and the bottoms turn blue or green with the reflection off the shallow water. Every morning when I see them I am thinking fondly of you all and sending you big hugs and smiles.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
One month anniversary with LSI
It's been an awesome few days around here with, you guessed it, lots more work. Mark and I finished another round of recruit censuses on Monday morning. We also went on a lionfish hunting safari to round up replacements for the fish that had gone missing since last week. It was nice to get to just go out and kick around a little. Plus I was able to find some fish I plan on going back to collect to use in my feeding experiments. There was a gargantuan lionfish (probably 14 inches nose to tail) who will be perfect for my study. Now only remains the challenge of wrangling that size of fish. :)
Yesterday was our one month anniversary with Lee Stocking Island. Brenda, the Island Manager, had us over to her house to sit around a bonfire and enjoy hamburgers and sangria. And the island decided to celebrate the occasion by waking us up with a totally unbelievable thunderstorm. They are pretty common to build up in the afternoon and blow over as we are working. Lots of days we have big thunderheads lumber by out at the transreefs. But this was our first big morning storm and was big enough to keep us at breakfast extra long hanging out. I felt pretty cool rocking my rain jacket for the like 20 yards from the door of my house to the door of the dining lounge. And the day stayed cold enough to tried out my full wetsuit for the first time this summer. All in all, adventure abounds.
The past couple days we have been helping Tim and Flower work on the metapopulation project with little dicolored damselfish. It is SO much fun! We have been catching all of these little fish, some of who have been recorded and caught/released summer after summer for years. Basically you sneak up to a coral head (the older ones know to run when they see you) and count all the fish to make sure you don't lose any in the catching frenzy. You have a bottle of quinaldine, which is a completely nasty neuro-toxin, anesthetic stuff and a little aquarium net and you have to swoop down and collect all of these little fish into their own individual ziplock baggies. The Quinie basically gets the fish drunk so they get all woozy and slow down, which is Super helpful after you have chased them for like 20 miles around and around a chunk of coral. It's quite the spectacle with divers swimming all around with little squirt bottles dodging firecoral and shooing away big predators who seem to have learned that divers with nets means easy pickings on the woozy fish. It's really fun work bobbing around in the current nabbing little fish and I am really glad we got tagged in as the extra hands.
In other news, I made friends with a BIG (5ish foot) barracuda today. He came and watched the ridiculousness of me wedging myself under a coral head chasing a tiny fish. I thought he would lose interest rather quickly when he realized I was not anything delicious he could munch on but he seemed to enjoy my underwater contortion show. He seemed perfectly pleased to just hover over my shoulder about 2-3 feet away watching me work. There are a little club of barracuda that hang out at all the different sites, one at each. Spartacus lives off the end of our dock, Socrates lives at a site called South Normans, and Archimedes lives at the Windsock site. I think if my little friend comes back to visit tomorrow he might need to join the distinguished ranks of our other named cuda friends.
Mark is spending a dry morning working on odds and ends stuff tomorrow while I finish up catching at another site with Flower and Tim. Hopefully, in the afternoon we will be ready to go out and do some grouper and lionfish collections to kick off my feeding experiment this week! That's the news from LSI on this lovely Tuesday evening. Hope you're all smiling wherever this note may find you!
Yesterday was our one month anniversary with Lee Stocking Island. Brenda, the Island Manager, had us over to her house to sit around a bonfire and enjoy hamburgers and sangria. And the island decided to celebrate the occasion by waking us up with a totally unbelievable thunderstorm. They are pretty common to build up in the afternoon and blow over as we are working. Lots of days we have big thunderheads lumber by out at the transreefs. But this was our first big morning storm and was big enough to keep us at breakfast extra long hanging out. I felt pretty cool rocking my rain jacket for the like 20 yards from the door of my house to the door of the dining lounge. And the day stayed cold enough to tried out my full wetsuit for the first time this summer. All in all, adventure abounds.
The past couple days we have been helping Tim and Flower work on the metapopulation project with little dicolored damselfish. It is SO much fun! We have been catching all of these little fish, some of who have been recorded and caught/released summer after summer for years. Basically you sneak up to a coral head (the older ones know to run when they see you) and count all the fish to make sure you don't lose any in the catching frenzy. You have a bottle of quinaldine, which is a completely nasty neuro-toxin, anesthetic stuff and a little aquarium net and you have to swoop down and collect all of these little fish into their own individual ziplock baggies. The Quinie basically gets the fish drunk so they get all woozy and slow down, which is Super helpful after you have chased them for like 20 miles around and around a chunk of coral. It's quite the spectacle with divers swimming all around with little squirt bottles dodging firecoral and shooing away big predators who seem to have learned that divers with nets means easy pickings on the woozy fish. It's really fun work bobbing around in the current nabbing little fish and I am really glad we got tagged in as the extra hands.
In other news, I made friends with a BIG (5ish foot) barracuda today. He came and watched the ridiculousness of me wedging myself under a coral head chasing a tiny fish. I thought he would lose interest rather quickly when he realized I was not anything delicious he could munch on but he seemed to enjoy my underwater contortion show. He seemed perfectly pleased to just hover over my shoulder about 2-3 feet away watching me work. There are a little club of barracuda that hang out at all the different sites, one at each. Spartacus lives off the end of our dock, Socrates lives at a site called South Normans, and Archimedes lives at the Windsock site. I think if my little friend comes back to visit tomorrow he might need to join the distinguished ranks of our other named cuda friends.
Mark is spending a dry morning working on odds and ends stuff tomorrow while I finish up catching at another site with Flower and Tim. Hopefully, in the afternoon we will be ready to go out and do some grouper and lionfish collections to kick off my feeding experiment this week! That's the news from LSI on this lovely Tuesday evening. Hope you're all smiling wherever this note may find you!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Boys are Back In Town!
I sat down to start typing this at 10:45pm on a Saturday night; and I just finished work for the day! No complaints, I just find it amazing!
Mark and Tim came back yesterday afternoon to LSI after an adventure back into the real world. They brought back presents for Flower and I and after dinner we hung out while they played Christmas. It was really thoughtful of them and super exciting for us. The most prized gift for me I think were the short wetsuit booties I requested. Now my awesome tanline will be around my ankle and look slightly less awkward than it did part way up my shin. (PS. There will still be nothing I can do about the shorty tan. I keep rolling it up so at least it's a reasonable shorts length. However short shorts don't help combat firecoral (my arch nemesis) much so the bad tan might have to win out.) From all the stories, ICRS appears to have been a big success for Team Hixon. Darren, Chris Stallings, Mark Christie, and Mark Albins all got good feedback about the work they've been tackling. Also, I guess one of the world's leading coral reef biologists told the entire conference if anyone is serious about wanting to protect corals and ensure reefs survive for future generations you need to learn to use a condom! I laughed pretty hard and I guess a lot of the science community was a little stunned but the whole talk led back time and again to overpopulation being the key stress needing to be alleviated from nature. I say way to go that-guy! There were also plenty of social events from the sounds of it and accordingly both guys spent their first afternoon back sleeping off the night/week before. This was nice cause it gave Flower and I one more afternoon of naps and movie watching before we were back to the grind. I couldn't wait for getting back into the routine of a normal work day but admittedly stretching out on the big couches for a nap in front of the TV is pretty amazing sometimes.
I'm very excited to have the long-term summer team all together on the island now. Tim, Flower, and Mark are all extremely bright and a lot of fun to be around. I foresee many good stories and fun adventures on LSI in the next two months.
This morning we were back at it full bore. A week has passed since the last recruit censuses of the trans-reefs so Mark and I had 8 reefs scoped out for the day. Recruit censuses mean diving on the site and counting/sizing every fish under 5 centimeters. By recording the number of small fish able to recruit to a site we are able to measure the relative impacts of the different predators on our reefs. Censuses happen every week from here on out through the summer and take up 2.5- 3 days a week. It was really nice to get back into the rhythm of working with Mark. I have gotten very used to us working as a team and it's nice to have a predictable pattern to the day of work. The morning kicked off with all reefs looking awesome and all surveys going really well. Throughout the day we realized one coney and one lionfish had wandered away so we had a bit of extra work measuring new fish and adding them before we could start our afternoon session of surveys.
The boats we use can be the butt of a lot of jokes around the island. They are nice boats but sit unused 9 months of the year which makes them a little rocky when summer comes around. I guess the jokes finally got to one of the boats today- unfortunately it was ours. We were ready to pull anchor after delivering the missing fish and Lusca's engine wouldn't turn over. It wouldn't even pretend to turn over. We just had to laugh it off as we called for rescue from the interns on LSI. During the afternoon there are often little thunderstorms that blow through. It usually includes some big thunder, a couple lightning bolts, and maybe 5-10 minutes of rain. Right after making our call for an assist from the interns it started to rain. The afternoon showers are one of my favorite things cause it will be well over 90 degrees, sun shining, and rain falling. It was only a tiny storm but Mark and I got a good laugh out of the rain falling all around our little broken boat. A battery change, a lot of wire wiggling, and a couple choice words seemed to have no effect on the engine's desire to help us out. So a big chunk of the afternoon was spent with one of the station's weaker boats slowly towing in our big studly boat with no engine. Worst part was after getting all the way back to the dock, as soon as the mechanic hopped into the boat and wiggled a wire, she started first time. The afternoon was not a complete loss; we were able to kidnap another boat and finish all the surveys we had planned on. Also, the flat, scoop front of Potcake (our afternoon vessel) meant Mark and I had a totally sweet cartwheel-into-the-water contest in between surveys. I ate it super hard when my first roundoff didn't quite rotate enough but won some points for style later in the game by cartwheeling over the anchor cleat and line. Needless to say, I really enjoy working with the people I am here with. I'm with awesome people in the setting of an unreal opportunity! The whole saga this afternoon was just too hilarious that after all the trash talking the boat finally had enough and mailed it in. I guess it's a classic example of the Bambi rule- If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all.
Someone asked me for the date today and I was completely shocked to see it was the 12th. It made me think a lot about how crazy time can be. A year plus a day ago I stepped onto a plane to move to Townsville, Australia. Five months ago I left Boston for Tahiti to join up with the crew of the SSV Robert C. Seamans. Two months ago I was in Newport, celebrating my 21st birthday with the Hatfield crew. And amazingly enough a month ago I was furiously packing to come to this island the next morning! It's hard to imagine a month of the summer having flown by so fast. It's also hard to imagine that time has gone so slowly. I think about you all at home often and wonder what wonderful adventures this first summer month has brought to you. Please let me know what craziness has ensued outside the boundaries of Exuma Sound.
I miss you all at home (yes, all of my homes all around the world) and I am very very happy here. The drive out to our study sites is a few miles both ways and we go out both morning and afternoon most days. During the commute the water varies in depth from 50ish feet to 1ish feet among the channels and the sandbars. In the same way the color of the water changes from almost black navy blue to aquafresh toothpaste blue green, to electric blue highlighter shades. It's really the most beautiful thing. There are always great clouds along the way too and most days I spend the whole commute just marveling at how gorgeous this place is. I feel super fortunate to be here and am really glad I have such great support to chase down opportunities like this one.
Mark and Tim came back yesterday afternoon to LSI after an adventure back into the real world. They brought back presents for Flower and I and after dinner we hung out while they played Christmas. It was really thoughtful of them and super exciting for us. The most prized gift for me I think were the short wetsuit booties I requested. Now my awesome tanline will be around my ankle and look slightly less awkward than it did part way up my shin. (PS. There will still be nothing I can do about the shorty tan. I keep rolling it up so at least it's a reasonable shorts length. However short shorts don't help combat firecoral (my arch nemesis) much so the bad tan might have to win out.) From all the stories, ICRS appears to have been a big success for Team Hixon. Darren, Chris Stallings, Mark Christie, and Mark Albins all got good feedback about the work they've been tackling. Also, I guess one of the world's leading coral reef biologists told the entire conference if anyone is serious about wanting to protect corals and ensure reefs survive for future generations you need to learn to use a condom! I laughed pretty hard and I guess a lot of the science community was a little stunned but the whole talk led back time and again to overpopulation being the key stress needing to be alleviated from nature. I say way to go that-guy! There were also plenty of social events from the sounds of it and accordingly both guys spent their first afternoon back sleeping off the night/week before. This was nice cause it gave Flower and I one more afternoon of naps and movie watching before we were back to the grind. I couldn't wait for getting back into the routine of a normal work day but admittedly stretching out on the big couches for a nap in front of the TV is pretty amazing sometimes.
I'm very excited to have the long-term summer team all together on the island now. Tim, Flower, and Mark are all extremely bright and a lot of fun to be around. I foresee many good stories and fun adventures on LSI in the next two months.
This morning we were back at it full bore. A week has passed since the last recruit censuses of the trans-reefs so Mark and I had 8 reefs scoped out for the day. Recruit censuses mean diving on the site and counting/sizing every fish under 5 centimeters. By recording the number of small fish able to recruit to a site we are able to measure the relative impacts of the different predators on our reefs. Censuses happen every week from here on out through the summer and take up 2.5- 3 days a week. It was really nice to get back into the rhythm of working with Mark. I have gotten very used to us working as a team and it's nice to have a predictable pattern to the day of work. The morning kicked off with all reefs looking awesome and all surveys going really well. Throughout the day we realized one coney and one lionfish had wandered away so we had a bit of extra work measuring new fish and adding them before we could start our afternoon session of surveys.
The boats we use can be the butt of a lot of jokes around the island. They are nice boats but sit unused 9 months of the year which makes them a little rocky when summer comes around. I guess the jokes finally got to one of the boats today- unfortunately it was ours. We were ready to pull anchor after delivering the missing fish and Lusca's engine wouldn't turn over. It wouldn't even pretend to turn over. We just had to laugh it off as we called for rescue from the interns on LSI. During the afternoon there are often little thunderstorms that blow through. It usually includes some big thunder, a couple lightning bolts, and maybe 5-10 minutes of rain. Right after making our call for an assist from the interns it started to rain. The afternoon showers are one of my favorite things cause it will be well over 90 degrees, sun shining, and rain falling. It was only a tiny storm but Mark and I got a good laugh out of the rain falling all around our little broken boat. A battery change, a lot of wire wiggling, and a couple choice words seemed to have no effect on the engine's desire to help us out. So a big chunk of the afternoon was spent with one of the station's weaker boats slowly towing in our big studly boat with no engine. Worst part was after getting all the way back to the dock, as soon as the mechanic hopped into the boat and wiggled a wire, she started first time. The afternoon was not a complete loss; we were able to kidnap another boat and finish all the surveys we had planned on. Also, the flat, scoop front of Potcake (our afternoon vessel) meant Mark and I had a totally sweet cartwheel-into-the-water contest in between surveys. I ate it super hard when my first roundoff didn't quite rotate enough but won some points for style later in the game by cartwheeling over the anchor cleat and line. Needless to say, I really enjoy working with the people I am here with. I'm with awesome people in the setting of an unreal opportunity! The whole saga this afternoon was just too hilarious that after all the trash talking the boat finally had enough and mailed it in. I guess it's a classic example of the Bambi rule- If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all.
Someone asked me for the date today and I was completely shocked to see it was the 12th. It made me think a lot about how crazy time can be. A year plus a day ago I stepped onto a plane to move to Townsville, Australia. Five months ago I left Boston for Tahiti to join up with the crew of the SSV Robert C. Seamans. Two months ago I was in Newport, celebrating my 21st birthday with the Hatfield crew. And amazingly enough a month ago I was furiously packing to come to this island the next morning! It's hard to imagine a month of the summer having flown by so fast. It's also hard to imagine that time has gone so slowly. I think about you all at home often and wonder what wonderful adventures this first summer month has brought to you. Please let me know what craziness has ensued outside the boundaries of Exuma Sound.
I miss you all at home (yes, all of my homes all around the world) and I am very very happy here. The drive out to our study sites is a few miles both ways and we go out both morning and afternoon most days. During the commute the water varies in depth from 50ish feet to 1ish feet among the channels and the sandbars. In the same way the color of the water changes from almost black navy blue to aquafresh toothpaste blue green, to electric blue highlighter shades. It's really the most beautiful thing. There are always great clouds along the way too and most days I spend the whole commute just marveling at how gorgeous this place is. I feel super fortunate to be here and am really glad I have such great support to chase down opportunities like this one.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sleepy Panda Says Happy Wednesday
Just a short note tonight cause I am quite sleepy!
The past few days have been strangely out of rhythm with the rest of the summer. Most of the Hixon team (Hixon, Sean, Darren, Tim, Mark, and Mark's wife Kim) all left for the International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida the other day. I was super jealous that they get to go hang out with all the coolest scientists in the field from all over the country. It's very exciting cause Mark was given a slot to give a talk on the findings of the lionfish project from last summer. I think it will be quite the popular talk since the lionfish story broke making national news only last week. Dr. Hixon, Sean, and Darren won't be coming back to the island for the rest of the summer so it was too bad to say bye to them. I think the long-term team (myself, Flower Moye, Tim Pusack, and Mark Albins) will have a great summer, and Darren's goofy humor and Hixon's enthusiasm will be missed. All accounts say that Florida is proving to be an awesome time, I guess I will just need to go to the next ICRS in four years as a totally awesome grad student and have a great time for myself. All jealousy aside, the team taking off has left Flower and I on the island without much of an agenda to keep ourselves busy. Work has been mostly half days and consists of things like "Go catch some feeder fish" so it's been a nice break. I am sure later in the summer I'll be begging for naptime but I do miss the structure of a normal workday. It has been really nice to get naps and lay around reading but has thrown we way off of the usual rhythm of long days of work. Flower keeps telling me I need to soak it in since this will be the last break of the entire summer- so I am working on savoring that mid afternoon nap in front of the air conditioner. :)
We did go out today to take care of the main task of the week- checking on every little fish at all the reefs. It was a lot of fun cause Flower and I live-boated the entire morning meaning we would drive up right next to the reef and dump off a snorkeler while the other person drifted away. In the water you would check to be sure our little coneys and lionfish had stayed where they were put before the boat would swoop back past and snag the diver out of the water. It was pretty incredible to be able to cover all of the reefs in a single morning. We were on a roll with the little fish until the last two reefs. One coney and one lion have jumped ship and that will be the task for tomorrow to round up new ones and replace them. Looks like a superhero is being called up! Also Flower and I committed the biggest party foul on the island today by leaving a couple nets standing up in a bucket in the boat. Usually they are laid down tucked under one of the runningboards. When we got back to the dock to offload- two of the biggest nets were gone! These nets are Hixon's babies and we completely obliviously lost two of the three on the island. So we have to bite the bullet tomorrow and send the dreaded email to Mark to try and find the same kinda ones made and sent down here. It was a pretty amazing way to feel totally like an amateur. The morning was only salvaged by being burrito day for lunch! ha ha You have to celebrate the little victories on this island. :)
It's the last night on island for a few people tonight and they are celebrating with a swim and a little party. I think I will go peak my head in before collapsing into my totally sweet bunk bed for the night. Side note- I did go for my first run since coming onto LSI this morning. I had promised my body three weeks to adjust to the schedule and work before adding earlier mornings for runs onto my plate. I was very slow this morning! But it did feel good to get out and stretch my legs a little. All the roads/paths here are littered with big rocks and cement chunks so I found myself staring at the ground rather than the sunrise but it's totally something that can be worked on.
Another sidenote- Hurricane Bertha is passing WAY too far East for us to be seeing any effect at all. We haven't seen big swell, extra wind, or even any giant clouds swirling around. Thanks for everyone who has sent a concerned note or thought of me!
Have a great day everyone! I'm thinking happy thoughts of you often from this tropical island.
The past few days have been strangely out of rhythm with the rest of the summer. Most of the Hixon team (Hixon, Sean, Darren, Tim, Mark, and Mark's wife Kim) all left for the International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida the other day. I was super jealous that they get to go hang out with all the coolest scientists in the field from all over the country. It's very exciting cause Mark was given a slot to give a talk on the findings of the lionfish project from last summer. I think it will be quite the popular talk since the lionfish story broke making national news only last week. Dr. Hixon, Sean, and Darren won't be coming back to the island for the rest of the summer so it was too bad to say bye to them. I think the long-term team (myself, Flower Moye, Tim Pusack, and Mark Albins) will have a great summer, and Darren's goofy humor and Hixon's enthusiasm will be missed. All accounts say that Florida is proving to be an awesome time, I guess I will just need to go to the next ICRS in four years as a totally awesome grad student and have a great time for myself. All jealousy aside, the team taking off has left Flower and I on the island without much of an agenda to keep ourselves busy. Work has been mostly half days and consists of things like "Go catch some feeder fish" so it's been a nice break. I am sure later in the summer I'll be begging for naptime but I do miss the structure of a normal workday. It has been really nice to get naps and lay around reading but has thrown we way off of the usual rhythm of long days of work. Flower keeps telling me I need to soak it in since this will be the last break of the entire summer- so I am working on savoring that mid afternoon nap in front of the air conditioner. :)
We did go out today to take care of the main task of the week- checking on every little fish at all the reefs. It was a lot of fun cause Flower and I live-boated the entire morning meaning we would drive up right next to the reef and dump off a snorkeler while the other person drifted away. In the water you would check to be sure our little coneys and lionfish had stayed where they were put before the boat would swoop back past and snag the diver out of the water. It was pretty incredible to be able to cover all of the reefs in a single morning. We were on a roll with the little fish until the last two reefs. One coney and one lion have jumped ship and that will be the task for tomorrow to round up new ones and replace them. Looks like a superhero is being called up! Also Flower and I committed the biggest party foul on the island today by leaving a couple nets standing up in a bucket in the boat. Usually they are laid down tucked under one of the runningboards. When we got back to the dock to offload- two of the biggest nets were gone! These nets are Hixon's babies and we completely obliviously lost two of the three on the island. So we have to bite the bullet tomorrow and send the dreaded email to Mark to try and find the same kinda ones made and sent down here. It was a pretty amazing way to feel totally like an amateur. The morning was only salvaged by being burrito day for lunch! ha ha You have to celebrate the little victories on this island. :)
It's the last night on island for a few people tonight and they are celebrating with a swim and a little party. I think I will go peak my head in before collapsing into my totally sweet bunk bed for the night. Side note- I did go for my first run since coming onto LSI this morning. I had promised my body three weeks to adjust to the schedule and work before adding earlier mornings for runs onto my plate. I was very slow this morning! But it did feel good to get out and stretch my legs a little. All the roads/paths here are littered with big rocks and cement chunks so I found myself staring at the ground rather than the sunrise but it's totally something that can be worked on.
Another sidenote- Hurricane Bertha is passing WAY too far East for us to be seeing any effect at all. We haven't seen big swell, extra wind, or even any giant clouds swirling around. Thanks for everyone who has sent a concerned note or thought of me!
Have a great day everyone! I'm thinking happy thoughts of you often from this tropical island.
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