Holiday!

I'm having a fabulous time with Kristi. This last week we spent in the Catlins...hiking to waterfalls and walking many beaches. The weather was beautiful! Then we headed to central Otago, went to a bird sanctuary and saw kiwis! And stayed in Wanaka. We woke up to lots of snow all over southern NZ! The pass to Mt Cook was closed so we drove through central, stopped at one of my fav vineyards (Black Ridge), went to St Bathans and Blue Lake and to Moeraki Boulders. We mostly cooked at our backpackers or fixed lunch on the road, but we did have to fabulous seafood dinners! Today I had a symposium and gave a talk on my master's research. Tomorrow we were supposed to go cod fishing but it has been cancelled due to sea conditions...sooooooooo disappointing! Instead we are collecting fish for my research and going to Sand Fly bay to watch the penguins come in in the evening. Then we plan to head off again on Sunday...hopefully for Doubtful Sound for a couple of days.

Dream analogy: Kristin is Legend

So I dreamt last night that I was with all my family hiding in this house and I had a rifle and a shotgun to protect us from werewolves.  One werewolf showed up and I shot him.  But then I couldn't find my guns cause my dad didn't think they were safe where I left them so I spent most of the dream in a panic that a werewolf would show up and I wouldn't be able to shoot it.  Finally, I found them again.  Then the dream shifted to us being out somewhere and there was this taco bar (like a salad bar) that had $3 tacos but my dad refused to pay for it saying that it cost too much so I had to go hungry cause I didn't have the $3.  WTH?  I think 3 things contributed to this nightmare:  1.  Yesterday on my nephew Ross' Facebook page I saw I am Legend is one of his favorite movies...well, my nightmare werewolves were the same ones from the movie.  2.  my good friend's mom died last week and the news has made me terribly homesick...I think the panic of not knowing where my guns were stems from the fear of me not being there when something bad happens to my family.  3.  I'm really struggling to live on what I make here and am constantly evaluating how much money I have and what I can spend and if I can eat out or not.  I feel exhausted today...for some reason, I don't think I got a good night's rest!

What a shocker

So this week I've been learning how to use an electric fishing machine.  We had a day-long class on Tuesday and today Anson and I got to do the practical part and go out in a stream to learn the techniques.  After following a very long list of safety procedures and equipment, it's not dangerous at all...keeping in mind that it could easily kill you if the electric current goes through your chest or anyone's around you.  I managed to not shock Anson nor myself.  If you are using the appropriate amount of voltage for the habitat then the electricity causes the fish to swim towards the hand-held electrode and then you can scope it up with a net.  And again, if you are doing it appropriately, it doesn't harm the fish at all...just so long as you didn't zap it too long.  And it's pretty much like regular fishing...much more fun if you're catching fish but still great to be out in a stream on a beautiful day.

Another exciting note...I've submitted my first paper on my master's research to a journal (Journal of Parasitology).    WOOHOO!  Now I just gotta keep my fingers crossed that it's accepted.

View from the sea

Anson and I went on a pelagic (ocean) birding trip last weekend.  It was great weather and the birds were awesome!  We were out for 3 hours in total.  Link to my photo album is on the right.

The list for the boat:

Southern Royal Albatross: 2
White-capped Albatross: 20+
*Salvin's Albatross: 1 
(Southern) Buller's Albatross: 15+
Black-browed Albatross: 1
Northern Giant Petrel: 2
Sooty Shearwater: 1000+ 
*Common Diving Petrel: 1
*Fairy Prion: 400+
Blue Penguin: 1

Black-backed gulls

Red-billed gulls

White-fronted terns

Spotted shags

Stewart Island shags

Little black shags

*Royal spoonbills

(* means it was a new bird species for me)

I did not get to see the black-browed albatross but did see a reef heron while we were waiting for everyone to board.  It was my first time seeing an adult royal albatross...the sightings were brief but fantastic!  And I saw my first Hector's dolphins, which are the rarest dolphins in the world and the smallest marine dolphin.

My vote has been cast!

So my absentee ballot is in the mail!  They say a high percentage of absentee ballots don't get counted because they don't arrive on time or for not following some regulation.  Well, I think I followed all the directions properly and it should arrive in Blue Earth County on time.  Let's hope so!!

A friend sent me this link to a blind quiz you can take on the candidates.  It gives you a series of 2 quotes and you choose the one you agree with the most.  It tallies them up at the end and tells you which candidate you most agree with.  Well, I had already sent in my ballot but took it anyway...it confirmed my choice.  :)  Try for yourself here.

I've got Ick

So my experimental fish started dying, I thought it was due to an external parasite but now know it's due to a fungus called Ick or white spot or here they call it Itch.  A fungus that I treated the fish for when I first brought them into the lab but now I know I should be treating them every 3 weeks or the following happens...more fish were dying, then I saw the fungus and treated the fish for it at 10 pm on Thursday and by 8 am Friday 17 out of 35 fish were dead.  So yesterday I euthanized the rest of my fish and ended my experiment 2 weeks early.  We think that my parasite needs 5 weeks to develop so I'm not sure if any of them will have matured at this point.  My supervisor keeps talking positively (I think for my sanity) and says I might still get data and I'll know how much the parasite grows at this time and what the infection success is and if the fluorescent dye lasts this long, yadda, yadda, yadda.  I'm taking some time for myself today to recharge...slept in, rang home, doing errands, have a coffee date and going out for a friend's b-day tonight.  But I'll be back in the lab on Sunday for a full day of dissections.  Oh yeah, it's day light savings tomorrow so we Spring forward...damnit, I need every hour I can get these days!

1 down, 2 to go

So my first year is over. Today is the one-year mark but I certainly haven't done 1/3 of my project thus far!! Yikes! I better get a move on it. My first experiment is up and going and I've started my monthly field sampling so at least I'm collecting data now instead of doing preliminary crap. But I have a cold and it has slowed me down the past week...in fact I've had it longer than a week but the damn cough is still lingering and waking me up in the middle of the night. Oh and I'm trying out an online dating site here. Two women in my department have found really great partners through this site so I thought I'd give it a try. But the number of men who send you messages is overwhelming! I'll keep you updated...

Minnesota sun

Me enjoying Minnesota summer and Coor's Light, mmmm

Cannibalism isn't a pretty sight

On my 6th day of infecting fish (every other day) I was oh so happy to have all 70 fish for my experiment infected!  At the end of the day, I was doing some cleaning in the tanks and started to feed them.  Just as I was feeding them, I saw one of the bigger fish grab a small one by the tail, shake it around and in a blink of an eye had it half engulfed!  I was giving them food at that exact moment!  I knew these guys can be cannibalistic but damnit! now I am 1 fish short in that treatment!  So today I will infect one more fish and hope they don't eat too many of the wee ones!

On the home front, we now have a sofa bed and 2-seater couch in the lounge!  It's starting to look like a home again...we just need to get some stuff up on the walls now!

Pink parasites are oh so cute!

Yeah, after almost a full year I have finally started my first experiment!  I know that doesn't sound like a very long time to do preliminary work but when you only have 3 years in total the time is flying by!  On Sunday I started infecting the fish for my experiment, by 7 pm my snails started shedding heaps of parasites.  I had gotten 2 fish infected during the day, and then 17 infected Sunday night.  I put the snails in an incubator with a light which cues the parasites to leave the snail.  Then I take the parasites and flourescently dye them (to tell which parasites I put in the fish versus parasites that are already in the fish).  I anesthetize the fish, lay it in a little trough and drop the parasites on them (which look pink in regular light from the dye), wait a few minutes and then put the fish back into water.  To say the least Sunday was a very long day in the lab - 15 hours.  I infected another 11 yesterday and am giving the snails a rest every other day.  3 more days of infections and I should have all the fish done and the experiment up and running for 5 weeks.  I have 3 treatments at low, med and high fish density and am interested in which reproductive strategy the parasite takes in these different treatments.  If there is a low chance of being transmitted to the next host, then it would be advantageous for the parasite to reproduce early (rather than waiting to reproduce inside the eel).  This is what I'm expecting in the high density treatment - when the fish are in high densities they have a low chance of being preyed upon by an eel and thus the parasites inside the fish have a low chance of being transmitted to an eel and thus should choose to reproduce early.  We'll see what happens in a few weeks.  Oh so exciting!