Bunnies...and fish...and bunnies...

Haven't had much time to blog lately!  I've been on the water quite a bit at work!  Plenty of 4 day field weeks for me, which has been rather exhausting.  My brother came to visit a little over a week ago though, and he got to come out on the boat with me at work!  It was fun to have "bring your brother to work day".  He flies jets, which is pretty exciting, but I think he enjoyed his day with the fishes!

Me and my little bro at our lunch spot on North Captiva.

In between water sampling (lots and lots of water sampling...) and regular fisheries sampling trips, I finally got to run a sawfish research trip again.  It's been a while, but I haven't lost my touch.  We caught this cute little boy around the east side of Hog Island.  He was quite frisky.  We named him George.  He looked like a George.

Yes, that's me rocking the pink Buff.  I make science look good.

Today I put on the bunny rescue hat and attended an adoption event at the Brandon Petco.  I was up until the wee hours of the morning last night doing last minute things.  I thought I had pre-prepared the day before, but I kept thinking of more things we needed!  This morning I loaded up my trusty (FINALLY paid off) Hyundai with Hershey my foster bunny, a guinea pig I recently picked up at Suncoast Humane, critter pens, litter box, water bowls, and a bag of miscellaneous things that come in handy at events like notecards, pens, binder clips, and the like.

We actually had a surprising turnout!  We weren't expecting so many people!  Five (!) bunnies were adopted - two bonded pairs and a single who met his match with a bunny who was previously adopted from us.  Yay!

R.B. was one of the lucky buns to find a family!

Hershey, my foster, did remarkably well.  I thought he would be a little more freaked out.

So all in all, it was a good day!

I also recently took Halloween portraits of my fuzzies.  The piggies are easy to photograph.  They pretty much let me do whatever I want with them.  Chloe kept trying to beat up the pumpkin, and Kahlua just wanted to go do something else.  I got a lot of action shots of Kahlua trying to run away.  Hershey was a perfect gentleman.  Maybe he knew he needed a good Petfinder photo.

My girls were so well-behaved.

Chloe...not so well-behaved.  But look at that face!

Kahlua had better things to do.

Hershey was incredibly photogenic.

So...that's what's going on in my world of fish, bunnies, and guinea pigs.

March Madness!

Whew, it's been a long couple of days!  As usual, my days have been full of fish and furry critters.  Yesterday I finally got to go on my first sawfish sampling trip of 2012.  Lately, my work schedule has been full of water sampling.  I am in charge of the water sampling project at our lab, and our grant was just expanded - so I've been running double the amount of water trips.  That means more sampling trips, more data entry and proofing, and a lot more time prepping trips and then breaking down equipment.

But anyway...water is boring.  How about those sawfish?  We were having a rather uneventful morning.  The tide was quite low, so our first set was in a deeper area.  We had just checked the net when we received a phone call from another crew out on the water.  They were pulling 600' seines, and guess what they caught?  Yup, a little sawfish.

We hurriedly picked up the nets and motored a bit downriver to where the other crew was waiting.  They transferred the sawfish into our loving care so we could work it up and they could finish their seine trip!  The sawfish was just a little guy - less than a meter in total length.  He was very well-behaved.  We decided to name him Edwin.  Not sure why, but that's his name.  We measured him, tagged him, counted his teeth, admired him, and pulled a couple of leeches off of him, since there are people out there who want to study sawfish leeches.  SCIENCE!

We finished working him up, and then sent him on his way (after taking a couple of photos).

How cute is this little sawfish?  The tag on his 2nd dorsal will help contribute to sawfish movement data.

Come Saturday, it was time to put on the small animal rescuer hat.  I did a LOT of driving today!  My first stop was Suncoast Humane Society, where I picked up 4 ferrets who are all in need of homes.  My thanks to the fine folks of Suncoast - they are great to work with!  Next I drove up to Venice to meet another volunteer who had picked up a couple of guinea pigs from Sarasota Animal Services.  Those two needed to go up to another foster home.  I headed up to Sarasota to meet Amber, who had 2 guinea pigs to give me, since they were getting adopted!  We traded critters and continued on our respective journeys.

I ran home to grab a couple of things and print out an adoption contract, then I headed to the piggy pair's new forever home!  It was a joy meeting their new family - they were so excited and immediately fell in love with the piggy girls!  It's always so refreshing to meet people who are truly interested in giving the best care to their small pets!

My next mission was to visit Otis at Petco.  I brought him some veggies and some love!  I'm surprised he hasn't been snatched up by someone yet, because he is just the cutest little thing.

How could anyone resist this little guy?

Exhausted, I headed home.  I still had to clean my potentially pregnant foster guinea pig's cage.  Brienne was dropped off at Suncoast with 2 boys (who went up to Brandon today), so she is on pregnancy watch for a couple of months.  She is just a little cutie, but never wants to come out of her pigloo!  I still don't know if she's actually pregnant, but it seems like a good bet.  The rescue sure doesn't need any more piggies (just took in a bunch!), but baby piggies are sure cute.  So - we'll wait and see what happens!  If she does end up being preggo, I will certainly post pictures of babies!

Meet Brienne.  The million-dollar question: is she pregnant?

The rest of the month shall continue with madness!  I've got 3 water sampling trips next week, a scientific manuscript in pre-production stages, my good friend will be visiting from Orlando, and then I am helping out with our huge guinea pig adoption and rabbit awareness event at the Brandon Petco on April 1st!  Uh oh, should I be worried that it's April Fool's Day?

Endangered? Phbbbt.

Okay, so yes, they really are endangered, but wow it seems like I have seen a lot of sawfish lately!  Of course, going on an insane number of sampling trips has probably increased my chances.  I dubbed myself the "sawfish ninja" after catching sawfish on several consecutive trips!  Heck, I caught 6 on one trip the other week - that made for nearly a 14 hour workday. 

Sawfish are, quite simply, amazing creatures.  I am glad that they are listed as a federally endangered species.  Back in the day, those long "hedgetrimmer"-like rostrums easily entangled in fisherman's nets, and they were considered somewhat of a pest, since they wrecked the nets.  Therefore, they were killed in large numbers.  We know so little about them, so it's an amazing experience to be part of a team that conducts important research on sawfish.  Hopefully, we will come to learn more and more about their life history so we can learn how to better help them recover their numbers.  These fish used to be a common sight up and down the eastern seaboard, but their historical range has all but disappeared.  I happen to live and work in one of the few places they still occupy.

Yesterday, we caught a little young-of-the-year sawfish.  He was very cute, and quite frisky!  Contrary to popular belief, however, they will not hack you in pieces with that saw.  I'm always quite astonished at how docile they are while we poke and prod them.  They will surprise you every now again though - and they are strong. 

Some think they are ugly.  I think they are beautiful.  I wish everyone could have a chance to look at one eye-to-eye.  At work, we were discussing how amazing their eyes are.  They are expressive somehow!  I just love them.

I do sometimes complain about going to work (hey, it is my job), but when I look a sawfish in the eye, I am reminded how lucky I am to be a part of this project.

Here I am feeling the sawfish love...

And here is a photo of me with one of my other loves...a baby bull shark.  This guy still had a fresh umbilical scar!  I got my "hero shot" with him, then released him so he could go eat other fish and grow up to make more baby bull sharks.