Fisheries Science: Not for Sissies

Every two months, we sample Sarasota Bay for three days...and pull an insane number of nets.  Last Tuesday, I got my bi-monthly day on Sarasota Bay.  A typical Sarasota Bay day goes like this: wake up in the middle of the night (okay, 5 a.m.), drive over an hour, pull nets till your muscles start bleeding, count fish until your head spins, crawl back into the truck, drive over an hour, go home, and collapse on the floor.

I was in the field on Monday, but luckily we had easy pulls and light catches - not to mention a nice view at lunch:

Those are the days of which office workers really can be jealous.  Every morning of field sampling, we stop at the gas station.  On the beautiful days, everyone says, "Wow, I wish I had your job - get paid to go on the boat!"  Of course, on the rainy, windy, stormy, freezing (or all of the above) days, people say, "Wow, you have to go out in this???"  And we do, as long as we won't die doing so.  I've been out in the outer rain bands of hurricanes, people.

So - back to Sarasota Bay.  On a typical sampling day, we might pull 4 600 foot seines, or 8 small seines and trawls.  For Sarasota Bay sampling, we have to cram as many samples into a short period of time as possible.  A typical Sarasota Bay day consists of perhaps 3 600 foot seines, 4 trawls, and 10 small seines.  I happened to be on the record-breaking trip where we pulled 20 samples in a day.  We were in chest-deep water at the last site, and I was so tired that I feared I would not be able to haul myself back aboard.  I told the rest of the crew to save themselves.  Luckily they were a selfless crew and helped me up.  That's the way we roll.  Biologists saving biologists.

Public interactions on Sarasota Bay are often interesting.  It's quite a busy waterway.  Four biologists hauling in a 600 foot net tends to attract attention.  Oftentimes people think we are illegal netters, which I find funny because we would have to be the stupidest illegal netters in the world to do it in broad daylight close to a busy channel.  We are also often mistaken for Mote Marine, which is located in Sarasota.  In fact, we often see Mote vessels out there!  Sometimes we do get questions that make us giggle just a little.  Last time we got asked if there were sharks in the water.  Yes, I'm pretty sure there are sharks in Sarasota Bay.

If you ever wondered if there are plenty of fish in Sarasota Bay, I can assure you that there are.  There is also quite a large diversity of fish.  I am usually weary of counting pinfish, mojarras, and anchovies after a day on Sarasota Bay.

When I get home, the first thing I do is treat myself to a nice hot shower.  It's always interesting to see what flotsam hitches a ride home on me.  This last trip clogged up my shower drain with shoal grass (a type of seagrass) and a bunch of dead leaves.  I then put antibiotic ointment on my wounds and collapse on my couch.

Okay, that's a little dramatic, but it is a really hard day.  And I always feel a little bit stronger and a little bit more empowered after surviving days like that.  Fisheries science is not for sissies.

And Nerds Shall Rule the World

Life at the lab has been pretty boring lately.  Fish catches have been less than stellar, and there's only so much excitement to be had at the lab.  Of course, as scientists, we get excited about some pretty nerdy things.  Last Friday, you should have heard us exclaiming over the 58mm standard length Microgobius gulosus we caught.  "Holy crap!"  "That's the biggest gulosus I've ever seen!!!"  "Put it in the bucket so we can observe it!"  Yes, we did actually put it in the bucket to observe it.  It was spectacular.  And for anyone who actually cares to know, the common name is clown goby.

They're awesome and you know it.

Well, I had some excitement at the lab.  We have had the same old LI-COR instrument since before I started working here.  It's a little persnickety at times.  It's been used and abused as only boats and saltwater can do.  We do our best to take care of things, but in the field...well, things get beat up, corroded, and bounced around.  So...*drum roll please* the agency that pays for our water sampling grant just got us a whole new setup to use!!

What is LI-COR you ask?  Okay, maybe you're not asking, but I'll tell you anyway.  The sensors measure photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).  Oooooooooh ahhhhhhhhh.  Why is this useful?  Well, in an estuary where seagrass is important, it's good to know how much light those little blades of manatee food and fish nursery are getting.  The actual data gets put into complicated equations that I don't understand.  That's for those math nerds to figure out.  I just put the stick in the water and write down the numbers.

My brand new beautiful lowering frame built by Scotty, the resident PVC genius at the lab.

My glorious new data logger.  I don't care who you are.  Pulling plastic off of new electronics is awesome.

  Yesterday, I got to take it for a spin.  I must say, it did a fabulous job of measuring photons.  We still have the old one.  It does still work, even if I have to whisper sweet nothings to it sometimes to coax it into working.  It will be nice to have a spare, since we have to send the sensors off the the company every 2 years to be calibrated.  The old one is due this year, so at least I don't have to schedule sampling trips around that!

Why do you care?  Well, you probably don't.  That's okay, because you're probably excited about things that I'm not excited about.  You should care that we're collecting this water quality data though, because it helps maintain a healthy estuary!

The LI-192 Underwater Quantum Sensor.  It accurately measures Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density!  It's cosine corrected!  It's corrosion resistant!

Turtle grass says, "Gimme photons!"

All hail the nerds.

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?