Shark Men and Trawls

Whew, haven't written in a while.  I've been insanely busy.  Work is continually trying to kill me, and when I'm not counting fish, I'm taking care of various small furry critters.

Yesterday at work we did some trawls in northern Pine Island Sound.  While I was quite ecstatic to NOT be driving the boat, I was exhausted from 2 sawfish trips and a 600' seine trip already that week.  My arms were already shot - so the last thing I felt like doing was dealing with trawls containing gallons and gallons of drift algae and sponge.  Trust me, that stuff weighs a ton.

I was pretty excited for lunch - I had a delicious Publix sub waiting in the cooler for me, and we were headed to the beach at Boca Grande Pass for lunch.  Our second trawl took FOREVER to work up, and my stomach was growling the entire time.  Yeah, we only had 2 out of 7 samples done by lunch.  FAIL.  Anyway, here's my view from our lunch spot. Yes, you should be jealous.  I earned that lunch spot!

To my excitement, the ship from the show "Shark Men" is currently anchored in Boca Grande Pass.  In case you are unfamiliar, the ship Ocean is a converted crab boat that is now used for shark research.  In the show, they capture large great white sharks and raise them onto the deck of the boat using a specially designed platform.  They take measurements and tag the fish.  Oh, how I wish I could be on the boat when they do that!  Anyway, they are currently in Boca Grande to tag large sharks (hammerheads, etc).  I jumped up and down excitedly when we drove by the Ocean on the way to one of our sample sites.  Here it is!

I just wish I had had a better camera than my cell phone!!  Too bad we didn't have any time to go talk to them :(
If you would like to learn more about "Shark Men", check out the website here:  
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/shark-men/all/Overview

We did finally finish all of our samples, and it darn near killed me.  I was pretty crabby by the end of the day.  As the icing on the cake, I had to winch the boat halfway up the trailer since the tide was super high - couldn't back the trailer down far enough to make life easy for me.  Running on adrenaline and cheers from a couple boaters and charter captains, I winched that baby all the way up.  If you want toned arms, try my job.

Animal Rescue-palooza

Wow, what a week for the critters!!  After catching 6 sawfish in the field this week, I was quite enjoying my quiet day in the lab.  It was not to be.  The powers of work and animal rescue united!!  We found 3 less-than-a-week-old kittens.  They were pretty stinking cute.  They were cold and hungry, so me and my co-worker Amy warmed them up and drove over to Petco to get some KMR.  Once we got them warm and got some food in their tummies (and some poop OUT), they perked up and started meowing!  So cute.  My office became a kitten feeding station.  Lots of phone calls were made, and we ended up finding someone from E.A.R.S. (an animal rescue organization) to foster the litter.  Whew!  I don't really have any experience with cats, and neither does Amy (we're both allergic!), so it was a relief to hand them off to someone who really knew what they were doing!  I'm not a cat person, but they were darn cute.  We named the orange one Mercury...for the Mercury boat engines they were found under!

So after a day full of kitten rescue, I had a day full of bunny rescue!  A bunch of rescue people have been trying to save a terrified little bunny who is currently residing at the Tampa SPCA.  She's been abused and neglected, and has some health issues.  She's not doing well in a shelter environment.  Luckily, an SPCA volunteer has offered to foster little Bun Bun for 4 weeks, after which it looks like she will be traveling to a foster home in South Carolina.  Now we just have to figure out transport!

So after working on Bun Bun's situation this morning, I called a potential bunny home for our Ramona (they sadly never showed up), called a family who is being forced to give up a bunny they adopted from us due to tough economic times, and headed over to the Port Charlotte Petco.

I felt terrible - I've had an insane work week and haven't been in to Petco for a week.  Hershey was SO excited to have some exercise pen time!!  (Anyone want to help volunteer at the Port Charlotte Petco??)  I certainly enjoyed watching him binky around and nom his veggies.

Judd (the bunny being returned) showed up a short time later.  I felt terrible for his family.  They were in tears when they left - they clearly love him to pieces.  We are keeping Judd (well, now he is called Jinxie) on "hold" status for a bit to see if his family can get back on their feet - they want to take him back if they can.  What a heartbreaking situation :(

I loaded Thor up into the carrier to bring him up to the Sarasota Petco to meet his potential lady friend.  We braved the lovebugs and horrible traffic, and made it to Sarasota.  Thor and Amelia seemed to hit it off!  There was a bit of humping and chasing, but that's pretty typical.  Their new family, a nice young couple, came by (all the way from Sun City Center!) to come meet their new family members!  They are so excited about their new buns, and can't wait to take them home!  We will make sure they are bonded by the time they go home, but by the time I left Petco, Thor and Amelia were happily snuggling in a carrier.

Another volunteer, Amber, took the pair up to St. Pete, where they will be fostered until they go to their forever home.  Yay!

We're gonna need a bigger boat...

So today we went longlining.  Our ultimate goal is to capture larger sawfish to put satellite tags on.  Our day started at the lab at 6:30 a.m.  We were soon on the road, and headed down to launch at Punta Rassa, which is very near Sanibel.  We passed under the Sanibel Causeway and made our way to our first spot, which was in sight of the Sanibel Pier.  Our next two samples sites were off of Knapps Point (known for its larger sharks!)  The photo below is off of Knapps Point.  That's one of the floats for the longline - the line itself is 2500' long.

It's a rarity to capture a sawfish on our longline, but when we're off the coast of Sanibel, we're almost guaranteed to see some big sharks!  We set the line, and wait an hour for it to soak.  After an hour, the fun begins!  The first big shark of the day was a gorgeous 7-8 foot lemon!  We measure the sharks, take a quick genetics sample, and let them go on their way.  After the excitement of the lemon, we caught a good-size hammerhead and a couple big nurse sharks!  We also caught a handful of smaller sharks, such as blacktips and sharpnose.  Apparently there were a few other LARGE sharks down there.  We pulled up this poor guy, and were reminded that there's always a bigger fish:

In the end, we didn't capture what we were after, but we still got some good science done!

Ah, the glory days of (almost) summer

I've spent the last three days of work out in the field, and the weather was gorgeous for 2 out of 3 days.  Guess I can't complain, although I was the lucky person who got to drive the boat on the super windy day.  NOAA predicted the winds to be west @ 10 kts yesterday.  Uh, no.  The winds were south-southwest at 15 kts all day!  It was a bit snotty in the middle of the harbor, so I definitely got my daily intake of salt water.

We weren't doing anything quite as exciting as catching sawfish this week, but it was nice to have a break with something more low-key.  Monday was a regular fisheries sampling trip, and Tuesday & Wednesday were spent catching water samples.  Oh yes, the ever elusive water sample...

I did quite enjoy being on the water today.  I got a break from being the driver, so it was nice being able to take catnaps between sample sites!  We stopped for lunch on a nice sandy beach in the Myakka River, then finished our day of water sampling.

Some good news on the bunny (and guinea pig) front this week too!!  Someone has inquired about my foster guinea pig boys.  Here's hoping it pans out into a good home for these deserving little piggies!  Squirrel has been waiting for a home since January, and I just picked Chipmunk up from Suncoast Humane Society last week.  I would love to see them in a wonderful adoptive home.  Of course, being their foster mom, I won't adopt them to just anyone!

The other guy I picked up at Suncoast has been quite popular this week!  Thor has had quite a few inquiries, so hopefully he will have a home very soon.  It's hard to resist the little guy.  He's pretty freaking cute.

Review of Hop: As a bunny person and bunny RESCUE person

I went to go see "Hop" tonight.  It's pretty rare that I actually shell out the 10 bucks to see a movie in the theater these days, but it had to be done with this one!  I was super excited to see a movie about a bunny, but at the same time I'm worried that it will cause people to go buy a pet bunny on impulse - the "101 Dalmations Phenomenon".  I am happy that Universal Pictures put this message on the Hop website:

Now, I don't precisely agree with the statement that "rabbits don't make good family pets", but hopefully this will deter people from buying their kids an Easter bunny.  Buns can certainly make good family pets - in the right situation with proper care.  Of course, an impulse Easter bunny for a 3 year-old that ends up exiled to an outdoor hutch is NOT the right situation.

As a bunny person, I internally squealed (okay, maybe out loud a few times) at all the cute, fluffy little bunnies.  Yup, the movie was adorable.  I'm a sucker for those little wiggle noses and big cotton tails!  I thought the story was cute & clever.  This is a movie I will have to own!  The animators did a great job of creating talking rabbits that still looked fairly realistic!  They hopped like bunnies, wiggled their noses like bunnies...so yeah, I loved it!

What did I think as a bunny rescue person?  Well, honestly I felt that kids would be more drawn to buying action figures from the movie than real bunnies, which is a good thing.  Apparently there are Hop toys available at Wal-mart, which seems to be a good thing to me!  I'm fine with the kiddos playing with bunny action figures!

I grew concerned at a scene where Fred, the main human character, became fed up with E.B.'s antics, and tried to "release him into the wild".  My immediate thought was, "Oh no no no...please don't show him dump E.B. to get rid of him!".  Well, my fears were allayed!  When Fred tried to dump E.B., they cut to closeups of rattlesnakes, hawks. and big dogs.  E.B. made a comment that "there's a lot of carnivores out here!"  I hope this scene will make people think twice before releasing a domestic rabbit into the wild.  Kudos to the studio for making that point!

I do rather wish they hadn't shown E.B. eating candy and whole carrots...I guess we can't win them all.  They did throw in a correct fact about rabbits, however.  I nearly fell over laughing when E.B. told Fred that "for a while, the sight of a colored egg made me want to vomit.  And rabbits can't physically vomit!!"  That's a 100% correct fact, folks!

All in all, I thought it was a really cute movie.  I truly hope that it won't be the cause of any impulse purchases of Easter rabbits that will later be dumped.  As I said, I think the movie is more geared to action figures and such, but you never know.  It's up to the discretion of parents.  I hope they will make the right decision.  Please, if you are considering a rabbit for a pet, research the proper care of these wonderful creatures before bringing one into your home.  Visit the House Rabbit Society website for great care information.  And please, if you do decide to bring a pet rabbit into your life, think adoption!!  Make Mine Chocolate!

A day full of bunny

Today was a bunny day.  I volunteer at 4 Lil Pigs n Buns guinea pig & rabbit rescue.  My day started with a trip to Suncoast Humane Society to pick up some bunnies.  Well, 3 bunnies turned into 1 bunny, since two of them were not yet neutered.  I did take this handsome harlequin boy...

He is just gorgeous - and he is a love too.  He's super friendly, and is easy to handle.  He is a BIG boy though!  Apparently he had been at Suncoast for quite a while - his size was probably working against him.  I adore the big bunnehs :)  Hopefully we'll find him a good home soon.  As for the other 2 still at Suncoast, I'll pick them up once they're neutered.

After picking up Harley, I drove up to the Sarasota Petco to meet everyone there.  The rescue works with several Petco stores around the region, and the Sarasota store was having a "Grand Re-opening" today.  I brought my foster piggy Squirrel and the new bun.  We had some other adoptables there too - a couple buns, some pigs, and even some mice.  Another volunteer brought the freaking cutest rabbit ever - she was from Sarasota Animal Services.  Here she is all flopped out:

My poor Squirrel piggy was a trooper through the whole day.  He's such a great pig.  He chilled out in his cozy most of the day.  Goodness, he was sure happy to get home though!  I can't say that I blame him!

It was quite a day - overall it was pretty successful.  We actually got some decent donations, and found a few people that seemed genuinely interested.  Of course, for every one "good" person, there are 50 who have "sad bunny stories" to tell.  And why on earth do people think we WANT a "free" bunny.  This lady came up to us today and asked, "Do you want a free bunny?" - like she was doing us a favor.  Ugh.  Lady, what I would LIKE you to do is spay/neuter your bunny, have him live in a nice indoor location, feed him a proper diet, and give him a decent life with LOVE.  *Sigh*  Lady, it's because of people like you that our organization exists.  Well, we will keep doing what we're doing.  There's a lot of other people out there at other rabbit rescues, volunteers at humane societies, foster homes...all these people come together to help out all these little critters who don't have a voice.  I'm glad to be a part of it!!

Science is a harsh mistress

I returned from our Ten Thousand Islands adventure on Tuesday night...and I'm still recovering!  We had an awesome trip (although we had to overcome a few difficulties!).  We left at 6 am Monday morning in the pouring rain to drive down to Goodland.  After launching the boat, we drove around in an attempt to find an appropriate spot to sample.  It was a bit tricky, since none of us are terribly familiar with the area, and well...the Ten Thousand Islands are aptly named.  We also had to make sure we did not enter Everglades National Park, since we don't have a permit to sample IN the park!  We had gotten angler reports from a particular spot - the "Pineapple Bridge" as the locals call it.  So, we set our longline and left it to soak.

One of the goals of this trip was to catch larger sawfish.  We have caught many juveniles (under 7 ft), but we are trying to get some satellite tags on some larger fish.  After the soak, we started to pick it up when we realized we had something large on!  We let out some very excited shouts when we saw the rostrum come out of the water!!  "THAT'S A SAWFISH!  THAT'S A SAWFISH!!!" 

We secured her quickly, and proceeded with our work up.  She got an assortment of tags - including a satellite tag.  We will get a lot of great information from that beautiful fish!  She was nearly 9 feet long - of course, they get up to 18 feet in length!  After taking measurements, tagging, and getting general health information, we sent her on her way!

So that was day 1!!!  The following day, we sampled with the "sawfish brigade"!  After a "continental breakfast" that consisted of a loaf of bread and a toaster (thank you, Captain's Table Hotel!  Ugh!), we met with people from many different agencies - NOAA/NMFS, George Burgess and crew from UF, and various observers from places like the National Park Service.  Our boat set 2 longlines and 1 net over the course of the day.  I got rope burn, bumps, bruises, oyster cuts, bug bites, and shark rash, but it was all for science!  Sadly, no sawfish, but we did catch some big sharks (blacktips and hammers) that we measured and sent on their merry way.

We made our way back to the ramp after a full day of sampling...and dropped the truck keys in 2.5 meters of water - with a very muddy bottom.  Yup, they were gone.  Spectacular FAIL.  Luckily, we were able to move the trailer to another truck and pull the boat out of the water.  After some logistical maneuvering, we were able to figure out how to get a spare key the next day.  I got the lucky job of trailering the boat back to the lab that night with one of my co-workers, and we happily went home after working a 16 hour day!

So, I'm beat up, exhausted, and we certainly had our share of trials and tribulations, but I wouldn't trade seeing that sawfish up close and personal for anything!