Grabbing Life by the Spiracles

Just to start off, I want to say that fun finds us.  We don't even have to look for it, and it's awesome.  If you don't sit around doing nothing, you'll be amazed with all of the fun experiences that appear before your very eyes.  So here's tonight's account of fun...

Anna, Angela, Hannah, and I decide to take a nice stroll on the boardwalk after dinner on Thursday night. We saw crabs everywhere and a dead floating red snapper in the water.  That is some cool stuff to us marine biology nerds.  And then we saw a bunch of fishermen on the pier, which means super cool fish to try an identify.  (Again, we're marine bio nerds on a secluded island.  This is our idea of a fun way to spend our free time.) And then there was a man who caught a Cow Nose Ray.  Super cool.  But he didn't want to eat it, so he was going to throw it back. This is a brilliantly sustainable thought, and I approve.  However, this fisherman then did something awful.  He took a giant hook and stabbed the ray, right in the middle of the thing.  This is not how you throw fish back in the ocean. I have seen this far too many times, and it's time to give a lecture to everyone on this planet.  Please allow me to enlighten you...

If you stab something with a giant hook, it will bleed out and die.  I know this sounds crazy, but it can and will happen to even the best of us.  The ray is no threat to people. Its barb is easy to avoid, and its spiracles are even easier to grab.  So there is no need to be afraid of it.  You caught it, you can release it.  When accidentally catching a ray, grab it by the spiracles (openings above the eyes- very easy to see), take the hook out of its mouth, and throw it back into the ocean.  Easy peasy.  Even I can do this without freakin out or being stabbed by its tail.  And the thing will live!  Amazing.  It's a waste to put a fish back into the ocean if you stab it with a giant hook and watch it bleed out on the pier.  It's going to die, so why bother throwing it back?? End rant.

Back to the topic at hand... There was a ray with no hope of survival and this guy is about to throw it back into the ocean to rot.  Not on my watch!  If it's going to die, let's not waste its life.  We shall use it FOR SCIENCE!!!  (You know, if you add "FOR SCIENCE" at the end of phrases, it makes them sound much more legitimate.  So next time you are doing something weird, say "FOR SCIENCE" and no one will judge. Seriously, it works every time.)  So we grabbed life by the spiracles and decided to dissect the ray.  At least we can learn some cool things from it.

Obviously, this ray is destroyed thanks to the fisherman.  But we're going to use it FOR SCIENCE!!!

How to dissect a ray:

1)  Cut off the tail.  Got to do this so that you are in zero danger of the barb stinging you and so that it is out of the way when trying to look at its insides.

2)  Carry the ray by spiracles and transport it to a place to dissect it.  In our case, walk down the pier, across the street while being stared at by crossing cars and boats, walk all the way across campus, to under the classroom, and place on a mat.  Yes, we looked really normal doing this, walking our ray dripping with blood.  And Anna was wearing a white shirt... Miraculously, nothing got on her. Not a drop of blood.  This, my friends, is an amazing feat.  Especially for us scientists who get dirty with absolutely everything we do.

Transporting our ridiculously heavy ray.

3)  Collect your dissecting tools.  Unfortunately, ours were locked up, so we used a couple of hunting knives that we carry on us.  (PS- Don't mess with us.)

4) Cut off fins.  These can be eaten, if you are interested.  Make scallops out of them.  I'm sure it would be delicious.  We, however, have no kitchen or anything to cook with, so the fins just went off to the side.  We did see that our ray was very muscular though.  It was impressive.

5) Cut along the side of the vertebrate and remove connective tissues inside to take out the gut.  The gut contains all of the super cool stuff: liver, stomach, spleen, kidneys, lungs, eggs, and it's connected to the esophagus.  This is also time consuming if done correctly.  So if you aren't using a lab (because it's locked) and squatting under a classroom like us, you will not only have super cool ray parts, but also super buff legs. (And super sore legs the next day- but that's what 2.5 hours of squatting will do to you!)

6) By now the ray is pretty much in a million pieces and looks like this... And look, Ma, no teacher!!  We did it all by ourselves.  We're some proud future marine biologists here.  Oh, and pretty beastly.  Some of this was hard to get with our hunting knives (scalpels really are much more suitable for this type of work), so we resorted to ripping some of this apart with our hands.  Not the best lab techniques, I'll admit.  But I like to think of it as excitement and dedication to our dissection.

When done dissecting and learning all things about ray anatomy, it's time to clean up.  First, claim the skeletal and preservable parts.  I get the jaw bone, and I'm super excited!  Then the vertebrate will be shared by Hannah, Anna, and Angela.  And both Hannah and Angela got eyeballs that they are attempting to preserve in formaldehyde.  So that is all way cool!!

But clean up for real...

1) Dispose of unwanted parts.

Let's throw the ray parts back into the ocean!

We walked to the beach, praying we wouldn't step on crabs and then threw the remains into the ocean.  It's important to note that we did not go into the ocean.  It was pitch black outside, and we just threw bloody remains into the waves.  No thank you, I do not want a shark bite tonight!  But we decided that you could have the "perfect murder" here.  We cleaned up really quickly by throwing everything in the water, it was dark and no one saw us, and there was no trace of us when we left because footprints are washed away by the tide.  Just sayin.  This is gold for all you crime tv show writers out there. You're welcome.

2) Put the bone you want to save into a giant ant hill.  Seriously.  We put ours in an ant hill that is between 3-4 feet high.  You don't really need one that big, but you want the ants to clean the bones for you.  Less work for you, and you don't have to worry about destroying the bones with your beastly muscles tearing at the bones.

3) Wash everything!  It smelled real bad when we were done. Two and a half hours of cutting a ray in the hot, humid weather makes for a less than pleasant aromatic compound taking over your nostrils and getting all over your clothes.  And we also washed the ground really well. Don't want any critters coming for the little ray pieces.  That would not be any fun. 

4) Reward yourself with a milkshake.  After your very soapy, very long, very hot shower, of course.  

And that's how you do it guys.  If you ever find a ray stranded, begging to be dissected (dead), then call me up.  I see myself as an expert in this matter now, and would love to make you an expert too.  And you can get a cool ray bone! 

Did I mention that I hate bugs?

... because I don't think I did.  But I'll state it very clearly right now.

I hate bugs.

Just so the whole world knows, including all of the bugs that think it's okay to be near me.  It's not okay.  It's never ever ever okay.  I think this is very important to state clearly because so far, my week has been full of bugs.  And these heart attacks that I'm having can not be good for me.  They really must stop.  Also, I'm showing signs of paranoia.  For example, I think I see a black spot in the corner of my eye.  Most people ignore said black spot and at the very worst, turn their head to see what the said black spot is.  But not me, not after these past few days.  I see a black spot and a shoe appears in my right hand, a Raid can in my left, ready to aim, fire, and conquer.  This is an instantaneous, almost instinctual, reaction.  I repeat, not okay.  I'm turning into a bugbuster.

So you want to hear about the horrors I've been facing thanks to bugs... here it is.  I must warn you, though... The remainder of this post is not for the faint-hearted.  It may be disturbing to some of you bug-haters.  Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Monday 6/24/13
Happy first day of school!  Again!
And the Second Session starts off with a warm Marine Invertebrate welcome and the groupings for our projects. Each group does three projects: Hot Fact, Video, and Collection.  The projects all revolve around the topic for each group.  Anna, Angela, Hannah, and I all decided that whatever topic we were doing, we wanted to be in a group together.  And then we saw the list of topics.  Arthropods, Mullusks, Echinoderms, Vermiforms.  Of course, we want Arthropods: lobsters, crabs, etc.  There are hermit crabs and ghost crabs everywhere, so we could do some awesome crab collection.  Had it all planned out, and it was going to be perfect!  And then... Bum bum bummmmm. (Enter Terrible Tylers) Tyler and friends sign up before us. Another group got to it first. Such a disappointment. What ever happened to ladies first?  What happened to this so-called principle of chivalry?  Well, the lack of the former two, ended with my group getting the lovely topic of Vermiforms.  Cool, guys, really cool.  For those of you who may not know, those are worms.  I get to play with worms for a month.  I would have been okay with anything else, but worms... bugs of the sea... That's my luck.  Buttttt, it's still marine biology.  And therefore super cool.  Therefore, I will love every second of our dumb worm project and will leave this class a better marine-worm-lovin-biologist if it kills me.  On top of that, I do have a fantastic group!  We're going to kick the arthropods booties too, if you were wondering.

Tuesday 6/24/13
On to the worst experience of my life... The infestation of roaches.  Huge roaches. H.U.G.E.  It's a very good thing that Anna is prepared with Raid- that is a quality investment for all current and future DISL students, just fyi.  But anyways... Anna and I are chillin in our room trying to watch Game of Thrones and Modern Family when the first roach enters.  Que heart attack #1.  We both grab shoes and the Raid.  Anna is chasing after the monster like a crazy person spraying Raid as she goes. Good thing to know: Raid makes tile floors slippery, when wearing flip flops there is no traction on the slippery Raid, chasing and killing roaches is very difficult when you're slipping all over the place in panic while having a heart attack.  Just in case you ever come into this situation, learn from our mistakes.  And then we freakin lost the bug.  It ran under Anna's bed and we couldn't figure out where it went.  This is when the feeling of terror comes in.  Sure, the roach was doused in Raid, but do we know for sure that it's dead?  Will it ever come back?  Did it get enough Raid? These are all very scary questions to ask, and the only thing that would help us was seeing the dead thing.  Seeing a dead body is sometimes the only thing that can reassure me in times such as these.  But alas, it wasn't happening... Until 10 minutes later when it emerged from the other side of her bed.  But we were ready.  Yes, we had our mini heart attacks and onset of panic, but Anna's shoe hit that thing so hard, it was G.O.N.E.  Reassuring feeling sets in.  And it was only one roach.  We're so good!  These were LIES that we told ourselves.  Another few minutes, a larger roach came out.  The regular: heart attack, panic, lost it, terror, killed it, reassurance.  But by this time, our whole hall knows about our infestation.  Because we're freakin out. Obviously.  Oh, and then another freakin roach comes out.  Oh, and it's even. freakin. bigger.  NOT OKAY.  NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OKAY.  But you know the drill by now.  That reassurring feeling though, it's weaker every time.  I don't trust my room and the bug-proofing we're doing anymore. But it's dead.  And now I'm hoping and praying that they're for real gone.  I guess we'll see.

I'm sorry to give you such a terrifying rant, but this just happened.  I am still very much on edge  over the whole thing.  And I am currently not able to sleep, waiting for more roaches to come out.  But no worries.  I will aim, fire, and conquer.  Sure, nuclear bombs won't kill them, but I will.

To Civilization!!

Just call me the brilliant botanist beast!  That's right, I just aced Marine Botany.  Final Exam and Presentation are both completed.  Heck. Yes.  Group Projects, though... Our group was obviously the best (I'm only a little bias), but the other two were also really great!  Can't say I wasn't disappointed when the Phyting Phytoplankton Group didn't do a musical, but nonetheless an entertaining presentation.  And the Mangroovy guys had a fantastic name- I mean, that's pretty clever, gotta give it to them.  You can tell that we had an awesome class!  But after all of our last minute project details and crazy studying, we had a weekend to relax. Yay! This was a Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday filled with fun!

Fiesta Friday! Went to Ole Maria's again this Friday for some churros, Wobble and Cupid Shufflin, and karaoke.  And Anna, Angela, Emily, and I sang "Livin on a Prayer" absolutely beautifully.  Oh, and have I mentioned that we have no pride?  Yeah, it showed Friday night.  But we really just had a great time making fools of ourselves.  But we didn't want the night to end, so we went to The Deep End.  (If you're looking for the part about me getting kicked out of the bar, it's right here.)  The Deep End is the bar that's on the island that has fun music and a floor to dance on, so of course we decided to try it.  No, we don't drink- not that old yet!  But dancing, I can do that all day, erryday, regardless of my age.  So dancing, I shall do!  Our group walked in and started chatting with each other, waiting for the band to start playing. The bouncer came to card us.  It was all fine and dandy.  We were on absolute best behavior, minding our business.  Not even being obnoxiously ridiculous or anything.  And then the bouncer approaches us.  We knew what was coming... But who would kick out such well behaved young ladies?  Apparently a bouncer that can't count.  He came back to kick 2 of us out, the two of us with 1993 birthdays- which is this girl!! Apparently we were supposed to be 21 to enter the bar.  Not 18 (like normal places aka my hometown: Atlanta) nor 19 (like everywhere else in Alabama).  So our ignorant little selves were kicked out.  And here's another little funny part:  my friend has a 1992 birthday and is 20.  That can happen, guys.  I know.  Crazy stuff.  But Mr. Bouncer didn't know that, and he was letting her stay.  Of course, when we knew we were breaking rules, we left.  For real though, that was the worst bouncer ever.  But we weren't going to be legit kicked out of a bar.  We left with our dignity, which can't be said for most people kicked out of a bar, just sayin.

Sui juris Saturday! Those of you who don't like dictionaries, sui juris means free, as in Freedom, Merrica, and CIVILIZATION.  SWEET CIVILIZATION!!  On Saturday... we left the island.  It was a thrilling experience, really.  It's been so long since we've seen the world!  It was all because we needed to go on our trip to WalMart.  But if we're going that far out, we might as well go to Mobile and spend the day there!  Yes, we do make good decisions.  Part of our good decisions included Target, Starbucks, and Wintzell's Oyster House.  At Starbucks, I made my first "Secret Menu" purchase, the Captain Crunch Frappuccino. (Thanks Angela!) And it just so happened that the Starbucks we were at was where the Captain Crunch Frappuccino was invented. I mean, who can say they had Captain Crunch where it was invented?!  Only people who go to that Starbucks and order it... okay. So maybe a lot of people can say that.  But I still think it's cool.  Also, Nicholas Cage was in Mobile, somewhere filming some movie.  So maybe we didn't actually see him... or even know where he was.  But we looked for him for a little, and we were still in the same city as him, so we practically saw him.  Got a famous coffee and almost saw a famous person... we're practically celebrities.  The possibilities are endless when you're in civilization!

Social Sunday! First, church, like every Sunday.  This week we visited the Methodist Church- super friendly people.  And then it was beach time!!  We were there all day, and I even fell asleep for a minute there.  Like a nap.  What?!  I forgot those existed.  This beach bum lifestyle... great stuff.  But then when we got back to the Sea Lab, all of the new people were here for the next session!  I LOVE new people!  So that was fun.  We have a couple new, very sweet girls on our hall.  We spent tonight coloring in my room (and Anna's room- b/c we're roomies now!! YAYYY!!!).  No, I am not 5 years old.  Yes, I am 5 years old at heart.  I will color without shame.  But not without interruption, apparently.  The boys decided that they wanted to show off for all the new girls and attack our hall.  They skateboarded through the hall with Nerf Guns.  Oh, and they toilet papered our halls too.  They are 5 years old- it's not just at heart... it's at brain too.  Anyways, boys, I hope you know this means war.

So that's this weekend in a nutshell.  Super excited for my second First Day of School this summer.  Tomorrow I'm starting Marine Invertebrates.  And I know a bunch of wonderful people that will be in the class with me, so I'm pumped.

Finals Week: Numero Uno

It's that time of year again... Finals Week!  I seriously can not believe that I am almost done with my first class at DISL.  It went by so quickly!  And I still have so much studying to do! Ahhhh!!  But writing this blog will serve as my study break.  Here's what one does during Study Week at DISL...

Procrastinate!  Do absolutely anything but studying! (Like write this blog post.)  Man, we're good at this here. I mean, all college kids are pros at procrastination, but here there's a beach.  Not even fair.  It's like the Sea Lab doesn't want us to study.  If they thought we should study, they wouldn't put all of us on a beach. Just putting two and two together here.  But no worries!  I plan on resisting the waves calling my name and killing my final and research presentation.  Kill as in obliterate and Ace, that is.

Which brings me to my next update... our Research Project.
Spent all day on Saturday weighing our leaves, charting out leaves, burning our leaves, and weighing our leaves some more.  That was to supposedly find biomass... Yeah, we TOTALLY RUINED this part of our experiment.  A word to the wise: ALWAYS clarify between the oven and the furnace. Apparently, we should have weighed before and after the oven, not before and after the furnace.  So we found organic matter of our plants instead of biomass.  If we knew earlier, I guess we could have done both.  Made it 200 tests instead of our measly 180. But we have enough data with those 180, I won't complain.  Especially because I got the best part of this project (note sarcasm here): Results!  Which means I get to analyze data, make it into pretty charts, and explain them during the presentation.  It really wouldn't be too awful, but I made 16 charts.  My apologies in advance, Botany class!  Believe it or not, I could have easily doubled that number with all of the data we've collected.

I would say that our burning juncus was a waste of a Saturday, but it definitely wasn't.  When Anna and I do research for extended amounts of time, the "crazy scientist" is brought out of us.  We've invented a new, eco-friendly eye black. You're welcome, world.

(We're serious about science.  This juncus eye black proves it.)

Back to the fun stuff and procrastination... on Monday after dinner, we (Anna, Angela, and I) went to the beach.  And all of our Zumba songs came on the radio!! So, of course, we stop tanning and start dancing.  In public. On the beach.  That's mostly normal, right??  Maybe not, but it was fun.  And we got a work out. And no one knows us here... it's not like I have any pride left anyways.  So it was a good decision.
And thennnnn... WE SAW A SHARK!  Actually, multiple sharks.  At least 4 of them.  We just came back to shore from swimming and the guys fishing right next to us caught them.  So we just swam with sharks. So cool! So cool! So cool! They were super cute, still babies.  But none the less, I swam with sharks in the wild! (another first for me!)  That's my story, and I'm stickin to it.

Today: I'm putting the powerpoint together for my Research Project.  It's already 44 slides, and I'm not even done yet.  Really, Botany class, I'm so so sorry.  I wish it didn't have to be this way, but what can we do??  You're just going to have to survive through it.  But at least you don't have to present it!  And we're all science nerds... which means you will all love every second of the 4 hours we'll take to present our findings!

I'm going on a (Snorkeling) Adventure!

Overnight trip to Florida with my super cool Botany class?  Yes, please!

On Thursday and Friday, we went on an adventure!  Thursday was Port Saint Joe and Friday was Saint Andrew's.

At Port Saint Joe, we snorkeled in the 2-3 ft deep seagrass beds.  Obviously, this is ridiculously shallow, so we were literally in the habitat... swimming through all of the sea grass as if we were a part of the ecosystem there.  That was really cool.  This place was full of life! Rays, welks, sand dollars, sea urchins, and starfish (Anna even found a super cute, baby starfish- no bigger than your thumb nail).  Sea grass beds are nurseries, so there were tons of cute, little fish everywhere.  But that means that it's also a great place for food, so there were some large fish that came in the sea grass as well.  Those guys were fun because we played tag with them.  It was pretty clear, so it was easy to see them, and they swam so fast- it was a fun game to try and touch them. As I've said before, scientists are really just a bunch of adults that act like kids.  I wasn't lying.  But this was seriously a way cool experience- felt like I was literally part of habitat.There was also a trench in between a couple sea grass beds.  It had so many cool things!  Whelks racing each other, spider crabs, hermit crabs... It was just full of sea life!

We snorkeled for much longer than we were supposed to, and because of that, we did not get dinner until 9:15pm.  We were dying.  But we went to this wonderful fish restaurant and ate entirely too much delicious food.  Yes, marine biologists eat fish, for those of you who have asked.  And we like it.

Then... Beach Party!! Chillin on the beach with Dr. Just, trying to see the glowing dinoflagellates in the ocean, listening to music, and discussing super nerdy/sciency things.  We also came to the conclusion that Marine Biology is only 20% seriousness and 80% is enthusiasm, which I definitely have.  Just said that there's also a bonus 5% of crazy, which I'm pretty sure my friends and I have in abundance.

Then to Saint Andrew's on Friday!  This location was 20-30 ft deep with the deeper side behind the jetties.  Because it was exceptionally deep, I got to use my fins for the first time!!  Those things are huge and heavy, but man, do they work!  I got a fantastic work out and moved very quickly though all those waves (while looking super legit in my gear, I might add).  So what did we see?  A couple rays, a toad fish, some UNA-spirited fish (Roar Lions!) aka little purple and yellow fish, a suh-weet glowing jellyfish, and a barracuda.
YES!  A BARRACUDA!!  Sooooooooooo awesome!!  It was 4 feet long, and just a few yards from my face.  I was LOVING it!!  And I was too busy thinking about how cool it was, that I didn't even think to be afraid at the time.  But for real, I was right next to a barracuda... in the wild...I love marine biology!

Then the drive back to DISL.  With some super cool experiences and absolutely wonderful memories!

Laboratory Marathon. We go hard.

Let's research the marsh, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's collect juncus, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find canopy height, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's measure elevation, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find water nutrients, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find salinity, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the density, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the percent cover, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's separate live and dead plant matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's study the soil organic matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the biomass, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

The "they" stated above is me and my research project group.  The "they" is also synonymous with "crazies," "over-achievers," "people who rather not have lives," or "juncus-haters."

Juncus.  It's really a compound word.  It's a pile of junk (junc) and makes you want to cuss (cus). Alright... Maybe I've overstated that, just a little.  But WE ARE RIDICULOUS.  Today was supposed to be study day.  But no.  I woke up, ate, and got to work with Anna on the project.  At 4:30pm, we were done with that crap.  Not done as in accomplished/finished.  We wished.  Done as in fed-up. And we're only taking a quick break for dinner.  We went back to work right away and left the lab just a little over 9pm.  So it was a long day, to say the least.  At least 8 hours doing lab work.  We go hard. But good news... WE'RE FREAKIN DONE!  With this step anyways... Soil Organic Matter is COMPLETELY DONE!!! Weeeeeee!! And our plants are sorted and ready for 48 hours in the dryer and then oven time this weekend.  It was super important for us to finish today though because our Botany class is leaving for a trip tomorrow morning at 6am, so we have zero time for our project the next couple of days.  Accomplishment! Such a lovely word.

Oh!  And just a fun fact for you all: Anna is an animal killer.  First she viciously stomps a dragonfly to death, and then she runs over nutrias.  It's either "natural selection" because they were too dumb to get out of her way or she's a "botany saver" because nutria endanger local wetlands and she rids the world of them.  Just a heads up to all you wildlife out there: Stay away from Anna!!

The Island is Sinking

Monday, June 10, 2013

Dauphin Island has been crying since Angela left on Sunday.  Coincidence? I think not.  It's not just rain though.  It's sheets of water drowning the island.  Roads are literally inches under water.  I'm pretty sure the island is not an island anymore... it's completely under water.  So that's pretty exciting.  Anna and I are passing the time with some super cool, new Zumba moves. 

In class we did some Visum, looking through microscopes. I mostly did not find what we needed to, but my slide was full of crab larvae.  It's pretty cool looking, actually! Maybe it'll come in handy for my Invert class next session.

After class it's to the lab we go to work on our "Super" experiment.  I say super as in large/over-the-top rather than ridiculously awesome (though, I guess it is ridiculously awesome as well).  We're working on our Soil Organic Matter (SOM), but there was a crab in one of our test tubes and no one in our group could find the thing. Guess we'll just have some more SOM in that tube. What can ya do?

Late night adventure: This is a very random story: (Only read if you care about our dessert catastrophe)

We decided to try the new coffee shop because its grand opening way "today."  Anna was going to satisfy her coffee addiction, and I was going to eat a delicious bear claw.  It was all planned out... until it was closed... for a whole week longer! It doesn't open until next Tuesday and they just changed the sign today.  Not cool!  But then Anna and I decided we'd just change our plans and go try the snow cone shack nearby.  Worst idea ever.  That stuff tasted awful, and that is saying something because I am not a picky eater at all.  I'm talkin dirty-icy-no-flavor-except-the-bad-after-taste snow cone.  I rather eat juncus than this stuff.  (If you don't know what Juncus is, please educate yourself with my prior post: Journey through the Juncus Jungle.) If you did read my post on juncus, you understand the seriousness of the terribleness of this snow cone.  I can not wait to go back to Miami Ice in Florence!  They have REAL snow cones that taste almost like heaven.  But back to Anna and my grave situation... we needed a dessert and two places have already disappointed us.  So let's go find civilization and dessert in one!  Across the bridge we go... and there's a bait shop and a couple restaurants that are already closed... at 8:30 at night.  Really? So that was a waste of half an hour.  But there is a restaurant called the Islander, that we think closes at 9 and it's 9... But we're going to try it anyways.  We're that desperate. And we were right.  They closed at 9, but they graciously sat up anyways.  And we got THE BEST bread pudding ever.  It was ginormous, gooey, warm, beautiful, wonderful, craving-satisfying dessert.  Word to the wise: Islanders is a Yes.  Snow Cones are a NO.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The rain stopped.  Class in the morning.  Beach in the afternoon.  Walk on the beach after dinner.  I wasn't kidding when I said I'm Beach bummin it. Love it!!  

Though getting to the beach was fun on our nice, flooded island.  Rule #2, always have good tires on this island.  Wait. That was Rule #1; I always get those mixed up.

Andddd.... I GOT A TANNNNN!! Angela said so, so it's obviously true.  Everyone should note that this is a MIRACLE.

And I got to Skype with my wonderful Yogini. Day made!

Tourist Day Photo Roll

Saturday, June 8, 2013
AKA Tourist Day!

Yup, we went there.  Dauphin Island is a super cute little town, and it needed to be documented. Please note that it only took us a couple hours to document the entire town.  Here's a mini photo roll of the day:

1.  In front of a lighthouse that doesn't actually work.  

2.  Found the faucet that leads to the ocean!

3.  Surfer Crossing.  Surfers always have the right of way.

I also had a couple friends visit me!  Shoutout to Brittany and Sami!  It was so great to see these wonderful girls and their sweet families and catch up a little bit. It felt like a little bit of home came to Dauphin Island.

It was a great day in Perdido Bay!

It's Friday and that means.... Field Trip Dayyyy!!  So this past Friday, my Botany class went to Perdido, Florida!  It was about a 2 hour drive (including the ferry) to arrive at a beautiful beach with white sand, crystal clear water, little shells everywhere, the whole nine yards!  And we saw this beautiful scene...

Nice, right??

We stopped, put some sunscreen on, changed into our gear in the pavilion, and then Dr. Just told us to load back into the vans. Wait. What?  Apparently we're not at our destination quite yet.  But no worries, Perdido is beautiful; we're probably just going to an inlet for some more seclusion and fewer waves.  Well, that's exactly what happened; we stopped to snorkel at an inlet.  But this inlet was not like the photo above.  No, sir.  It was muddy, murky, cold, and surrounded by...wait for it... juncus.  Because we didn't get enough of that junk on Tuesday! But I wasn't bitter. This was the first time I got to use my brand new, super cool snorkeling equipment, and I was going to enjoy every minute of that dirty, freezing water!  I mean, look at this gear...

 You can NOT be sad when using such beautiful equipment.  It's impossible.

(And yes, I am obsessed with Finding Nemo... Just in case you were wondering.)

So we go out to the less than perfect waters and collect sea grasses until our hearts' content.  We sifted some of the Thalassia or "Turtle Seagrass" from the sediment so that we could look at the roots and then brought our findings back to the pavilion that we started at.  So we didn't get to snorkel there, but we did get a nice view for a while there.  At the pavilion, we counted leaves, measured the length of the root, and counted nodes for Thalassia to find out how old the seagrass was. I received a congratulatory fist bump from Just for counting 73 nodes on one of my roots.  Apparently 4 year old sea grass in this inlet is amazing. What can I say?  It was obviously "super seagrass"... there's no other explanation.

When we were done with all of that fun stuff, we had some extra time before we had to leave.  Yay for efficiency and team work!  So we got to go to the beautiful beach after all!! And then back to the lab!

Side note: We drove through Orange Beach, and I just want to say that it is awesome there. There are things there! Like stores and stuff. Almost forgot those existed. So, if you're looking for a new vacay destination, Orange Beach looks like a good choice to me!

But back to reality... I'm at Dauphin Island after a day in Perdido.  We decided to take a walk on beach, which is a pretty regular after-dinner ritual for us.  But this time, we found a trigger fish washed up on the beach.  And that is some exciting stuff right there. One of my UNA friends, Angela, needs to catch 40 different species of fish for her Vertebrate class. So what do we do?  Pick it up and carry it all the way back to the Sea Lab.  Because that's totally normal behavior. But the whole walk back, everyone and their mother (literally) stopped us to look at the dead fish. Very sweet, friendly people here, I might add!  Oh, and we saved a dog's life. That was cool too.

Now what to do after such an eventful walk on the beach...Smoothies and Movies! Because it rhymes.  But that didn't actually happen... We did, however, have some milkshakes that brought boys to the yard. Or not... But only because we don't have a yard- we have a beach.  And mermaids were there (Anna & Angela will back me up on this one), so it's all good.

Journey through the Juncus Jungle

So my group did not like my title idea, but I still think it's brilliant.  The alliteration just makes me want to read all about that Juncus!  And it would definitely stick out in a Scientific Journal, just sayin.  But on to the explanation because I'm pretty positive that no one knows what Juncus is...

Juncus is found in marshes.  It looks like grass that is as tall as me, but its ends are like needles and they feel very stabby. This is what my group project members and I walked through for 5 hours on Tuesday.  We decided our project would focus on Grand Bay marsh in Mississippi, about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the Sea Lab.  We gathered data on 9 different criteria in 20 different transects to see if there are any conclusions we can draw about the plant dominance and diversity in the marsh.  Oh, and this is a 3 week project start to end- data collection, data analysis, presentation ready.  Yes, we are insane.  But we have a really cool project, so it's all good.

Our fun day in the marsh:
Started at 6am!! Each of us took our designated equipment for the test we were supposed to run at each transect.  My job was soil organic matter (SOM), so I collected dirt. It was almost like making mud pies in test tubes.  Science is really just a bunch of adults that want to act like kids forever, I'm convinced.
So let me tell you how this juncus stuff works... It stabs you. Literally everywhere.  And we walked in it for almost two miles, two very stabby/muddy/hot miles.  I have little cuts everywhere, covering my legs and getting my arms pretty bad too.  But when we were done for the day, our cut legs were covered/coated/slathered in mud.  Trying to clean all of that dirt off... it stung just a bit. But even with all of that juncus attacking, the horseflys that tried to eat us, and the mud monsters sucking us into the Earth, it was a super cool experience!  Do I want to work in juncus marshes for the rest of my life, probably not. But I just finished my first field research collection ever!  This is some legit Marine Biology going on right here! (And another positive: The mud was a great exfoliate; even with our bajillion cuts, our legs are super soft.)

My muddy, Juncus-lovin research group!

So now that the field collection is complete, we can start collecting some data in the lab, then start analyzing and putting the project together.  This weekend's project is to finish counting all of the dead and live leaves and measure live leaves.  From there, we have fun machines to give us some data.  It'll be coming together soon!

And now I am off to get everything ready for tomorrow!  We're leaving at 7:30am to catch the Ferry tomorrow.  We're going snorkeling in Perdido, and I am super pumped!  I get to use my brand new snorkeling equipment!!  So you all will get an update on that soon!

Double Decades

May 31, 2013

Yeahhh Buddy!  I'm 20!! Goodbye, teenage years, I'll never see you again.  But how does one celebrate their birthday at DISL?  Let me tell you...

First field trip to Airport Marsh and Fort Morgan!  Two local marshes.  And we got to collect different phytoplankton and name it and compare it and fun things like that.  Long story short, we scraped rocks.  And while most of you think that sounds terrible, I felt super sciencey, and I loved it!

Then everyone and their mother went to Fiesta Friday at some Mexican Restaurant.  There was delicious fried ice cream and super terrible karaoke... what's not to love about that?!

So after that crazy night out eating ice cream, a beautiful beach Saturday was exactly what we needed!  This continued on Sunday after we went to the only church on the island.  So glad that little Baptist Church exists.

**Update:  We discovered another road on the island, and it's a bunch of churches.  Really, they're all on the same road, which I think is pretty cute.  We have Methodist, Episcopal, and Catholic Churches here too!  Which means we're going to go "Church Shopping/ Exploring.   It's looking like there's maybe, just maybe, a little bit of civilization here.