The day civilization was lost

So I've been living on this tiny island for 2 months, and I've been talking about the lack of civilization here the entire time.  Well imagine that there's less civilization than I've been telling you about this whole time... didn't think that was possible?? Yeah, well I didn't either.  But today proved me wrong.

It started off like any other day on the island.  Wake up, get breakfast, go to class, try to stay awake with coffee, leave class, lunch...  But then my day was halted. The power went out. And the internet. On the whole island.  The WHOLE ISLAND. Plus some of the mainland up to Point aux Pins, Mississippi.  Okay, so everyone will live without lights for a day, what's the big deal??  Well, let me tell you what the big deal is.  Do you know what all electricity blesses society with?
Computers: I have 6 lab reports to write and an exam to study for
Smack Talk: It's Tuesday, which means I NEED to upload Smack Talk. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please go watch this YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjqJI1u8v8CKcewkjNU6FnA. You will see my lack of shame and laugh. You're welcome for that.
Laundry machines: NEVER thought I'd be so dissappointed to not do laundry (Mom will be so proud!), but I need to clean and pack clothes for my trip to Mexico on Saturday.
Air Conditioning: Let's talk about my new appreciation for the sweet blessing that is AC.  Air Conditioning, my friends, is taken advantage of. If you are one who doesn't appreciate it's gift, please live on this island (aka pit of humidity) for a day and I promise your appreciation will grow. Now imagine this pit of humidity we call Dauphin Island without this blessing.... Yes, you are now imagining muggy death.

To make up for that terrible image I just gave you, please enjoy this picture of my view today:

Yes, that is a black square.

That is a quality picture right there, amiright?? Yes, I am.  Because we, islanders, always look a hot mess... you know, beach bum lifestyle and all.  But can you imagine when we're actually hot messes? Hopefully not because that would just be downright scary.  The black square is looking better now, isn't it?

Well this all happened because someone hit a transformer.  So I'm writing this to ask you all to not hit things- it's not nice. Especially because when you do dumb things, it will affect people.  A whole island of people.  So be considerate and don't blow up transformers.

Ecology takes PCB!

Overnight field trip to Panama City Beach!  Two days out in the field looking at pretty things- such an awesome trip! So here's the gist of my Thursday and Friday:

Day 1:  Port Saint Joe.
Our first mission: Count urchins in meter plots to find the population distribution in the seagrasses.
So I've been here before-- we went last year and it was just the coolest thing since sliced bread.  Actually, it was way cooler than sliced bread, by about a bajillion times (why is that even an expression? So many things are cooler than sliced bread. Just sayin.).  Anyways, I loved it because of all of the life in these sea grass beds. The variety of starfish, the conchs, hermit crabs, stone crabs, rays, sand dollars,and some smaller predatory fishes. Loved it.  It was my favorite snorkeling spot for the longest time because you are literally in the habitat when swimming because it's so shallow.  So obviously I was pumped to see again.
So we get there and it's low tide. I mean REALLY LOW tide. What used to be at least three feet was a couple inches. Obviously, there wasn't much marine life due to the shallowness.  And the seagrass was covered with algae, which is bad news for an ecosystem. Looking that this once beautiful location was now nearly empty was so sad! And no one wants this to happen permanently to their favorite snorkeling spot-- this is why conservation is important!  Rant time:  If we don't keep our oceans happy, they're going to turn ugly.  Fertilizers and runoff increase algal growth, which increases decay and decreases oxygen on the ocean floor, resulting in fewer fish because if there's no oxygen, fish can't breath and will die.  On top of that, overfishing removes large predatory fishes, which increases the number of small fish, removing a whole part of the food web and leaves too many small fish hunting for the same limited food source.  Fewer large fish means failing fisheries; failing fisheries means fewer jobs and fewer fish nights at your favorite restaurant; fewer jobs and fewer fish nights means a huge blow to our economy. But when these big fish are overfished and the small fish run out of oxygen, what's left?  Maybe some jellyfish, which are not the most useful animals we have. So overfishing and runoff leads to empty oceans and failed fisheries and failed tourism and failed economy: just don't do it people!  And don't get me started on pollution- like how FREAKING HARD is it to put your glass jars and plastic bottles in a recycling bin instead of a trash can??  The answer: not hard.  Glass doesn't degrade. At all.  But it is 100% reusable when recycled, unlike any other recyclable material, so why the heck would you waste the glass and room in a landfill on it?!  Make a teensy tiny effort to keep this Earth nice and functioning for the future generations, okay? Okay. (Yes, I did just make a Fault in Our Stars reference. Yes, it was a wonderful book.) Just treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children. And no one like an ugly ocean. End rant.
Back to our lab... We walked out far enough that it got a bit deeper and we could do our lab work and count urchins.  There was an average of 2.5 urchins in every meter, fun fact for ya! We also found a fish that we returned to the water quickly after figuring out that it was a scorpion fish and would stab us with its venom spines. This is the beauty of knowing what different kinds of fish are- you save your hand and your life! So stay in school, kids. Learning saves lives.

Our second mission: Trawling in the sand and seagrass to find what types of fish are where!
We started in the sand and found urchins. urchins. more urchins. andddd a tunicate. Yup. Not the most thrilling trawl ever, but the spot we were in was not the liveliest. 
Then we moved to the seagrasses and my faith was restored in ocean humanity (just a little bit). We found lots of cool things this time! Scrawled cowfish, flounder, seahorses, a billion pinfish, seahorses, a few burrfish (type of pufferfish).  That was some fun stuff!

Enjoy this photo of my first pufferfish (that I was afraid of) and me now with a pufferfish.  I've changed for the better.

Day 2: Saint Andrews.
Time for snorkeling!  And this part was flipping awesome!  Actually it was my favorite part of the trip.  It was super clear water and the temperature was just right- not bath water or too chilly- and there was just SO MUCH to see, which definitely made up for my slight disappointment from the first snorkeling spot.  Just to name a few things we saw: drum, juvenile cocoa damselfish (ROAR LIONS! They're purple and gold), spadefish (DISL's mascot), lookdown (you're standing in your grave...Les Miserables allusion if ya didn't catch it), yellowfin grouper, a HUGE southern ray, blue angelfish, yellow jack, feather blenny, tessellated Blenny (so cute hiding in the rocks), sea cucumber (which is not slimy and gross like I expected).  There were also about a bajillion juvenile jellyfish that were constantly stinging us- it was itchy and stingy and obnoxious, but I didn't notice it for the longest time because I was so distracted by all the other pretty things around me!  Literally everywhere you looked there was more marine life: in the algae covered rocks, under the rocks, in between the rocks, open ocean, in the sediment, on the sediment, and everywhere in between.  New favorite snorkeling spot, guys. But I know there's still so much to explore, and I can't wait to see more places!

Saving the world, one stench at a time!

WARNING: Don't read this post if you get queasy easily.
IF YOU'RE STILL READING: Are you okay thinking about dead animals? If so, read on.
IF YOU WILL BE READING THIS POST: Yay you! Don't say I didn't give enough warning.

Dead Dolphins. Yes, I know it's sad. But death is not what I'll be discussing today; instead I'll be talking about the stench of it.  Death stinks. REAL bad.  Definitely the worst smell on the face of the planet. You do NOT what these aromatic compounds getting anywhere close to your nose. This smell is so hopeless that Febreze wouldn't help a lick (and that's saying something because that stuff does miracles-- have you seen those commercials? If not, go here: http://youtu.be/Btb2z7PXK00).  And then even after a long, hot, soapy shower, or two or three, plus febrezing anything and everything you pass, a couple days later you smell the smelly smell again. Bum bum bummmm! In a panic you try to figure out where it came from. You attempt to logically convince yourself that you must have imagined the smell again,  but you know that you smelled it. The smell is back and following you. It's out to get you and will never ever leave. The smell of rotting dolphin flesh is nothing to mess with, my friends. And multiply that by 3 because that's what I was dealing with... 3 dolphin heads. Imagine rotting flesh here. Actually don't do that. You will regret it.  You will NEVER forget the smell and your brain will remind you of the smell at the most inopportune times, such as when you're done cleaning the house and you have guests arriving in five minutes or you just tried a new recipe that involved you slaying over the stove all day long.  Smelling rotting flesh during these instances (or really any instance at all) may lead you to break down crying or feel the need to burn your house/kitchen/environment to ashes hoping the smell will go away or doing both simultaneously. Any of these three choices are equally as plausible and are all quite terrible, so just don't image smelling dead things, okay? It'll save you in the end, I promise. That's something I can never unsmell though.  This stench is a new ghost that will follow me for the rest of my days.

I know what you're thinking... If it's so dreadful, why would you put yourself in this situation, Hailey?! Answer.... Because it's marine biology aka awesomeness, duh!  And perhaps the reason more people would understand: I'm a volunteer with the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network (ALMMSN).  We go out on calls when there is a dolphin/turtle/manatee that is stranded or beached and help it back into the water, or if it's deceased we'll see how it died by giving an autopsy.  And everything we do with ALMMSN is for research for these wonderful marine mammals.  So this call was studying a collection of dolphin heads from past strandings.  My job: Remove the jaw from the skull. (Fun fact: Dolphin teeth have rings that form each year, so you can age a dolphin with one tooth!) You'd think this job would be a sinch, but you'd be incorrect.  These dolphin heads were frozen when first collected from the field and then thawed out all day so that we could cut off the flesh. So dead dolphins smell bad, but dead dolphins frozen and thawed again do tend to have a riper scent, which turns out to be a smidgen distracting. So I dig in to this head for a while, cutting off all the stinky meat I can and finally have my jaw out- woot woot! AND not a drop of dolphin guts on my outfit or hands (thank you gloves)- but the smell: EVERYWHERE. But I'm tough and can take it.  That smelly smell that smells smelly... yeah. That's my life and it's awesome.  I am totally okay with it so long as it means I'm saving the world, one stench at a time!

And really, who can say they've cut up a dolphin head before?  Pretty much no one.  So clearly I'm the coolest person ever now.  And now that I've written this post about smelly dolphins, I feel I need another shower. That rotting-flesh-stench ghost has found me again.

Coloring+Candy+Playing in Mud=Science!

Ecology is definitely growing on me, which is great!  The graphs and math that were semi-frustrating to me the first week make all kinds of sense to me now! I feel SO much better about life because of it.  And we're getting into field trips, which is always my favorite part!  We spent half of this week out in the field.  To top that, Kelly (my professor) is awesome! She's sweet, super helpful when we don't understand things, and very encouraging.  She also made some of our lectures this week awesome by letting us color and giving us candy (yes, I am 5 and still appreciate such things!)... but really, who doesn't love coloring?!

So here's my week in a nut-shell (if bogs can be considered nut-shells):
Last weekend: We went to civilization and it was glorious!! :D  Craft shopping and going to Starbucks and the mall and IHop for dinner.  It really was just lovely to see things outside of our normal 7 miles!  And we made this quality video too... If you give a girl a pinwheel, what else do you expect her to do?!

Wee! We! We! Weeeee!

(sorry it's sideways- technology doesn't like me)

Monday! Field trip to Point aux Pins to get ALL the blue crabs! Woo!
For those of you who haven't handled a blue crab before, it's important to note something:  Blue crabs are nasty little boogers that will pinch the snot out of you. Really.  They are fast and vicious. And each group was to collect and measure 100 of them. Oh, and the waters we were walking in are infested with sting rays.  So we're just looking for things to attack us at this point (Don't freak out, Mom, I'm halfway kidding!). Well after a hot few hours in the sun we accomplished a lot: Morgan and I dragged a seine that tangled on itself resulting in zero crabs, but it was a QUALITY work out; a classmate thought it was a good idea to walk barefoot in stingray infested waters and was told in a motherly tone to "Shuffle himself back here!" (Go Kelly!); and my group still managed to seine well over 100 crabs! And we measured all of those bad boys (and girls, mostly girl crabs actually) without one pinching catastrophe!  (It helps that we only had two huge crabs and the rest were babies.)

Tuesday! I met with Dr. Drymond (the super cool shark guy from a couple weeks back) and we talked about Graduate school.  He was very helpful, but I left less decisive than I came. There are just SO many options!! I mean, I could always join the Peace Corps too.

Wednesday!  Not super exciting- we mostly attempted to study for our first Ecology Exam on Thursday.  Kelly had a review session for us and then we "studied" for a few more hours.

Thursday!  This was the longest day of my life!  Not it a bad way, but it definitely had enough packed into it to be a week of activities.  We had our first exam in the morning, followed by a lecture, quick lunch break, then field work, field work, and more field work, and then I had clean up duty. But even though it was exhausting, it was a great day!   
The test: ended up with an A on it, which was a miracle.  Most of the class did not do as well as they were hoping, but now we know how tests are in this class and we won't need to give ourselves heart attacks next time.   
The lecture: The best lecture OF ALL TIME!  We learned foraging techniques by running after candy that Kelly strategically placed on a bunch of picnic tables.  We had a minute to collect as many piles of candy as possible.  Snickers were 10 points, Starburst were 4 and Skittles were 1 point each.  Clearly, I went for the chocolate every time- it's delicious and "nutritious" (according to our game).  So next Snickers you eat, 10 points to you for being awesome- calories shmalories!
The field work: We went to Ferry marsh to do two experiments.  One studying oyster clusters as homes for crabs and one studying predation.  What we learned about oyster clusters: They're sharp and will cut you (like Bon Qui Qui).

I'm also pretty sure we found the largest oyster cluster in the marsh- it displaced about 1.5 Liters.  Just another reason my lab group rocks!
The predation experiment is a few day long experiment.  We started Thursday and set everything up, but we also check it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We tied hermit and mud crabs to fishing line (like leashes or nooses- however you'd like to think about it), and we check each day to see if they're eaten.  If they are, we replace them with another crab.  Half of the crabs are in fake seagrass and the other half is in open water.  This might be the first Ecology experiment that actually goes our way without hiccups... we shall see!  But I'm excited about it!

Friday! MURRICA!  Happy birthday, America!!  Yayyyyy Freedom! We had class, but after that I watched White House Down.  Quality movie!  Channing Tatum, guns blazing, and Murrica... what's not to love?!  And of course, we go to the beach for fireworks! We also went to listen and dance to country music because there's nothing more American than that.  It was a lovely evening! I'm so glad we have a day to celebrate living in the land of the free because of the Brave!  We are truly blessed to live in a country with the freedom to live how we choose.

Saturday: My sister's 24th birthday!!!!! Woot! Woot! Have the best day ever! 14 days until Mexico :D

What's coming up:
Over night trip to Panama City!! And some lecture and lab and such too, but WE'RE GOING TO PBC!  This is thrilling, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Not until I have "Dr." in front of my name

What do I do in my free time?? Research graduate schools! Woo! SUCH FUN!  (I know you're jealous; feel free to join me anytime-- seriously. Misery loves company.)  This Grad school application thing is tricky for us science people- I really wish I had someone who knew how to do all of this, but it seems that everyone is lost.  Applying for grad schools is like learning a foreign language and everyone wants a different accent from you.

Here's a quick low-down science major's grad school before even thinking about filling out an application:
I have to get a professor to like me enough to choose me to study under him/her. To do that, I must research schools with a good program, find the faculty for the projects I'm interested in, educate myself on each professor's research, email each professor explaining my interest in his/her research and how it relates to me and why I'm interested and my life story and such, and then hope and pray that the 2 hours I just spent researching and emailing them wasn't a waste and they email me back. 
And after all of that, the email hopefully says something encouraging like.... "I'm not taking any grad students, but thanks for your interest" rather than...."Why would you waste your time when you are clearly not experienced enough in this field? Perhaps you'd do better off looking into job applications with your current degree."  Because while neither answer gets you anywhere closer to attending grad school, at least your hopes and dreams weren't crushed by the first reply. 

So needless to say, Grad school tries to defeat people even before their in, but that's okay.  Grad school will chew me up and spit me out eventually, but not until I have "Dr." in front of my name.  Until then, I'm super excited for all of the "No"s because I only need one "Yes" for my dream to become a reality.

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P.S. For those of you who are concerned, I have gotten a couple "No"s from professors, but nothing worse (yet).  The other quote does happen though- that was a friend's experience.  So be strong, grad-school-applying friends, words don't hut you.  You can hear all the negativity in the world, but hearing one "Yes" is all you need.  (And the more No's you get--statistically speaking-- the closer you are to hearing a Yes!)

First week of my last class ever

 Ecology [ih-kol-uh-jee] - the study of relationships and interactions between organisms and their environment, including both abiotic and biotic factors
This is my second class for this summer and my last class EVER at the Sea Lab.  Let us pause for a moment of silence....

Mourning: Over.  This is my last month on this island (maybe ever in my life), so I'm going to enjoy it all the way through! Are you with me?! Of course you are! Let the last-days-on-the-island-kind-of-partying commence:  fish and biology and beaches all around!!

Monday: First Day of Class! Woo!  Well it's a rainy day, so we lecture all day. No field trip to the marsh, as planned=bummer.  Then Tuesday, more lecture, AND it was a bunch of math=bummer.   Then Thursday lecture is graphs that I don't understand=bummer. (The last time I didn't understand what I was learning was Organic Chemistry 2 years ago and before then, Long-Division in 2nd grade... It doesn't happen very often and I don't like it.)  What is this class?? I mean, I know it's awesome because it's related to the ocean, but it's hard to appreciate its awesomeness when it's covered by me reading and analyzing an average of 17.667 pages every night for homework and learning differential equations. I mean, I know this is crazy, but I expected to learn about fishies and fun things like that.  Nonetheless, I will love this class- I'm pretty determined to do so. In fact, I'm super looking forward to our field trips coming up, which include an overnight trip in Panama City and a night trawl. (SO COOL!) 

We already had Marsh field trips yesterday and today. And I have so much experience with the deathly juncus that I feel so much more prepared than practically everyone in the world when it comes to marshes.  Marsh days don't even phase me-- they're just another day on Nature's elliptical.  As in, when you take a step, the muddy sediment pulls you into the Earth halfway up your thigh only for you to take another step and have to repeat the process hoping that this next step won't take your whole body into its muddy depths.  

^^So you can see what a good time marshes can be!

I've learned two things this week:
1) I don't want to be an ecologist.
2) I don't want to work in marshes my whole life.
Scratch that. I knew about #2.  I learned one thing this week and was reassured of one thing this week.

Ecology [ih-kol-uh-jee]: I'm not a fan, but I love it. No, I won't spend my whole life in it, but it's definitely important to learn.  And I enjoy learning, so it's been a good week and will be a great month.  
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What's coming up:
Tomorrow I'm going to visit civilization (aka Mobile), and I'm pretty pumped.  We're just going to go walking around and breath in the fresh civilized air, shop a bit, and waste the weekend away. It's going to be great!

Hailey: Master of Marine Vertebrates

I'm officially done with my Marine Vertebrates class, and I have to say that I'm really going to miss it.  I know it's a "marine" class and I will therefore love it, but this class has been just fabulous.  It's definitely been my favorite so far on the island.  My professor, Jim, was awesome.  This guy is hilarious and awkward and so incredibly entertaining- lecture was fun (almost) all the time.  And I only say "almost" because no one, and I do mean no one, can make 3+ straight hours of lecture entertaining the whole time.  But Jim got pretty close.  He made fun of manatees and their lack of quality high-fives (due to their unfortunately tiny brain) and shared his fear of gulls attacking him to make him throw up (it's a kleptoparasitism thing...and not an irrational fear. I'll explain in the next paragraph).  He just said lots of really lame puns and nerdy jokes, and it made learning fun and easy. I love science humor: intellect and wit= two of my favorite things!

Rabbit Trail: (These always come in handy)
So this kleptoparasitism thing... Gulls, a type of seabird, do this thing to eat where they attack another bird that just ate and makes them "throw up" their food.  It's not the gross throw up you're thinking about.  Birds store their food in a "crop" in their throat before they eat it.  So a klepto-gull will make them spit it out.  The klepto-gull gets to be lazy and eat throw up... WIN-WIN! Am I right?! Anyways, Jim fearing that one will attack him and make him throw up isn't really irrational.  In fact, let's all fear the birds that work like Ipecac! Run awayyyyyyy!  Bet you didn't know birds were so scary- makes those sharks look pretty cuddly now, huh??

Back to the strait and narrow:
My fabulous class. We were constantly told to think like a fish. Be the fish.  Be one with the fish.

"Put yourself in the fins of a fish"

Well seeing as I'm a mermaid (shh!  It's a secret!), this was not too difficult.  But it did train me to have a new perspective.  I wasn't just studying and memorizing facts about these animals-- I was understanding them: how they work with their body type and environment, how they've evolved, why they work the way they do.  These gulls don't just practice kleptoparasitism for the heck of it- they do it because it's energetically favorable.  Gulls are very intelligent birds, but flying takes a lot of energy, and if you need food and can't find any except in another's throat- you're going to eat it.  It's called survival, and it's the #1 goal of all animals (See, I told you Rabbit Trails come in handy).

I definitely see myself going into this subject again soon.  It fed my my shark obsession, and now I want more. Ya know, if you give a mouse a cookie.... Well I'm the mouse and the sharks were my cookie.  In the words of Oliver, "I want MORE!"

I should also mention that I'm pretty good at Marine Vertebrates too... got a 100% on my Lab Practical, which was 50 questions of scientific Latin names and fish anatomy that needed to be spelled correctly, and I aced my Final this morning.  Didn't get the percentage back yet, but I have an A in the class! Yay! I've done well with everything in this class because it's so very interesting and I want to LEARN ALL THE THINGS! Really, I do! Another sign that I've chosen the right major.  I just can't wait to see where it leads me!

"There are as many beautiful stories as there are drops in the ocean. How will you write yours?"

I don't know exactly how I'll write mine yet.  But whatever happens, I know I'm going to love it!  I mean, it's a drop in the ocean and I love the ocean, so my story's bound to be a great one.  

What's coming up:

My next class starts on Monday: Marine Ecology.  I have no idea what I'll be learning or doing, but I will find out soon, and I'll let you all know as soon as I can!

This weekend:  

FREEDOM and NO STUDYING... Translation: BEACH. And more importantly, my best friend Hannah is coming to visit me!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Like she'll be here in 15 minutes.  AND I CAN'T FREAKIN WAIT! I have missed her so much, and I'm super happy we'll get to enjoy some time on the beach together!  My bestie and the beach.... that's a quality combination right there!  Oh, and this was decided last night when I was procrastinating on studying for my Final... Spontaneity strikes again! Gosh, don't cha love it?!  I know I do!

Also, Shout out to Rebecca because I wish you were coming too, but we'll just have to use this as another excuse to go to the beach in the future!  42 days until I get to see your face!

Watch for Sharks!

Oh, I most definitely did!  All day long! Watched 15 of them actually, as they came on and off our boat during our Long-Lining Trip today.  In a word it was flipping-awesome.

I'm sure you've all heard about the sharks at Orange Beach and are probably alarmed that my class went to collect sharks today.  Those vicious man-eating beasts! They're flocking! They must want to attack us! They want to eat us! They're dangerous! Stay away from them!  Yes, yes, yes. I've heard it all-- we've all heard these things time and time again.  But let's just stop this stigma society has with sharks right now.  Why do we have such a stigma with sharks anyways??  
Sharks have large, pointy teeth that look scary...but some people look scary too, so that can't be it.  Sharks have killed people in the past... but so have bees- it's 50x more likely that a bee will kill you than a shark.
These sharks are "flocking" at Orange Beach. Yeah, so what?? We have people that flock at shopping malls every day, and that doesn't freak us out (Well it freaks me out a smidgen, especially on Black Friday, but I digress).  And a group of sharks isn't a flock-- it's a shiver.  There's a name for it because it happens.  Sharks being in groups is a thing.  It's not "normal" for sharks to get in groups like this everyday, but it is perfectly normal for feeding and mating behavior.  And this grouping of sharks happens everywhere, not just at Orange Beach.  The only reason Orange Beach is a "big deal" is because it was in nice clear water, so that the sharks could be seen easily.  I guarantee that the same behavior at Orange Beach has occurred here at Dauphin Island, and probably sometime when I was swimming with them in the ocean.  But DIs has less-than-crystal-clear water, so an aerial view is not quite as revealing.

We fear sharks because we fear the unknown.  We just don't know much about sharks at all, and that's why this Long-Lining trip was so important.  Every shark that we caught was identified, measured, weighed, and tagged before being thrown back into the ocean.  When these sharks are spotted in the future (by fishermen or researchers or people like you!), we hope that they'll report the tag they saw and we can learn migration patterns of sharks and have an idea for shark population and species.  the more we understand them, the more we can protect them.  The more they're protected, the less invasive we are.  The less invasive we are, the less we need to worry about sharks.  

So now that I'm off my soap box, here's a recount of today-- one of my favorite days ever!!

We got an email from Jim telling us to "be ready to wrestle with the primitive denizens of the deep," and boy was I ready!  I love love love sharks!! Ever since I swam in a shark cage in high school, I've been a little obsessed.  They are just SO fascinating!  And whale sharks... Oh my goodness I'm obsessed with them too. If I could work with sharks my while life, I'd be one happy camper.  But back to today's shark-packed-life...

At 7:15am we all climbed aboard the E.O. Wilson and traveled out about 10 miles to set up our lines.  We were "Long-Lining," which is letting out one ridiculously long line with lots of little lines hanging from it with bait.  I made this beautiful picture to illustrate:

I'm a Paint artist, I know! Each orange circle is a bouy; the grey rectangles are weights.  You'll notice that our hooks are near the sediment-- that is by design.  Sharks are bottom feeders, so if you put food on the bottom, you'll catch them!  This also meant that we weren't going to catch any pelagic fish (those little red guys in the picture).

So the line was set up and our shark expert (Dr. Drymon- who the one of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of meeting) started calling the sharks, "Come on, fish!" and they listened!  It felt like we caught shark after shark, and every time we got another shark, the boat cheered with enthusiasm.  We brought up each shark on the boat to identify, measure, weigh, and tag.  And 15 sharks later, we had 4 new species for our collections and a fabulous day to remember. The Great Hammerhead we caught had to be wrestled down with four people, and the Scalloped Hammerhead was so big that we couldn't even get it on the boat!  I also took a picture with a Blacknose Shark:

 

^I'm dying of excitement right here!!!

Due to the current attention sharks are getting, our class made it on Channel 5's 6 o'clock news in Mobile, AL.  So we got to play with sharks all day and became famous. Gosh, we're cool! 

^Proof I've been on the news. Bam!

This was by far the coolest thing we've done this summer.  It actually might've been the coolest thing I've done in my life ever.  Ahhhh! I'm just really high on life right now!  Nothing excites me more than playing with sharks. And just a side note:  I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to study sharks in Grad school. So if you know anyone looking for another Grad student (for a PhD) or know of a professor that studies sharks, help a sister out.  You'd probably make my day life.

What's coming up: Well certainly nothing that's going to top today!  Especially because it's ba dum ba dum ba dum badumbadumbadm....DEAD WEEK!  Talk about terrifying!  Our Species Collections are due tomorrow, our Lab Practical is Thursday, and our Final Exam is Friday.  Welcome to Finals week at DISL!  It's going to be full of cram time and lacking beach days, and I'm not looking forward to it.  But I'm going to be so incredibly knowledgeable on all things Marine Vertebrates by Friday that I won't know what to do with my newly brilliant self.  Prayers are always welcome!  See you on the other side, friends!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you Padres out there!  I hope you all have a ridiculously wonderful day full of fishing, food, and your kids being extra sweet to you.  Because, if we're being honest, Dads do a lot of stuff for us, and sometimes we're not so great at appreciating it.  In fact, sometimes we children are obnoxious, so thanks to all you dads for putting up with us!  Shoutout to the best dad in the whole wide world......

Isn't that funny?! The "Best Dad in the Whole Wide World" just so happens to be MY dad.  Man, I'm a lucky kid! (And I'm that super adorable one on the right)

This guy is awesome. Amazing, actually.  In fact, I'm going to take some time to brag on him.  He owns and manages his own company.  Make that 2 companies. And in his free time, he's studying to be a pastor.  Oh, and he works at church part-time to learn pastor-y things.  Plus, he's part of my family, so that'll keep anyone ridiculously busy.  I think I have a full plate, but can you imagine his schedule?!  I feel I do nothing with my life in comparison.  On top of all of that, he ALWAYS helps me when I need it. Whether it's life advice or filling out paperwork for me or listening to me vent about all these dumb scientific names I have to memorize, he's there.  He's always interested in hearing about my life, and Dad, I really appreciate that.  Even with your busy-ness, you make time for me and I love it.  I'm also almost never home (less than 2 months out of the year), but when I am home, this guy has lunch with me, watches my favorite TV shows with me, and teaches me how to shoot guns.  Did I mention he's the best dad ever??

I  was going to be bummed that I couldn't celebrate with my dad because of my seclusion on the island and whatnot, but then my family was uncharacteristically spontaneous, and it was AWESOME.  They all decided on Thursday afternoon to come see me at DISL!! An hour after the decision was made, a hotel room was booked and they were driving down.  They were here with me until Saturday, so we got some quality family time in. We ate way too much delicious food, enjoyed some quality beach time, had wonderful adventures, and were rule-breakers (because rules were made to be broken, duh!).  Yes, we Boecks were impulsive, adventurous, less-than-legal, and proud of it.  Sometimes we like to live on the wild side, and I guess that was us these past couple of days.  This island brings out spontaneity in people, I'm just sayin. (Anyone else want to visit and go crazy?!) Anyways, these were a few freakin fabulous days, so thank you wonderful family, for being you.

Shoutout especially to the man of the hour:

You are a wonderful role model, and I would be lucky to grow up to be as awesome as you!  You're brilliant, hard-working, encouraging, confident yet humble, and realistic yet positive.  I respect you immensely, and I am so proud that you are my dad. Thanks for being awesome, for accepting me, and for encouraging me.  You're Incredible.

 ^Incredible like this guy ;)

<3, Daddy's Little Girl

P.S. 33 days until I see you all again!! Weeeeeeeeee!

A wrench in my plans

This week was FULL of wrenches being thrown into plans.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but things just don't always go how you image it.  I've learned that a lot this year, and my Type-A-self is starting to get better at accepting it.  So here are just a few of the wrenches for the week:

WRENCH #1:  We had a field trip on Monday.  We were supposed to go out to the island on the South side of DISL where there's apparently a huge variety of fish for us to use for our collections.  We were going to do gill netting and seining.  Bad news is that it was a bit too windy over there, so we planned to go to "Little Dauphin Island." This is a secluded island on the inside of the bay.  It was very pretty, actually- nice calm water, beautiful clean sand.  Unfortunately it also has less variety of fishes.  We started seining and got anchovies our first time.  Just anchovies.  So we try it again and again and we got anchovies and some more anchovies and some more anchovies.  Needless to say, this is not the most successful we've ever been.  But the gill nets weren't done yet, so we decided to play in the sand while we waited.

You want to build a sand man? It doesn't have to be a sand man! How bout a man-a-tee!

Yup.  Pretty proud of our Matthew Manatee!

Then time for the gill net!  This is just strings cross-netted to catch anything that tries to swim through it.  It catches the fish right at the gills, hence the name.  They're supposed to catch about a bajillion fish.  The fishing industry has shied away from them: too much bycatch of sea turtles/mammals/etc that die of drowning when they get stuck in them.  We only had our net out for 1 hour to be safe and got 4 or 5 fishes.  My favorite catch:

 

Who's that Lady?? (Who's that Lady??) Fiiiiine Lady! 

It's a Lady Fish, guys!

So after a day outside, we got a picture with a Man-atee, a bunch of anchovies, and a super cool Lady Fish. And at least we still went on the field trip! So many positives!

WRENCH #2:  We had a field trip that was supposed to be today.  The plan was to do long-lining, which I've never done, but it sounds awesome!  We're going to catch huge fish and sharks, apparently.  First, the trip was supposed to be all day, but the big boat is being repaired, so we split the class and planned to each have a half day out. It's going to be easier with fewer people on the boat anyways.  Plus, we get half a day off! No complaints here.  But then today was supposed to be super stormy, so Jim called the trip off and rescheduled it for Monday.  To make matters worse, the weather today was GORGEOUS.  I'm talking perfect boat weather: sunshiney and beautiful, not a cloud in the sky....  And we were stuck inside.  We were SO ready for that field trip!  Our class was not feeling today's whole day of lecture and lack-of-sun-and-boat.  But we're still going on Monday! As of now anyways.  My fingers are crossed for this freakish weather to cooperate.

WRENCH #3:  (This one's my favorite!)  I had a blog post ready for Father's Day, and it was touching and sweet and everything.  But it was also about how bummed I am that I can't celebrate with my dad.... Well times have changed!  My family called me in the middle of my fish dissections today to tell me that they just decided to come visit and would be here in 5 hours. Talk about spontaneity! It's gonna be so great!!  So I'll see them in approximately 2 hours, and then they leave Saturday afternoon.  It's not exactly Father's Day, but we're celebrating early! I can't wait for all the fun we're about to have!  And don't worry, I'll still have a super sweet Father's Day blog.  I'm just going to need to start over- this is what I get for trying to be on top of things.  BUT I'll take fun with my family over a quality blog post any day of the week.

Awesome^2

This was the week of field trips!  Two in one week, which means double the awesome!

FIELD TRIP NUMERO UNUS! (That's Spanish and Latin because I'm multilingual sometimes.)

Monday we took a day trip to Perdido.  Rough life, I know.  We planned to wake up at 7am, leave DISL at 8am, ride the ferry at 8am, be in Perdido at 9:30am and spend all day in water collecting fish.  But a wrench was thrown into our plans...    WE MISSED THE FERRY. #DISLprobs   Funny thing is, you can't leave the Sea Lab and the ferry at the same time.  One does not simply be in two places at once.  So we had to waste an hour and a half until our second chance with the ferry (everyone deserves a second chance, right?!). Well we finally made it to Perdido to seine and trawl.

We take our dingy boat to DISL's island (Yes, they have a tiny island in Perdido. Super cool, I know!) and start seining from the shore.  This is taking a huge net (~5ft tall) and dragging it out into the ocean and back onto the shore, which leaves your net full of fishes.  In our case, about 9,039,479,348 fishes of 4 different species... Needless to say, we threw a lot of fishies back into the ocean!

After seining, each group had a chance to trawl on our dingy boat.  This was the first small-scale trawling I've done, and it takes much more work than the over-sized trawling that I'm used to.  In our trawl, we dragged a net behind us and collected whatever ended up in there for our collection.  For us that meant........drum roll please.......... 2 fishes.  Yes, 2.  That's all we got.  So we go one more time and our second chance gives us 0, nada, zilch. It happens. We'll just take the first two and be done, I suppose.  This was a very unlucky trawl! But looking at the positives: We got something to take, which is always better than nothing! And I learned how to do a Shrimper's knot on the net (That's resume-worthy stuff!), so you can now call me a skilled fisherman.  Other good news is that all of the other groups were just as unlucky as us, and I'm not-so-secretly happy about that.  The scientific reason for this: there has been a bunch of rain the past couple of days, so the fish are all playing hide-and-seek. 

One of my classmates was determined to catch a ray, so he widdled a spear.  As in, he found a broomstick and took his pocket knife and made a legit spear. Then he successfully stabbed and caught a sting ray. Where'd he get the broom?  No idea.  Don't ask questions.  Please just appreciate the bad-butt-ery of this situation! He just pulled out a spear like he was Finnick from the Hunger Games and earned 100000 points on the scale of awesome.

After we've been in the hot sun all day and collected all the fishies we possibly can, we are very pooped!  Time to make our way back to DISL. The boat that brought us to the island in shifts was now going to do the same thing going back.  The boat holds "5 people at a time" according to our Captain, but we could get 20+ people on there if we really wanted to-- we would've just been a bit cozy. But it's only a 100 yd trip, so that's not a big deal, right?!  Nope.  Why?! We had 5 life jackets.  Please tell me why we had 5 life jackets for 21 people. Two options: We're fabulous swimmers or you want us to die. Actually, the reason is that we can take 5 trips back and forth to the island to collect all of us rather than an easy 1 trip.  5 trips because we wouldn't dare risk the boat blowing up (without enough life jackets) in the middle of this 100 yard stretch of water as we take a 6th person on the last trip to the docks. Because of our lack of life jackets and our rule-following selves, it took approximately one million years to get our whole class back to the pier; I should've just swam the short stretch. Moral of the story: Never leave a life jacket behind.  But then we got to all go back to home sweet DISL after smelling like fish for the couple hour car ride.  That was some quality bonding time right there.

FIELD TRIP NUMERO DOS!!
Thursday was Boat Day! Specifically for large-scale trawling and deep sea fishing.

First of all, we spent our entire day on a boat= Heaven.
Second, all of our trawls were awesome.  All of the groups got some quality fish for our species collections.  My group is around 30 species after this trip, so that's flippin fantastic.
Third, seeing as I'm a fisherman now, I tried some deep-sea fishing and caught a million Red Snappers.  Only problem is that they were too small to keep, but I still felt super cool that I was catching things!

Some of my favorite catches of the day from my classmates:
1.  a GIANT red snapper.  This thing filled an over-sized cooler.  It was HUGE and caught with a fishing pole.  Really that just amazed me.
2.  a remora.  These guys are so cool!  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to Google it! They're also known as "sharksuckers" and will actually stick to you with their suction-cup-like head.  Here's a photo that I'm borrowing from Google to illustrate to you the coolness of this fish:

Other wonderful parts of my week:
I ACED my midterm! Woot! Woot! So glad that is over so that I can focus on studying for my Fish ID quiz with 25 family, genus, and species names all in Latin plus their common names.  No worries, I got this. Probably.  I'll get there by quiz time on Tuesday at 9am anyways! Off to study for now, but this week is full of more fun and field trips.  I'll update you soon!

They Say It's My Birthday!

My 21st birthday was Saturday, and it was SUPER fun!  Unfortunately, my friend did not make it down to visit as I told you a couple posts back, but my DISL friends made it extra wonderful for me!

Friday night: We went to Ole Maria's (as we do every Friday on the island), but it was extra fun this time! We karaoked for hours. And nothing is more entertaining than people with a microphone and without shame. The restaurant closes at 10, but we didn't finish our last song until 10:30 when all of us DISL kids sang "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" in unison with stomping and clapping and all... because why not?! We went back to the Sea Lab and just hung out, but at exactly midnight, everyone with me sang Happy Birthday, which was super sweet!

Saturday: I woke up to my roomie wishing me a happy birthday and then Skyping my favorite people. All day I got to read and relax, which was absolutely wonderful (And I finally finished my first book of the summer! Woo!). Then I went out with a group for dinner to the Islander where I was apparently "lame" for ordering a water (Thank you, Clint). But I thought it was a very refreshing and delicious hydration- sorry I'm not sorry. We then went to Mobile to find a place to dance and failed miserably. The first place we went to was most definitely not a dancing location, so we decided to ask the experts: Waffle House. Can't believe I'm saying this, but Waffle House did us wrong... They directed us to a dance place that was apparently a "Latin American Dance Club," and seeing as none of us knew how to salsa, that didn't work out too well either. But we had a quality hour of fun attempting to Latin dance and moved on.  We went back to the island to dance at the Deep End (the only bar on the island) because Bren and Clint promised there would be fun dancing. Hate to say it, but they were right! As Macklemore would say, "We danced...And we laughed. And had a really really really good time!"  They played all of our favorite music, and all of DISL was there dancing with us, which made it even better!

This year, my birthday is definitely one that I'll remember!  Everyone was so excited for my birthday that it made me even more excited!  It wasn't just another day; my friends made it a celebration!  Shout out especially to Angela and Anna for making sure my birthday was perfect, to Bren and Clint for going along with us all night despite the ridiculous places we brought you to, and to all of you DISL people for knowing how to have fun! Everyone's well wishes and happy birthdays were very kind, so thank you all!  I'm not sure next year will be able to live up to this, but then again, not much can live up to a DISL party!

I was blind, but now I see

First, a fun fact!  Because I love fun facts:
Fish- singular or plural for one species
Fishes- referring to more than one species
You can thank me later... like when you win jeopardy with this bit of info.

My last post was talking about everything I have left to learn, and it's a lot.  So here's a quick update on my classes.

First Day of School was Tuesday! It's exciting every time! This month I'm taking Marine Vertebrates with Dr. Jim Morley. We will be having two exams, a lab practical, and a Species Collection for our grade, and our first exam is already on Friday. (Ahh! I'm about to be in study mode!)  But before then, we'll be starting our Species Collection.  I am in a group with Nicole and Matthew and together we make up the most ferocious team of future marine biologists named the "Majestic Manatees"... I know, we're the coolest people ever. All collection groups must collect at least 35 different species of fishes and correctly identify each of them, note the life-stage and habitat of the fish, and turn it all in on a super pretty powerpoint. We can also identify sea birds, turtles, and marine mammals for extra species.  The top rated collection group does not only receive bragging points, but we also get a 100% on our collection and can choose a question on the exam than we get automatic full points on.  The Majestic Manatees are not expert fishermen, but we will be putting up a fight to win this.  Watch out Mermen, Sardines, and Barracudas!

Other things! We visited the Estuarium on Friday!  It's a mini aquarium across from the Sea Lab, and I've been there and seen the fishes approximately one million times already, but I actually just saw these fishes for the first time on Friday. I mean, really saw them.  I had no idea how blind I was before, but this class makes me aware of everything!  What type of scales and teeth and fins, how they use them, why they use them the way they do. That might not seem that amazing to some of you, but that changes me looking at a "cute puffer fish" to looking at a "globiform fish with a low aspect ratio tail using undulating fin swimming specialized for maneuvering and a terminal mouth with cardiform dentition and scales that exhibit counter shading and disruptive coloration..." and that list could go on for AGES because I just started to tell you what the "cute puffer fish" looks like, not why it looks that way or how it's unique or how it shows how evolutionarily advanced it is or not.  I have been giving tours at the Georgia Aquarium since 2012, but if I was to give you a tour today, I promise you it could be about 5x longer from all of the cool things I learned this week.  This is from just two lecture days.  So much information is given to us so quickly, and it's so hands-on! I just love it! It makes me feel kind of brilliant, and there's still 7 weeks of it left! I'm going to be a marine biology genius by the time I'm done here.

First Field Trip! It's tomorrow, and we're going to Perdido Bay! We'll be leaving the Sea Lab at 8am and be there all day long. Hopefully we'll get some super cool fish for our collection groups! I know we're going to get a beautiful view and some quality snorkeling time!

Some things never change...

So I've completed my first week back at DISL and realized that some things never change.

I'm sure you all know exactly what I mean... The sun always rises in the morning and sets at night, siblings will always bicker (except mine- we're perfect and always love each other), during elections every politician and their mother will call you obnoxiously 9000 times to ask for your vote, your true friends will always have your back, and your goal is always to get through life doing your best.  

Here at DISL, it means that the dorms are still dreadful, the island is still only 7 miles long (why it won't grow, I just can't understand); WalMart (aka civilization) is still more than 30 minutes away; field clothes are acceptable for class/hanging out/going out/ect (we like to call it "beach bum" so that we feel better about ourselves); when it rains, the island ceases to exist (as in it's completely underwater); seeing juncus sends a shiver down my spine; the Coffee Beast is still terrrrrible (because it's closed for good, which does us no good!); and I STILL absolutely love my major and what I get to do here!!

We collect fish, we dissect our own catches,  we go on boat trips, we visit the aquarium, we go to the beach, we snorkel, we swim.  Oh, and it's all school work.  I'm graded on all of that.

But while this island doesn't change and my classes don't change, I have changed.  I'm in a time in my life where everything is changing... everything.  I don't ever stay in one place very long, whether it's visiting home or going to UNA or going to DISL or going on a trip.  I'm constantly adding new things to my schedule at school, so much so that each day is a completely new schedule- my life is never a dull routine.  And next year I have NO IDEA where I'll be going or what my future plans will be because everything I've been planning for my whole life is pretty much over after this year.  I've planned to go through college in marine biology for as long as I can remember, but now I'm almost done.  I've made plans to go to Grad school and get a PhD in Marine Biology, but I don't know where.  At all.  I could go anywhere from North Carolina to Texas to Australia.  Ya know, just the other side of the world. No big!  But there are some things that are constant and I thank the good Lord for them everyday.  One: I have friends and family who never disappoint me, are always there for me, and who are supportive with literally every decision I make. And Two: I have an obsession with everything in the ocean that drives my focus, even when I don't know where I'll end up.

So DISL isn't a new experience for me anymore.  I don't see everything as new excitement, but I do still love everything I'm doing.  And to me, that means that I've picked the right field to work in.  I may not be amazed by the newness, but I am amazed by everything I have to learn. 

Calling all Pen Pals!

"True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance."

I believe that nothing says you care like a handwritten letter, and I hope some of you agree!

If you like snail mail, please send me a letter! I need a Pen Pal! I promise I'll send you quality letters and fridge-worthy coloring pages all summer long :)

Hailey Boeck

c/o DISL

101 Bienville Blvd
Dauphin Island, AL 36528 

<3, Your Future Pen Pal

I'm Back Baby-doll!

The summer begins now, in my case.  It's that time of year, my friends... DISL time!  I arrived at Dauphin Island's Sea Lab on May 25th and will be here through July 18th.  This is going to be a wonderful two months of learning and enrichment in two classes: marine vertebrates and marine ecology.  Lots of studying and research and memorization and reading and writing awaits me. But before you start feeling sorry for me, please note: I'm on a beach. I'm studying on a BEACH for TWO MONTHS.  That can't even really count as studying!  I'm just saying... I'm pretty much the luckiest college kid on the planet right now.  Well, me and the 150-ish other students studying here this summer.  We have a fabulous summer ahead of us, and I can't wait to get started!

For those of you who are reading this blog for the first time, welcome to the Daily Hailey!  Which isn't actually "Daily" at all.  I try to post about once a week.  It just depends on what happens here.  I can't write until something exciting happens, and that always manages to happen but is never planned (which only hurts my Type A personality a smidgen).  This is my second year on the island, and I'll keep up this post the same way I did last summer.  It may be helpful for you to read those, if you'd like to.  Start here (http://baileyheck.blogspot.com/2013/06/180-to-dauphin-island-sea-lab.html) and read everything May-July 2013.  But really the two May posts are most important to know what DISL is.  You'll notice that I write random things about class and research and spontaneous adventures and mischievousness and such.  I write the way I talk to people--nothing fancy or formal, but hopefully entertaining.  When in doubt, read this with an overly excited tone.  There's a 99.9999% chance that the really obnoxiously happy tone you try to read this in is exactly how I feel about whatever you're reading.  I write this primarily for those who want to keep in contact with me, but can't due to the lack of service and civilization on the island.  So that means half of the views will be Mom and Dad refreshing the page a million times to make sure I'm still alive... just being completely honest here. (Love you two!) But I love all the people that read this!  Really, I'm very excited when I get comments on my posts, and I'm always very flattered by the number of people who care about my life enough to read about it.  You guys are great!

I just got here yesterday, but I can give you a quick update and what to look forward to this week.
First, the theme song for my life right now...

That is "The Man" by Aloe Blacc.  And, yes I am, yes I am, yes I am... Apparently, I'm The Man.  I get to live in the lovely room 119, which is on the guys floor. How did I get so lucky?? Well, there are 44 ladies and 22 gentlemen in the dorms, so I got to be the "overflow" on to the guys' floor.  Not complaining though. My new roomie is super cool (s/o to Morgan!), and we've come up with a few perks...
1.  No stairs: Move-in was a piece of cake.  We walked in the building and our door was a couple yards away rather than a flight of stairs away.  My calves thank you, 1st floor!
2.  1 Restroom for 6 ladies.  As community showers go, that is fabulous.  This means we have 4 showers for 6 girls.  Odds are, I'm never going to have to wait to use the best shower.
3. Moths:  They enjoy coming into our air conditioned room and take over the place.  But that means we have a million new friends, right?!
Alright, so we're out of perks.  But it's really not bad at all!  It's just funny that we're "guys" for these two months. Go ahead and tell everybody.

My first full day here was obviously spent on the beach swimming and laying out (but not getting tan...the struggle of my life) and reading.  It's been lovely!  But this week is full of excitement waiting to happen!! Tomorrow is the first day of class, and Saturday is my 21st birthday!  Woot! Woot! One of my best friends is coming down to see me for my birthday, so I am incredibly excited! Stay tuned to hear about the fabulous week coming up- I think it'll be one of my personal favorites :)