>.> yes hi… I… am on a boat rn xD but will try to remember to do this tonight. Yesterday I just faceplanted into bed when I got to the hotel after dinner haha
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." --Ursula K. Le Guin
Depending on how loosely we define that… yes xD we were electrofishing for eels. Got six!
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Oh my… I remember the first time I went fishing I caught an eel in a river. It wrapped around a reed and snapped/bit the line. But that was not an electric eel… why does this sound like one of your more dangerous jobs?
Swan Queen's little sister in-law/caretaker since 2022
Oh no, no, my bad. They are not electric. We put a weak electrical current in the water to stun them so we can scoop them up. It’s perfectly safe and actually a lot of fun c:
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Oh. Sorry. I had never heard of the term electrofishing. Thank you for the explanation. That sounds very interesting. Do they rise to the surface once stunned or how do you end up catching them?
Swan Queen's little sister in-law/caretaker since 2022
No need to be sorry! I didn’t know what it was until I started doing it either haha
But more or less! Most fish float right up to the very top. These ones only kind of float but it’s enough haha they usually float up enough for us to see and then we just gotta be fast on the nets to get them scooped up before they sink.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
I remember when we caught a lamprey while electrofishing at an ecology day camp. Those things were wack. But the fishing was fun!
"The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." --Ursula K. Le Guin
Bruh you have the coolest adventures lol no one let me shock until grad school xD
And we are doing a study to see how well they get past dams! There have been 4 dams put in on two major rivers on the east coast of America. These eels live in the river 15-20 years and then migrate out to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and then die then the babies swim back up river. The dams have been preventing both of these things. So they about a decade ago began taking the baby eels up river, so now we have to see if they are able to make it back to the sea once they’re adults. So we put trackers in them then see if we can see them moving past the dams.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(My expertise really lies in animals. I am an animal nerd to the point where I have night vision binoculars. Hehe. And all my stories are there.)
Oh. That’s really interesting. A lot of your work seems to be based around problems caused by humans. Or is it just a coincidence? (Like when we had that conversation where I said that fish death god (hehe) thing it was also about how dams had been built and the fish had to be hatched in a hatchery.) That and population control???
Swan Queen's little sister in-law/caretaker since 2022
Okay my brain is smol rn (worked an 11-hour day lol) so it's not my best work, but I got a response up! Sorry for the delay~
And haha Moon you hit the nail on the head there xD Within fish biology, there is a research side of things (aka "hey let's do experiments and see if we can figure out new things about fish") and a management side of things (aka "we need to intervene to keep both fish and people happy and coexisting"). During my PhD, I was doing research and finding it wildly unfulfilling because I was having a hard time trying to figure out why what I was studying mattered and whether it was worth the time and resources I was expending. I currently work in management, which is very much figuring out how to make humans and fish play nice, and I'm much, much happier now.
Good memory on the hatchery! That was the first project I worked on and is why I was hired -- American shad restoration. Now I'm working on American Eel monitoring (i.e., I do not have any role personally in getting baby eels into the river like I did the shad). I'm just watching adult fish that are already in the rivers to see what they're doing, not actually intervening in any way -- yet. Once we have more data we may make management plans for the eels, but that will be long after I leave my current position.
SPEAKING OF--
I got a new job! I will start sometime in August. Doing a phone call tomorrow evening (in like 19.5 hours) with HR to try to make them pay me more money, but even if they refuse I'm excited! Would def appreciate any good vibes of manifesting a raise pointed in my direction xD
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Ayyyy congrats Shady!!! Best of luck on your new job!!
Also please forgive my immensely weak grasp on Lutheran and Calvinist beliefs
"The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." --Ursula K. Le Guin
I’m so happy you figured out the right life path for you. That sounds like an incredible job. Kind of like a conversationist, I guess? (In some words.) Which is definitely a job path I would never say no to. I personally don’t know much about fish but I know a lot about birds and mammals as well as a good and fine knowledge of reptiles and my country’s insects. What did you actually have to study to qualify for such a job? (Hehe… oh my… I sound…)
Wow!!! Congrats Shady!!! I really hope you enjoy your new job as much as your old one!!!
Grand… um… I have no idea about Calvinism but I go to a Lutheran Church with my Dad and brother even though I’m not much religious. (I prefer being Agnostic.) But… my Dad would have a meltdown if I said I was no longer coming to church. Anyways, the main belief behind Lutheran churches is that we are saved by grace and not works. (So by Jesus dying on the cross and not money and confessions.) To this day I think Catholic Churches (Which Lutheran churches branched from by practically swapping things on its head.) believes we are saved by works.
Swan Queen's little sister in-law/caretaker since 2022
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