The good news never stops

Two news articles of interest to me came through my reader feed today:

http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1/


and

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/10/3898211/federal-judge-halts-paiute-cutthroat.html


Wow. The news just doesn't get any better.  Soon we'll be left with rainbow trout and largemouth bass.

Barely making it...

So Cannibals...the new route I'm working. It's hard. A lot harder than hanging on to jugs for long enough to call it .12d. Yep - there's real rock climbing on it. Like with your feet and stuff. Anyway I went up there Friday afternoon and then this morning. I gave myself 2.5 hours to get home before I got picked up to go to the airport for a flight to Seattle. Unfortunately there was a massive accident on the portion where east-bound traffic is in the west-bound lane, and that was a huge clusterfuck and I wasn't sure if I'd catch my flight. I got home with half an hour to pack, eat, and not shower. So now I'm dirty from climbing.

I'm also looking at the program for the AFS conference in Seattle - I'm pretty excited and extremely overwhelmed. It is HUGE. I think there are hundreds of presenters, dozens of special symposia, and some interesting socials. Tonight I think I'll make it in time to go to this huge sustainable seafood welcome banquet. This NatGeo chef Barton Seaver is apparently spearheading a big to-do:

"Join us for a sustainable seafood extravaganza that reflects the variety and abundance of Pacific Northwest and Alaskan seafood, with menus reflecting the famed sustainable recipes of National Geographic Fellow, Chef Barton Seaver. Come for great food and beverages, lots of conversation with friends, and a fun-filled session of Swing Dance (including instructions!!). Why swing dancing?  Well, can you keep a secret? (((We’re preparing for a Wednesday night  AFS Swing Fish Flash Mob…aka Splash Mob… to be held at the Westlake Center PRIOR TO the Wednesday Night Social…shhhhhh)))  This Welcome Social isn’t one you’ll want to miss. It will be a fun way to dive straight into a fantastic AFS conference in Seattle."


I doubt I'll be swing-dancing. Unless J-Katz is there because he's so cute. But that's neither here nor there. Monday there are a few talks I'll go to, Tuesday morning some more, then I'm working the satellite info booth Tuesday afternoon (CV builder), and Tuesday night there are 2 big socials. The first one is the genetics subsection which my advisor will be at...so I kind of have to go. Also they are closing down the Seattle Aquarium for students only for 2 hours...should be awesome:

"The whole aquarium will be exclusively set for students only from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.  The Career Fair will be hosted from 5:30 to 7:30 for students and later at 7:30 to 8:30 for AFS general attendees.  This night is proudly co-hosted by the AFS Student Subsection and HTI.  Bring your appetite early in the evening for a free student-only dinner and freely tour Seattle’s world-class aquarium.  In the background, HTI will show real-time demos of the latest in acoustic telemetry and hydroacoustic echo sounding technology in the aquarium tanks to watch while everyone enjoys one great Seattle night.  Come for the connections, to hang out with fellow students, for the great food, the live local music, and to watch the diversity of aquatic life in the Pacific Northwest"


Wednesday there's an entire symposium on conservation genetics and genomics, and my collaborator on the delta smelt project is speaking...Wednesday afternoon I'm getting picked up by a friend of a friend to go to Little Si - never been there. Plus James managed to find out (how does he do that?) that I'm going so he'll be along as well. Jesus word travels fast in the climbing community.

Thursday I'm talking about Conservation Genetics of the Owens pupfish in a special symposium on using genetic tools to for conservation programs ...should be a fairly breezy talk, I've given most of it before and it's in pretty good shape. Plus everyone loves pupfish. I could probably show a bunch of pupfish photos and everyone would just lazily sit back with silly grins on their faces. I feel sorry for my roommate Mariah who has to talk about the extraordinarily political subject of reintroducing chinook to the San Joaquin River. Not jealous.

Then I fly home and spend Friday in bed not talking to anybody. These events completely overwhelm me. Just looking at the program has made me say "holy shit." and "oh my god" out loud to myself (in the airport) several times. This conference is gigantic. Totally high-rolling it at the Sheraton downtown as well. There are so many talks I wont' get a chance to see...talks that have less to do with my research and more to do with my personal interest, especially now that it's piqued by teaching my fisheries class. I want to hear about out addiction to stocking...how to keep teaching about fisheries exciting, another labmate's talk on analyzing the stomach contents of predatory fish to determine what they are eating, yet another guy who's been helping me out with fish sampling is also talking. Too bad I don't have the stomach to sit through talk after talk without getting extremely antsy.

I can say this - life will definitely calm down after the conference. I want to focus on my Great Basin projects and teaching, plus my ward is leaving so I'll be collecting delta smelt data by my onesie. Wonder when I'll get a real job.

New occurrences

So yesterday it occurred to me that I have three jobs. THREE. That's too many jobs. Granted, I don't have to work all three jobs every day, but at least every week.

1. Teaching (I had my first class Saturday)
2. Fish and Wildlife Service (winding down)
3. Graduate student/post-doctoral researcher.

Yes. I am busy. Hence the lack of blogging lately.

So far the teaching is going well, though of course it's too early to tell. The student seem excited and bright and engaged. I'm so informal that one thing I worry about is having them forget who's boss. Gotta be a bit more of a hard-ass I think.

Also I went into the field:

View Larger Map

Gmaps makes it difficult (or I haven't figured out how) to make the route go along dirt roads, but this is the general route.  It was AWESOME. I live for this shit. Meeting biologists and going to random out-of-the way places. Love love love.

Here are some photos:

 Hay Corral Spring on Lockes Ranch

 Crenichthys nevadae (Railroad Valley springfish)

 Lockes Ranch is adjacent to Black Rock Station (not the same as Black Rock City of Burning Man fame)

 Old ranch houses at Green Springs

 More Green Springs

 Railroad Valley springfish in tequila (I need to start bringing ethanol with me everywhere I go)

 We slaughter bass after they slaughter native fishes, then we inspect their stomachs to see what they are eating.

 Fish Creek Springs tui chub

 Shoshone Pond Natural Area, a reserve for the Pahrump poolfish.

 Catching the Pahrump poolfish in a tiny ditch.

Pahrump poolfish  - endangered.

In other news, for the required spray about rock climbing, I've finished two .12ds at Column of the Giants - Contortionist and Spin Doctor - in three weeks...hopefully the crag isn't soft and they are legit and I'm actually feeling fit.  We'll see. I started on a .13a called Hey Ladies that is pretty fun, but chossy and a bit scary (like most of the crag).  Just a couple more days up there, so hopefully I can finish it up before I start going to Donner to finish up some stuff.