Fish eggs and Flounder

First off, an apology to all my family for not posting these blogs more frequently. I guess not posting is good though, because it means I’m out and about and have less time to hang out in my room and make these posts. 

To be honest, I haven’t had a bad day since I moved here. Work is going great- Donald and I collected mummichogs (2-4 inch long fish that live along the entire Atlantic coast) and brought them back to the lab to get them to spawn. They didn’t like living in a tank at first, but now they’re more than happy (who wouldn’t be with a guaranteed supply of food and lack of predators). We went over to the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) and learned all about how they get them to breed in captivity. The E.P.A. uses them to assess water quality, especially in places like the Gulf of Mexico and highly contaminated sites like New Bedford Harbor (where companies dumped large quantities of PCBs during the better part of the 1900’s). We made spawning trays, which are a circular device that the lady fish rub their bellies up against to deposit eggs, and then the male swims over and fertilizes them. The first day we collected 17 eggs and the second day we collected 47, so I’m really hoping for some baby fish! You can see a picture of what the egg looks like under a microscope below. They’re only 0.078” across and relatively clear. 

In other news, I got to finally dive with Mom at Fort Wetherill in Jamestown. It was SO COOL to get to dive with her- I went into instructor mode and she was definitely getting better as the dive progressed. I even got to show her some baby winter flounder. I can’t wait to go again! 

More recently, I’ve been spending time with both roommates that are already moved in- Shannon and Natasha. Shannon is 19 and is a waitress at night at Catarina’s Italian Restaurant and a URI undergraduate. Natasha is 26 and works at Butler hospital and is starting in the pharmacy program at URI in the fall. Shannon just made us a strawberry rhubarb pie so I’m pretty excited about that- the house smells amazing! Natasha is still moving stuff in, though she does stay here sometimes. The other night I stayed up until 3:30 am talking to her! I love that my house is feeling more like a new home. I can’t wait to meet the other two that will be moving into the house in September!! I’m SO glad I opted to live in a house with other girls, I’d be lonely if they weren’t around all the time! 

I’m living an awesome life- studying the things I love, making new friends, feeling more and more like an adult. These past couple of weekends have been the true heart of summer- spending time on the boat for the fireworks the weekend after the fourth of July and then this past weekend was a fluke tournament that both of our boats competed in. I went on the big boat with Mom, Dad, Ronnie and Sharon. Unfortunately, our boat wasn’t able to produce the big one for the couple of hundred dollar prize. Josh went out on the 18’ boat with Derek, Frank and Kyle and caught more and bigger fish than the Marlintini. It’s pretty funny to watch Josh show up Dad! I love spending quality time with family and friends that might as well be family. 

Post from last week

Things have been going great! Partly the reason for the delay in this post! I finally feel settled in, comfortable at work, and continue to learn new things every day. 

Two weekends ago, my friend Alex Wood from UConn came out and we checked out a couple of state parks- including Fort Wetherill and Beavertail. Beavertail is by far the prettiest state park I’ve ever been to- it’s the southern tip of Jamestown island, so it’s like jagged rocks that everybody picnics on and you can watch huge shipping barges go by, take a free tour of the lighthouse, and spend the day soaking in some sun. I also took him over to the Point Judith lighthouse- in the future I’d love to fish off the beach there because it looks like it would be a productive spot. 

Last weekend, Danielle came down from Vermont. She lives up there with her boyfriend, and she came down to Connecticut to spend some time with her family and drove over to visit me as well. Saturday we went over to the Narragansett town beach after scoring some free parking (man I need to practice parallel parking!). Boogie boarding up to the beach on huge waves for hours was definitely one of the most fun things I’ve done out here- I can’t believe such an amazing beach is about a ten minute drive away! The waves were absolutely huge- there were surfers just a little ways down the beach and very attentive lifeguards. Overall it was awesome! We got cleaned up and headed over to Crazy Burger, which is within walking distance from the beach. Crazy Burger always has a wait, no matter the meal time, because the food there is absolutely amazing. We ordered the same thing (although Danielle got the gluten free options for hers) which was essentially just a cheeseburger. But let me tell you- this cheeseburger wasn’t like anything I’ve ever had before. So we got the Whassupy Burgers. The beef is mixed with horseradish, garlic, and worchestershire sauce so it’s super flavorful. Then, it’s topped with brie cheese, onion rings, (we had them add avocado), served on a delicious wheaty bun and with a side of wasabi-chipotle mayonnaise. I got it with sweet potato fries. SO GOOD! We tried some locally made ice cream on the way home and she taught me how to make greeting cards with a die cutter and all this cool stationary and stamping stuff that night. I love Danielle! 

This week I got to go tuna fishing for the first time with Dr. Bradley (my advisor), Peter (the financial backing for the tuna project and captain of the boat), and Taylor (a student I work with). We went out Tuesday at 4 am and trolled all day. It wasn’t until 4:30 pm that we hooked up. We caught a bluefin tuna (which is what we’re trying to get to spawn in the tank) and got him to the boat, into the tuna sling, and into the tank on the boat (which takes up most of the cockpit which increases the difficulty to fish), but then he died because he was just a bit too big and couldn’t swim properly around the circular tank. I was SO impressed by how well everything was executed- I jumped right in and was helping pull the fish in with the tuna sling and get the oxygen hooked up and everything. It’s so different fishing with barbless hooks with the intention of bringing fish back alive- everything is focused around the health of the fish. 

Seeing the process of having fish in the tank (when we had mahi mahi) and then seeing how they’re caught is truly incredible. I’m so happy to be a part of this project!