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.