Marine Mammal Conference/Universal Studios

Currently listening to: Nothing. I'm at work :(
Mood: Stressed

Wow, it's been months since I've written! That's ok; I'm going to make up for it with a  super-long post detailing what I've been doing for the past few months. I don't have too much to talk about that's school-related though; my semester was pretty boring actually. I had two classes: biostatistics and population ecology. They were both intense math classes, so I was kind of out of my element in this round. I did enjoy pop eco though. I thought it would be a class about studying the habits and habitats of various species' populations. Nope. It was a class of mathematical modeling and prediction using calculus. Big surprise! Let's just say it was almost hell for me: homeworks on Excel that took 8 hours, a lot of staring at the board as though it were written in a different language...somehow I pulled through and did well, but, that was probably more luck than anything!

I also had another class, though a short one. It was exclusively on the biology and conservation of manatees, taught by my advisor. Part of the class was going to the biennial marine mammal conference in Tampa, which happened last week. It's an entire week long, and about 2,000 nerds participate, most of them Ph.Ds. We were required to attend, in order to go to a 9-hour workshop on Sirenians (manatees and dugongs) on Sunday. After 34 presentations, I looked like this:

That was basically the entire week. Each day there were four sessions of talks, and you basically went to listen to what you wanted. One of my classmates presented, so I also went to hers, and then there were poster sessions to give you a break on your eyes and butt, so you could walk around, but still information overload. Monday night there was an amazing video presentation of research. There were two videos that blew my mind: one was of a humpback caught in nylon netting, with her fluke and fins trapped down so that she was sinking, and struggling to breathe. The guy in the film jumped in the water to assess how bad it was (something he said you should never do, in retrospect) and then, with one knife on board they spent hours holding the net, keeping her close to the boat, and cutting it off her. Eventually she was freed, and gave the boaters a spectacular display of breaches and jumps. Yay! The second video was some amazing footage of a pod of killer whales hunting a Bryde's whale (yes, orcas eat other whales. I'd rather face a shark than a group of killer whales.) Anyways, the photographer was right on top of the pod, and the way they took turns to attack the animal was almost militaristic: they had these crazy formations. Eventually, by a thousand cuts, the prey tired, and the whales had their dinner. A bit morbid, but stuff like that is never captured on film, so it was pretty cool to see. 

Tuesday night was a panel discussion about the Gulf oil spill, since it happened between conferences. It got a bit heated, to say the least and I had immense satisfaction noticing our top sponsors were all oil companies, and at the very top of the list? BP. Wednesday night was a student affairs workshop where we basically got into little groups in areas of interest like behavior, genetics, academia, government, etc. In a way it was interesting...I got a free dinner at least. Thursday night was a free night, so my friend Kate and I chilled out in the room and watched tv, and then Friday we went home. It was a jam-packed week. I think I won the award for most presentations attended. I went to over 100!

The logo for the 19th biennial conference.

   Tampa's convention center.

         The Mariott where I, and most of the 2,000 nerds, stayed.

 Inside, with people running between ballrooms for different talks.

 Inside for a presentation.

Where the poster session was held. I got lots of free pens from exhibitors!

At the Florida Aquarium with Kate and Caitlin, for a meet'n'greet.

  Behind the convention center, where everyone had lunch, and napped :)

 See that open space? That's for my future 400ft yacht.

 Nemo reference.

Kate and I along the riverwalk.

Other than the conference, the other 'big' thing that happened was vacation to Universal in October. The parentals and I stayed at the Portofino hotel (so awesome) and then we went to both Universal parks and the Harry Potter park (located inside Islands of Adventure). DO NOT LOOK BELOW if you don't want to be spoiled about the parks. We had a ton of fun. I really liked the atmosphere of the parks-that was the best part. My favorites were the Jurassic Park and Mummy rides. I'm also glad I  got to go on the Jaws ride, because they're taking it out! :(
The best part of the trip though? Walking along the citywalk (lots of restaurants and clubs) and hearing the Backstreet Boys' new single playing out over the whole place. Haha!

The water taxi picking us up at the hotel to take us to the park.

 Where I REALLY want to go to school.

    "Look honey it's our new pet! He won't shed in the house!"

  I love the crooked chimneys.

     There are no words to describe this.

We had beautiful weather for both of my trips, but I have to admit, I'm looking foward to some nice gloomy Pittsburgh weather! I got all my Christmas shopping done, and all I have left is another week of work, I have to turn in a project proposal, and pack! I'm so excited for home. Frankly, this whole sunny and 80C thing gets old ;)  I hope you saved me some snow! See you soon!

Dive, Dive Dive!

Currently listening to: All-American Rejects
Mood: Smelly (not a mood, but it's what I feel like)

It certainly has been a while since I've updated! I meant to do it weeks ago, but my SCUBA certification was delayed due to Hurricane Irene, so my post was postponed. Until now! I can officially guarantee that I am now a PADI-certified SCUBA diver. I now have my open water certification, and have two ocean dives under my (weight) belt. My first day (about 4 weeks ago) was learning how to gear up and take down, your basic skills in the water with your regulator, BDC (buoyancy control jacket), how to maneuver, how to manage your oxygen cylinder, among other things, as well as what to do in case each piece of equipment fails. I did that in Tiger Tail Lake, down by the OC, and that was an all-day event. My instructor, Kristina (with me in the picture below) is also one of my classmates, and she was awesome and taught me everything I needed to know, like how to manually fill my jacket with air, how to clear a mask, how to give someone else air in case of an emergency, how to maintain neutral buoyancy with your lungs...all kinds of stuff. That was the real gritty stuff.

Then, while we had the hurricane, I had to take a written exam. I assume I passed. Kristina said I was certified, so I'm taking that as I did okay on the written portion. Then this morning, I had to be in Pompano Beach at 8:30am, which is a bit north of Ft. Lauderdale. It was a perfect morning. I got in, and we got right on the boat. Dive boatsa are set up so that there are placements for your tanks so no one dies from being crushed under their weight. Our captain Mike, and dive master Dennis, gave us a briefing. It took about 10 minutes to drive out to our first site, Anglin Reef. We suited up (which can take a while) and then I took a giant step off the end of the boat, and we were in the water. Kristina had a dive flag attached to the surface so that boaters knew there were divers in the area. We descended to 60ft (after my ears equalized) and got to see cool stuff! I saw all kinds of coral, parrot fish, lionfish, a bunch of fish I don't know, and apparently there was a Moray eel, but I didn't see it. I had a bit of trouble staying lateral, but by our second dive, I mastered it. Our second dive was farther north, at Sunkist reef, which was very similar to the other one. We only went down about 50ft on that one, but both lasted about 45min. We got out and relaxed, to let the nitrogen seep out of our bodies (done between dives as well, to avoid decompression sickness), and ate some pineapple. Then we came back and we were done!

I'm glad to say that I didn't need to use my dive knife to fend off any ravenous sharks, and that I didn't run out of air, or that I didn't panic. It was a calm, smooth experience. I can't believe it's over, it happened so fast! Anyways, I dried off half-way, got in my car, and drove back. There's nothing better than pulling up next to a corvette at a light with some stuffy business woman at the wheel staring at you with your insane dive-mask hair, soaking t-shirt, car full of crap, and blasting foreign music with the windows down. She looked at me as if I were an alien. I probably did look that bad. Anyways I had fun.

Now, it is pouring outside, but I am inside and about to pass out from exhaustion (diving really saps your energy-breathing compressed air makes you dehydrated). I also have biostat tonight (boo), so I have to recharge! Speaking of which, I guess I should update quickly on some other stuff. Let's see...I'm currently taking biostatistics, and population ecology, which is hard as hell. It's basically modeling with calculus equations. So this semester is a math-filled one (son of  NUTCRACKER!) Anyways, so far I've been okay. Work is the same-it's a library, so it's not too exciting. Oh yeah, hip-hop started again, so I'm super-pumped for that. Oh, and for Labor Day Fran and I went to the riverfront down by Hollywood to take the water taxi, which is basically Ft. Lauderdale's version of the Ducky Tours. We took a two-hour tourboat ride along the intercoastal and saw all the rich people's houses and their ridiculous yachts. Vivien Leigh's historic house was there, along with Theresa Heinz, and a bunch of other rich people I didn't recognize. I liked looking at the yachts the most-they were gorgeous. There was one that was especially made in Holland-the hull alone costs a few million. The whole ship was worth $55 million. And this guy owned 12 of them. Um, what?!

Incredulity aside, Fran and I had a nice time. We ate at this restaurant called Pirate's Republic where you can eat on the dock and pull your yacht (in my case, dingy) up and order. It was gorgeous out-I got some sort of fancy fish that was delicious, and then right there was where we got the water taxi. So, all-in-all, it's been a good week. Now if you people don't mind, I need to go do some math :(

The Pirate Republic Restaurant & Pub-from this view I'm sitting on dock. There's a swimming pool, pirate statues all over the place, and all kinds of flags.

One of the yachts coming up the intercoastal.

The Riverfront.

Starting off on our boat trip.

One of many waterside restaurants.

Coming up on the fancy houses.

The dive headquarters where our dive boat took off, in Pompano Beach.

Where all the dive boats are stationed.

At the end of our two dives, posing with my tank. I was pretty water-logged!

My instructor Kristina, and I.

Finally, A Moment To Breathe!

Listening to: My favorite Korean tv show's soundtrack.
Mood: Content


Wow, June has been crazy! I decided to wait until the end of the month to make a post, because I just had too much going on. Time is flying, and I can't believe we're into July already. Therefore, I better spill the beans before August hits and my head is under water. Let's see...what happened to me?

Oh yeah. My car exploded. (Exaggeration for effect). I was so proud of myself too, because recently I had swallowed my pride to ask how to use the pressure gauge at the gas station to fill my tires (reinforcing the women-car stereotype, unfortunately). Then a week later my car started to shake violently a couple times, so I made an appointment, but alas, it died before I could get my baby into the service station. Therefore, at 6am the neighborhood watches as a towtruck pulls my car onto the bed and drives me off. I found it ironic that Jimmy Buffet was playing "Come Monday, it'll be alright". It was Monday. I was not alright. Anyways, 6 hours, 500 bucks, and 4 engine parts later, my baby was up and running again. I filled up his tank as a lollipop for being good at the doctor's.

Alright, moving on. Midterms. That was a week of hell. I had a marine chemistry and marine mammals exam. I was terrified for the chem one, so I studied roughly 30 hours for it. Got a B. Only 4 people beat me. I guess I can't complain, considering people from the other class literally came out sobbing. I got an A in marine mammals. Now, you may not think that would be too hard, but people got lower grades in that than chem! There was A TON of information, and I had to memorize many scientific names. I felt like a Baelenopteridae was weighing on my shoulders (a blue whale, you un-sciency people!). Anyways, every spare moment I had I studied, and it payed off. Yay. And afterwards, as if I could rest, I had to crunch out a 10 page paper that's being torn apart as we speak. Again, yay.

Finally, some fun came along, when I got to clean my bathroom. No that wasn't the fun part. Joce was coming to stay with me, so I had to scrub. She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up and brought her home, so she could attempt to wear off some jetlag (she flew in from Malawi, Africa and had been flying for like, 20 hours) and then we went for a picnic on the beach (while it poured down rain) and then I gave her a tour of the Oceanographic Center (which took about 2 seconds) and then she passed out in the car while I was in class. The next day I took her to the beach in the morning just to chill, and we had Pirmani Bros. right on the ocean front. She couldn't get over the fact they were in Ft. Lauderdale. Then she chilled at home while I worked, and then we had dinner and a surprise birthday celebration for her, since she didn't get to celebrate in Africa. Then we went to a brunch held by Fran, who recently moved out to be closer to the school. We checked out her pad, and then I went to drop Joce off at her other friend's house. Let me tell you. It was posh. Both the parents are retired and very nice. The dad was out smoking a cigar and talking with his son-in-law who also had a cigar and iPad, while the mom showed me around and talked about her marine biologist sister in the Keys. At this point, Pam and Em's supercilious voices came into my head ("OOHHHHHHHHH, the LAKEHOUSE!") and I laughed to myself. She asked me to stay for steak and ribs, but alas, the library called. I stayed and played poker with the girls for an hour then left. My apartment just didn't look the same after I got home :)

For the 4th, I met up with Fran and her sister Dominique, as it was her last night in the U.S. before flying home to Switzerland. We watched fireworks on the beach, then hung out at this beach bar/nightclub called Da Big Kahuna. It was fun. And today, I came full circle, as I am now back to cleaning my bathroom. Oh, the poor life of a graduate student...

Running Amuck

Listening to: Dead by April
Mood: Tired, but accomplished

Well, my day started off by waking up to my obnoxious alarm at 4:30am. Yes people. I dragged myself out of bed this morning, while everyone else was sleeping soundly, put my bathing suit on, grabbed my towel, pinched myself to stay awake, and headed out on the drive to Key Largo. Today Megan, my friend and classmate, and I, had signed up for an 8am-noon shift with the pilot whales down at the MMC. Today's shift was a lot more 'involved' than the last time. There weren't as many people there, so as soon as we arrived we donned our wetsuits and got right in.

There are 3 whales left. The one I assisted last time was euthanized, due to the failure to recover from pneumonia, and, well... poop blockage. She couldn't be fed because she couldn't poop, and after an ultrasound showed nothing helpful, they decided to put her out of her misery. That was sad. Anyways, today I was on a juvenile with Megan and two other women, and placed in secondary position, which is toward the back of the whale, and a slightly more dangerous position to be in, because you are closer to the peduncle and fluke, which could really do some serious damage if the whale were to get feisty. I was even in more of a precarious situation because our girl's 'tail' was bending at a right angle, instead of straight behind her, so her fluke tip was rather close to my shoulder. Aside from this, she was very well behaved, and we did a breath and heart rate test on her. Unfortunately for me, during the course of my 3.5 hr stint in the water (very cold and sore after being in the water in the same position for so long) I got farted on, I believe peed on, pooped on, and yes, got hit in the face with snot from her blowhole. Needless to say I got an intense shower when I got home.

Something cool that was going on during this shift, is that we had some vets doing some tests; a few from SeaWorld, and another vet, who was working with our whale, from somewhere else. All three whales are doing much better, but one received a secondary infection, and so they were giving her medicine through a makeshift nebulizer, placed over the blowhole, which is pretty cool. For our whale, because of her severely bent tail, the vet and two other guys straddled her tail and basically twisted it different ways, to attempt to relax her muscles, so that her tail will eventually straighten out. It was based on human therapy and vertebrae, which I thought was pretty cool. The vet was awesome. He was so nice and calm; very encouraging. At that point we had 7 people on the whale. While he and one guy were concentrating on bending her tail, the other guy was bracing me and another girl as we kept the whale from rolling over, as she didn't really like some of the treatment, and struggled a bit. That's when I felt how strong she was.

After that I got out and I was sore, stinky, and wet. Megan and I had to bolt, as she had a lab to TA, so I got back around 2:30 and managed to clean my room, bathroom, go to the grocery store, cook dinner, and even check my email! Wow! What you can accomplish when you wake up at 4:30!

We were much needed this morning, so I couldn't take any pictures, except one real quick of me in the wetsuit before I left. The other pictures are of me and my roommate, Fran, from Switzerland, at the resort area beach. That was memorial day, when I got really bad sunburn, and pretty much was miserable for the rest of the week. I won't go into details. Anyway, while we were there, we had a blast! We even ate Pirmani's at the beach! HA! Ah, like home sweet home, except I get A1A and the ocean as a backdrop instead of rainy, cloudy Forbes St. MWAHAHAHA!

Now, I can finally sit down and nurse my aching body, so that I don't die tomorrow at my hip-hop class. Hmmm, I think I'll eat some cookies...

Fran and I chilling at the beach. I swear one of these days I'll get a better picture of her, so you can actually see who she is!

 The fancy hotels. Suprisingly, the beach wasn't very crowded that day. It was nice.

 More of the beach. It was a perfect day. Go ahead. Be jealous.

Your very own heroic whale-saver. Just doin' my job.

Saving Whales and Hip-hop Dancing: A Great Day!

Listening to: Phantom of the Opera
Mood: Extremely sore (not really a mood, but...)

Yesterday was such an incredible day, I don't even know how to start! I guess I should explain how I ended up helping to save whales, since I only found out about it a few days ago anyway. As I've said before, my friend Megan and I took multiple classes through the MMC (marine mammal conservancy), including basic training, in order to volunteer in case of any dolphin or whale strandings. While I was visiting home, that's when the mass stranding of pilot whales (I believe 22 in all) occurred. I wouldn't have known about it, if Megan hadn't said that they still need volunteers to help out. Apparently the whales (currently 4 females) will be held at the Key Largo facility for at least a few months, as they're sick and need rehabilitation, and also need to be held until all the paperwork is concluded. I plan to go back next week and help if I can. Of the 22 whales, I think 13 survived, and these animals were distributed among different rehab facilities along the east coast. If I remember correctly, the MMC already released 2 of the pilot whales, so I guess we had 6 earlier. The MMC is the only facility in the world that rehabilitates animals in natural water...kind of a lagoon, rather than pools. Since its beginning, 150 animals have been successfully rescued.

So anyways, about my particular experience, I signed up for a 12:00-4:00 shift on Wednesday, and drove down to Key Largo that morning, which took about an hour and a half. It's such a nice drive though, and the weather is always nice there! Once I arrived (I've never seen so many cars in the parking lot) it was kind of mass chaos. I wasn't sure where to go, but I asked this one girl who I ended up teaming up with, and she pointed me to the volunteer check-in tent. I signed in, and was told that there wasn't a guarantee that I would get in the water. So I stood around, waiting for the briefing we would get if we did get in the water, and ended up talking to this one lady who told me I could go pick out a wetsuit. I found one, and many minutes later (they are so hard to pull on), I was ready to go. One of the staff had us circle around him and gave us information on how to handle the whales (I already knew this from the class), to give their heads and flukes a wide birth, as they're 600-800 lbs solid muscle. Pilot whales are actually a type of dolphin, but they're pretty large, and as they are a member of the 'black' species, a bit more aggressive. We were told to keep our hands out of the water, especially in front of their eyes, because our fingers would look like their favorite food, squid. Also, we were told to 'ride the bull' if one tried to escape, as it was safer than letting go. My imagination went into overdrive and I imagined myself holding on for dear life to this whale that broke out into open water. We also had to be extremely quiet once we got to the water, because the whales hear at high frequencies, and would be anxious to hear a lot of low rumbling. I had to keep reminding myself that they were wild, and had never seen humans before. If I were them, I'd be freaked out too!

So naturally, once we passed beyond a fence, we had to be quiet. We sat and waited for at least an hour, because Rob the current supervisor (he's the head honcho too-he taught my classes) was doing tests on one of them. The four whales were currently floating freely around, inside the makeshift pen. Closer to shore, in the shallow water, two tents were set up that they would be brought under, to keep from getting sunburned. This is where we held them. Finally, I was selected as part of a team to help hold one of the females, #303. I was very nervous, but I forced myself to relax, because whales can sense your anxiety, and will tense up as well. I was placed on one side, in primary position, which is having one hand on the dorsal fin, the other on the pectoral fin, and supporting the body with my inner thigh. I was amazed by the fact that all I could feel was solid muscle. If she wanted to, this whale could seriously hurt me. Two other people were with me, and our job was to basically keep her wet, from drying out, and her blowhole above the water, so she could breathe. A little later, the girl I had met earlier was teamed with me. Her name was Lena, and she was from Hawaii. It was coincidence she was there, as she had been visiting the Bahamas to check out wild dolphins there, as she owns a sort of 'swim with dolphins' business on the big island. She was super sweet and we just kind of hung out holding up this massive animal. Our particular whale had respiratory problems, so she wasn't taking full deep breaths, and I didn't help much at first, as I accidentally didn't time my wetting right and got some water in her blowhole. She was okay though. I did get sprayed in the face a couple times, making me smell oily afterward. It wasn't as strong as I thought, but they do smell a bit like an engine because their blubber has to be oiled, expecially around the blowhole. She also fartetd on me. Luckily I didn't get peed or pooped on though. Hey, few people can say they've been farted on by a whale.

The whole experience was awesome. I was suprised how soft she was, and she behaved very well. I got to hold her while Lena checked her pulse, and then we did a breath rate test. Then it was feeding time! We held her while senior staff basically had to insert a tube of fish gruel down her throat. I give them kudos, because I wouldn't want to stick my fist down a whale's throat, especially one with a lot of front teeth. She was also fed some tiny fish, and did very well. I believe she was of teenager age, but wasn't doing as well as a couple of the others. There was another female with really bad sunburn, and a calf as well. The calf will kept in captivity for the rest of her life, as her parents both died, and she will never learn the necessities to survive in the wild. The teenagers won't be able to teach her. For now, they seem to be getting better. We shall see! There were a couple people taking photos of us, and possibly someone from National Geographic, but I know that most of the news crews were there the previous week, so attention has died down somewhat.

I was in the water for about two hours, and did start to get cold, and my hands hurt from being in the same position, but there was no chance in hell I was letting go! Eventually, Lena and I were replaced to give other volunteers a chance, and we sat watching for a bit, and once we weren't needed, climbed out of our wetsuits (the hardest and most akward part of the day), signed out, and said goodbye. I also received a large 'x' on my hand, as I am quarantined for 72 hours to not visit any zoo, animal facility, or park, in case a spread some unknown disease from the pilot whales. The 'x' will cause admissions to turn me out.

Finally, I drove on home, listening to Backstreet Boys with the windows down, and got home early, allowing me to head to the gym for hip-hop class, which started up. Of course, on the program, they left out 'aerobic' hip-hop. Naturally, it was intense. It was a lot of fun though, and I was pretty proud of myself that I could keep up. I was afraid because there was this Asian kid next to me (Asians are awesome hip-hop dancers) and a tall girl on the other side, but the girl was terrible at rhythmn and the guy tired out even earlier than I did! So yeah, I'm awesome. Of course, today I woke up, and my butt is so sore, I can barely sit! Oh well, I guess it's good for me :)

Classes also started this week. I had marine chemistry (oh the joy) and tonight I have marine mammals, so that should be good! And tomorrow, back to hanging out with the med students!

Below I have some pictures I took at the MMC. We were not allowed to take pics beyond a certain point, so you can't see any of the whales. However, here's an article Megan posted about the rescue effort. You can see some of the whales in this article.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/away-from-spotlight-whale-rescue-effort-continues/

Driving into Key Largo. The median the whole way is painted blue!

Tried to get the ocean on one side.

Heading into Key Largo.

...Still behind the same truck. It's only one lane for most of the way.

Getting closer. Check out the exit...Yacht Club Dr.

Heading over the ramp into the Key. It's a gorgeous view of the harbor and ocean. I couldn't get the best shot of it though.

One of many boat businesses on the Key.

Driving through Key Largo looks like this. A strip of skinny land with the ocean on either side.

No idea.

The parking lot at the MMC. It was completely packed, that we got a call from the fire marshall to move some vehicles!

This is the view heading toward the road. That big cement tower has nothing to do with us. The little white building below it is where classes are held.

The tent that housed food. Next to it was the rack of wetsuits.

I couldn't take pictures past this point, but the first two tents is where people sat and equipment was held, while the smaller two tents are actually in the water, and that's where the whales are kept.

Tried to get a close-up, but it didn't work. The sign says Marine Mammal Conservancy and its mission.