Stealth Missions

Friday. Except that I don’t even know what day of the week it is anymore. Thankfully I didn’t have to go into work until 1:30. I am getting used to this new routine of sleeping in. But work resumed as usual. Counting fish and more fish and more crabs. And then back into the field to our new location. Pine Knoll Shores residents 252 and 260 home to adorable old ladies who were so excited to have us working in their backyards. We seined our sites and headed back to the lab to count more species. At this rate is safe to say

I’ve handled at least 1,000 fish. I haven’t really elaborated on the process so here is a quick explination

1. move fish from transport coolers to water tanks

2. sort all the fish (fish are both alive and dead) by species

3. measure 20 of each species (10 alive 10 dead if applicable)

4. Weigh ALL of each species in order to get a total biomass

5. Dump fish back in the water

The key is to try not to lose any fish and also to keep them alive. It’s quite a task and is very tedious. But it has been cool to learn all th

e fish species and learn their behaviors.

I managed to break for dinner to meet Laura and her friends from camp for dinner in Beaufort. It was a gorgeous evening. My favorite time of day down here on the coast is around sunset; everyone is cleaned up from a beach day, dressed in their finest vineyard vines and seer sucker, and strolling around the docks checking out million dollar yachts. We sat outside and people watched as the sun set over the bay. Gorgeous.

Back to work. Time to go set nets at our new locations. We were down to only 4 people (2 per site). Operation began. Drive up in a white van (no seats in the back; we just jump out). Grab our stuff. GO. Red head lamps on. Walk around peoples houses. Into the marsh.

Not sketch at all. Haha.

So I was with MJ and we had to set up the fyke nets. The water was waste deep. I was a bit scared not gonna lie. Not to mention I was walking through oysters and mud holes without a good knee (and my expensive knee brace). But Mission Accomplished!!!

I got back to my house and chilled with my guests for a bit before I hit the pillow. 4 hours later I was up and out the door to retrieve the nets. More success. I got to see the sunrise over the bogue sound. Very inspirational. First the horizon starts to glow with a deep grey light. Slowly the light becomes brighter and changes tone into a rainbow orange to pink and purple. Everything was still in the marsh and so quiet. It was a peaceful reward for the work we were doing.

than waiting to count species later, it was now Saturday so we had to go back to the lab to finish everything for the weekend. Guess what that meant???? Yep count fish. For 2 hours!!!! And clean all the nets. We had fun though not gonna lie. Trying to deal with the eels and crabs is just hysterical because most of the time we end up chasing the creatures around the lab. The lifesaver this morning was getting Panera breakfast!!!! A bacon/egg/cheese bagel has never tasted sooooo good.

Well its 9am and I am rolling out of the lab. WEEKEND!

**photos: American eel and toadfish with Michelle and Rachel (the grad student I am working with