Sunset over Big Fisherman Cove, Catalina my last night there in December before coming back to LA and coming home to NY. It's beautiful isn't it? Look how the sky is reflected in the ocean. 

My christmas tree at home in NY! :) 

Fall Semester 2004

So it has been a while since I wrote about the happenings in my life, for one, because I haven’t had time to sit down and write since the semester started, and two, because my life was falling apart. So in brief, this is what went on since August.

I traveled to Baja Mexico, Bahia de Los Angeles, with the fish class. I got to learn about all the different kinds of fish in the area and how to kill them, for research of course. The diving was beautiful; I even saw some black coral, a giant ray, some cool scorpion fish, etc. The drive was long, but it was interesting to see all the different towns we drove through on the way there. I even learned what to do when you get a sting ray spine in your foot, eek!

Since Mexico, it has been work. I taught two classes, spent all my free time on Catalina Island, and took an invertebrate zoology class. If you know anything about what I’m working on for my thesis, you know that I’ve been struggling diving in 6 feet of water, in very rough conditions, counting anemones and removing algae for about 5 or 6 months now. I’ve gathered a good amount of data, but something seems to be missing. And it was this missing component that started to become a problem back in October. One advisor felt that my methods weren’t working and I was faced with the knowledge that the last 5 months of work, of hammering, nailing, counting, for hours and hours underwater might be all a waste. I was devastated, obviously, but not ready to give up. In the back of my mind I was also cursing the fact that I had spent weeks, months at Catalina working on research that was falling apart and not being there for Jonathan and his own research problems for most of the summer, and little of the school year.

November rolled around. I talked to my other advisor and decided to compromise on adjusting some of my techniques in order to try to save some of the work I had been doing for so long. So, no it wasn’t all a waste, as of yet. I’m waiting to see what I can come up with in January. November also brought the Western Society of Naturalists meeting in northern California, wine country. I met some interesting contacts, my presented poster went over well and I was starting to feel excited about my work again. It’s always nice to hear that other people actually find what you’re doing exciting too. However, it was also pretty obvious that the stress and the time spent on my work had taken its toll on me and my relationship.

The next couple weeks brought the death of my grandmother, time in NY over thanksgiving for the funeral and finally, the end of my relationship. It seems I should have seen it coming for a long time. Stress, distance, assumptions and misunderstandings make a mess of anyone’s life, and that’s just what happened to mine.

So I am home for the holidays. It’s a different holiday this year. I’m facing a New Year with little to go on. This year will bring many new things and that should be exciting, but intimidating because I don’t know what any of those new things will be. I feel much unprepared. So, my New Years resolution is to do a little soul searching, to find myself again, and to find my direction. What do we all want to really get out of life anyway? It’s probably the first year that I have ever felt the true need to have a resolution, and it’s a big one. Let me know what yours are this year. Lets hope 2005 brings with it as many happy memories and turning points as 2004 did.

Take care everyone. Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Kylla in action at Bird Rock :) 

Now those are some hot marine biologists! From the left, that's Kylla, Annaliese, Me, and Becca  

A Day in the Life of a Marine Biologist...

This morning we (me, Kylla, and Annaliese) woke up on Catalina Island at 7am. The wind was damp and the sky's were still clouded with early morning darkness. Bustling through a quick breakfast we threw on our fleece and hiked it down the hill to the waterfront. Two tanks each, buckets of equipment, hammers, nails, pencils, slates, calipers, zip-ties and flagging tape were all thrown together. Our wetsuits were still damp and cold from the previous days excursions, but we laboriously pulled them on, stopping to dunk booties and hoods in hotwater to ease the pain of the cold.

As we looked out over the water, each thinking to ourselves of what needed to be accomplished this day, an eerie white fog rolled in from far out at sea. The fog enveloped the island, quietly and quickly, as we set out to Bird Rock for out first dive of the day around 9:30. The tide was coming in and the waves were crashing violently when we arrived at the rock. We all looked at each other, knowing that this was going to be an interesting dive. We dropped anchor at about 40 feet and each of us dropped into the frigid waters (59 F) one by one. We clung to the algae and made ourselves as flat as possible against the substratum in order to keep from being caught up in the surge. After 85 minutes I was frozen, shaking from head to toe and I called the dive. Kylla was already back at the boat trying to warm up and considering the fog that had now totally enveloped us.

We took a breather hoping the fog would dissipate. It felt almost as if we had entered a new dimension. We set out in the direction of our next site, skirting along the Catalina coast. We slowly made our way, passing by a ghost ship or two. Everyone seemed a little wary to wave hello. Finally, we reached Howlands Landing and through anchor. But, in the distance there was something floating, what was it? We pulled anchor and pulled up on the ominous object. We found it to be a large piece, and 3x6 feet off the side of a boat. It begged for you to think up a heroic story of hardship and ship wrecks at sea. We tied it off to our skiff and called harbor patrol on our radio. Our radio was dead. Annaliese and Kylla jumped in and finished a second dive while I took a surface interval basking on our new found surfboard. After they surfaced we tied the giant piece of wood and plexiglas to a mooring buoy named Charcoal in Howlands, and left it for pick-up.

We headed to our third and final site, Big Geiger. Here Annaliese and I jumped in. I collected 50 Tegula snails for her and then helped clean up her site. Still waiting for her to finish I kicked a few laps back and forth trying to keep warm. Finally, we made it back to the boat and headed for home. The fog had lifted and the sun was shining. Huge flocks of Cormorants were floating. We were in site of the lab, just about 100 yards to go. We ran out of gas, just like that we stop. I grab the paddle and start paddling. We see a friend swimming laps near shore and we yell to him to get us a tow! But instead he swims to us! No, swim back we say, we need a tow. But, he's decided that he will be the tow. He pulls us, I push us, and Annaliese paddles us to shore. We're all exhausted. It's 3:30 and we've each had one powerbar and one orange, and half a box of wheat thins to share for the whole day.

What a long day.... but it was an adventure. We complain about our work all the time. We hurt ourselves and we ache, but we're not sitting in an office chair all day. We're out in nature, battling to understand it and falling in love with it at the same time. It's fantastic!

Now aren't we glad we were the ones that actually decided to become marine biologists, not just talk about it when were 9? :)