Changes

Changes in routine that I like.  Change is a good thing and so far I'm beginning to detect a pattern that the amount of time measured in ~2 years has been my threshold for anything.  It had better not be a curse as well.  I am in a house-hunting situation at the moment, trying to find a new place to stay for the next year.  In doing so, I don't think I've ever spoken to so many new faces within a week before, in and out of school.  Calling homes wondering if they'll be willing to adopt me as a new housemate..


Today was Day #5 in the lab and I've been fortunate to see some amazing creatures, mostly dead.  Yesterday while sifting through a handful of sand, I came across something nut-shaped and pale brown in color.  It was actually a dead sea heart/sea almond that when alive, burrows into the sand for food and protection.  My initial thought was along the lines of "damn, how did this mangrove seed get here?!"..which was actually a very bad guess.  A sea heart is also known as an irregular urchin that's about the size of an acorn. Its mouth is located on the underside of the body and so food is scraped off the sand surface as it grazes.  I don't know whether its due to death or its frozen state that caused its spines to be brittle and coarse.   But I wasn't stung and that was all that mattered.

The girl working in front of me, who is also sifting through seagrass but for fauna, found a 5 mm pycnogonid (sea spider) under the microscope.  I was unfamiliar with the term and I kept thinking that it was a baby fish trapped in the seagrass.  Another bad guess.  Turned out to be a tiny sea spider with all of its legs intact and attached.  I was amazed..like shit now we have to worry about spiders in the sea??

...been driven by coffee lately.  I've stopped the Tea phase that I had proudly maintained for 6 weeks a while back.  Well, didn't have to wait for two years to end it.  Green tea will always be there at the back of the cupboard but as of yet, nothing delivers a good kick in the morning like the campus ice coffee.

Chasing tides

 

Sunset overlooking Moreton Bay

A bit of blogging before I begin work.

Things have been moving at a fast pace recently and I've been enjoying the ride so far.  God has been good.  It's funny (and maybe a little pitiful to you) that I am beginning to enjoy scientific work in most of my 3rd  level courses.  Two weeks ago I found myself jumping off a research boat, weeding out seagrass and placing them into bags.  A few minutes of navigating around sites with a GPS led us (Liz and I) to a the direction of a small motorized boat.  There were two people from the Dept. of Environment on board, whose names I learnt but forgot after 5 seconds.  We were standing in a few feet of water when they steered toward us.  They have been circling the area for turtles and been doing a "turtle rodeo" in the area.  I was lucky enough to see how a TR was done while my left hand was holding a lame bag of seagrass.  A TR is a way of capturing turtles in the wild, by leapfrogging directly off a boat unto the turtles in the water.  The turtle was then lifted off the water and placed in the boat for measurements and sampling.

It was cool witnessing a TR and I regret that my camera was in the boat at that time.  All I got to take was a few pictures of the boat, some very exciting seagrass underwater, and a sunset on the way back.

  

The bow of Pelagia, our boat of the day

Hanging out

It's easy to detect seagrass-- just look for dark patches in shallow water.

 

This is the natural state of Halophila spinulosa just before I came to weed them all out.  Had a close encounter with a fireworm that had been buried near the roots of the seagrass.  From the stories I heard, fireworms aren't the best things to come across in the sea.  Their spines deliver toxins that are capable of melting thru diving gloves and cannot be neutralised using vinegar or urine.  I stayed back to watch it crawl around for a while before moving off to another area.

So that's just a bit of what that has been keeping me busy the past week.  I've been left on my own to work on these samples in the lab so it's been a new experience so far.  I keep sane by going out for movies, and imagine my surprise when I watched Inglorious Bastards (can't be bothered with the other spelling) last Friday. Omg, the blatant shooting and murder in the movie is supposed to be funny?!  You watch it and tell me how it is.