The Graduate Student Chronicles (Issue 6): Insects, coffee, politics, and sturgeon!

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Wow, I haven't written in awhile and it's just crazy that it's been a month since I returned from Alaska. I feel like there has been so much going on, but it also feels like time is creeping by. Usually, for me a month feels like a year, especially when tough things have happened, but now it's still only early April. Is the end of April ever going to come? I hope so. I have been looking forward to it for a LONG time. Why? Well...because my classes will be done, my first year of grad school will technically be done, I can move to the sturgeon site, and because I can just live and breath sturgeon...it's also going to be sunny and warm here in Michigan which is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. Long nights, warm campfires on nights off, some boating trips, and lots of fishing! I can't wait. It's been a long hard winter ...it's time to say goodbye, get a change of scenery, and just be somewhere else for awhile.

Well I have been doing SO much, but just a few updates here. I'm almost done with lab work (YAY!!). I think I have 4 samples that didn't quite run great for 1 locus. In other words, 4 out of 840 sites need to be re-ran and then it will all be done!! Then I guess it's on to analysis which I'm actually looking forward to. It's pretty amazing what we can do with genetic data nowadays.

I recently made a joke that I'm in a relationship with this computer program "R" because I spend most of my day with it, take it to bed with me, and dream about it. Sounds like a relationship, huh? It's become my favorite software as I learn the ins and outs of animal models for my research project. It's some tough quantitative genetics work I've gotten myself into, but it's going to be awesome!

In March, I went and spent a weekend at the field site. It was pretty cool to get some one-on-one time with John (our field manager) and ask him a bunch of questions to get a better sense of what I can do with my experiments. During one part of the trip, he made the comment that "sturgeon are the one animals that when you look in their eyes, you can see they have a soul" and it just kind of stuck with me. I also learned that the local restaurant, Woodwinds, is not bad but in order to consume some food, you just have to mix everything together or cover it with sauce. Direct example -- overcooked cod and lots of tartar sauce. It's also funny how everyone in town sees the truck or our sweatshirts and instantly knows who we are, probably how long we've been in town, and maybe even our names. They kind of keep tabs on us which is good I guess.

Recently, my life has been pretty calm...quiet...easygoing. But I didn't realize until recently that now my life is extremely political. Science is political...SO SO much. Not only do you have to kind of understand the faculty members that do or don't get along, but you also have to pick up on what research is not justified, what literature we never cite (because we don't like the researcher or their methods are just a crap-shoot), and what people we don't ever go to to ask for help...even if they may know the answer. There are just some lines that cannot be crossed and guess how big the sturgeon lines are? HUGE! Lots of debate about sturgeon in the Midwest and there are a handful of researchers across the Great Lakes that study lake sturgeon, but we don't all communicate. On the bigger picture, the entire NSF is also pretty political if you kind of take a look at research they fund, research they don't, and why. It's just crazy. We're all in the pursuit of scientific knowledge which is a never-ending pursuit for a biologist, but there are some lines you just can't cross I guess. There's kind of a huge debate in the shark research world right now about how seeking fame or publicity may have led to some questionable data collection measures that may have actually harmed an animal, but it's still kind of up in the air. It's very political as well...especially considering the shark was in a marine sanctuary during the research...

I recently had my first run-in with a House centipede. This stupid thing scared me to death one night as I unknowingly passed over it on the stairs and then was coming half-way back up and instantly freaked when I saw it. I ran downstairs and demanded my roommate and her boyfriend kill it because this Pacific Northwestern girl had no idea what the frick it was. If you have never seen one, check out a pic here: . It's almost scarier than a spider! Right before that I had another terrifying experience -- a coffee date with numerous leg pats, a dodged kiss, some weird 2:30a.m. text message, and an odd email. It was not a good experience and I was kind of leery of accepting another one with a different guy. That one turned out much better though 😊. I'm not sure which one of the first two experiences (the 1st coffee meet up or the centipede) was worse. They both kind of make my skin crawl as I sit here in bed and scan my walls for house centipedes (I've heard they also like to scurry across ceilings).

Since I'm commuting to the field almost every weekend now, I went to probably my last Starfarm show for the semester (maybe). It was pretty awesome and D, Jwow, and I almost got through all of the Thriller dance in our favorite bar...we also made up some of it but ah well. We've also re-affirmed our groupie status as I was wearing my newly acquired Starfarm t-shirt that I picked up at an 80s Party Bene, Rach, and I went to a couple weeks ago. It's kind of bad too when at the party, the lead singer, Whitney, totally recognized us and thanked us for coming out to support them so much. Haha...I like to think it's because Bene has such a vivacious personality that we got noticed....or it could also be that we go see them at least once a month at our favorite dive bar. Nevertheless, the last show was awesome and really chill as I had one drink, danced like crazy, sang Madonna and Cheap Trick really loud with the boys, and even got D to do the Katy Perry-fireworks-out-of-the-breast montage with me when FIREWORKS came on during the band's break. Priceless! 😊

Well this past weekend was my second commute up north for an orientation weekend and it went pretty well. We had to leave at 6a.m. on Friday to get up there for our meeting and I of course was super worried about oversleeping (because I sleep like the dead) that I couldn't fall asleep and don't really even remember sleeping at all that night. When 5 a.m. rolled around, I was pretty sad and forced myself out of my warm bed in the dark and got ready. It wasn't too bad a drive though and I made it in pretty good time and met everyone at the hatchery. For two days, we got to know each other (me, John, and the other techs: two returners from last year and two new guys from MSU). Another grad student also studies Microbiology and he'll be up there for the first month or so too so he came up. And an additional P.I. on the project from the DNR came as well as a seasonal DNR guy to run the hatchery with us so it was a pretty full house. We went over everyone's experiments, where they would be, how they would go, and who was interested in doing what. I also talked a little about my ideas and it seemed to go over well. On Friday afternoon, we waded the river from Site 1 down to site 7 (all the sites are where the sturgeon spawn) and it was a little intense with the current. I only fell in once and luckily held myself up with my right arm long enough for the microbiology grad to grab me and save me from getting entirely soaked. This was right after Kim and the DNR guy grabbed me as I almost went down into a huge hole and I just bobbed along as these big, well-over-6-foot men held me up like a buoy. It was probably pretty comical to see. I'm a little more excited that I'll be wearing the wetsuit during adult surveys and can go down in holes because I'm short and trying to stay dry when you're 5'4'', about to cross a 6-7 foot hole and have super fast current pushing against you is not very easy. I would rather just get wet and move around a lot to stay warm than walk lightly and worry about soaking myself all day. We'll see how much that changes though after a few weeks straight of wearing a thick wet-suit.

After we went over experiments and such on Friday and Saturday, we fixed some cups for my experiment and then Kim and the two MSU guys took off back to Lansing. I stayed around to get some more data and just relaxed with the rest of the crew. I ended up leaving Sunday around 11:30 or so after we all woke up to thunderstorms and 60 degree weather. Since it was still kind of early, I called up a buddy of mine from MSU who has a field site nearby and went over to see him. He works with lamprey and their site is right on Hammond Bay so they get a gorgeous view of Lake Huron. It was pretty cool even though it's pretty quiet there too since the lamprey haven't started running yet either. Nevertheless, he showed me a few lamprey and they're pretty little, but very awesome! Most people don't care for them because some of the species are parasites, but the lamprey lab is doing some pretty cool work looking at how these fish react to pheromones and how the DNR could control their abundance by understanding the biochemistry of these pheromones. It's a pretty big facility too and I snagged a picture of it before saying goodbye and heading down the highway.

Given that my radio antennae got broken last winter in Alaska, I only pick up 2 or 3 stations most of the way down Highway 127. These are mellow Christian rock, news about political issues, and financial planning. While all of them are not bad, they're not really my station of choice for staying awake and entertained while commuting...especially slow music or number crunching so I decided to take the scenic, longer route down Highway 23 that runs alongside Lake Huron for a bit before hitting Interstate 75 and 69 which lead back to Lansing. It was pretty cool and I'm glad I went that way as about 100 miles down the road, the weather turned to clear blue skies, near 80 degrees, and just windy enough to beat off the humidity. I hit this one area where the water was just gorgeous and there were white sandy beaches so I pulled out the atlas, found the nearby Tawas Point state park along the way, and stopped there. I was pretty surprised to find a lighthouse, gorgeous white sand, and almost nobody around. I spent about an hour there just walking, taking pictures, rescuing a net of some sort from the water (which I placed near the maintenance area), and walking barefoot on the warm sand. The water was still kind of cold, but looked just like the ocean as the waves pounded against the shore. It was just perfect too with the light breeze. The only down-side was that I decided to walk over a kind of beach more dry-grassy , straw-like area and suddenly heard some movement but couldn't tell where it was coming from. When I stopped, I convinced myself I was just being dumb but then something moved to the left and I instantly started hopping across this straw-like grassy area, probably looking like a total idiot as I got back to the pure sandy area and decided to stick close to the water. It was probably just a snake or a lizard, but I really didn't want to find out.

After snagging some shots of the lighthouse and seeing it was about 4:30, I decided I better get on the road since I was still pretty far away. I didn't take anymore pictures, but took my time getting back, stopping to get some fish for dinner, and then saying goodbye to the lake and heading inward towards I-75. It was gorgeous weather on the way back as I rolled down the window, cranked up the radio, and just flew down the interstate. I didn't end up getting home until about 7:30 or so, but it felt great out...warm but not hot as I brought everything back inside and then showered. It was a great weekend and I'm really glad I got to see some more of Lake Huron. I think life is going to get pretty busy soon and I'm pretty excited for that. It's steady right now, but at the site, the only thing I have to think about is keeping the fish alive and chasing 6-foot fish in the water.

Only downside to moving north for field work is leaving my friends. They've been pretty awesome lately. A bunch of them came with me to a baseball game not because they even liked baseball but just because they wanted to hang out last week. It's going to be a little weird not seeing them everyday. But I know we'll all be back together in the fall 😊 Plus I have lots of adventures awaiting me and this summer...is just the beginning =)

I might not be able to write again for awhile so if I don't, have a good summer all, I might be updating my twitter on the project (MSUsturgeongrad) or we're also working on a website to help connect with the public more (Michigan Black Lake sturgeon project). If you're in the area, come find me in the sturgeon capitol of Michigan and we'll go swim with a "living fossil"!!

~Kari

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Photos

Kim (my advisor on the left) talking with Jim
Photo copyrights belong to Bill Oeming

Haha we look funny wading downstream
Photo copyrights belong to Bill Oeming

Bill snagged a shot of John and I
John's been a huge help this year already helping with my experimental design!
Photo copyrights belong to Bill Oeming