7/3-7/9

What's up fam, I'm back after a week off. This Monday I whipped up another batch of squid pops and watered some mud for Emlyn in the morning. Hopefully the 10 mg of water I added will help get that benthic algae going. In the afternoon I went out to collect some mud crabs for more tethering I'll be doing later this week (God save my soul). I had some help from one of my roommates and fellow interns, as we had to collect 160 mud crabs. After going to three different sites we finally managed to collect them all (I caught 110 but who's counting?). Back at the institute, I set them up in 6 cozy little tanks and got their bubblers going. This is important to note as later that evening the wet lab was found flooded from a mysteriously left on hose. I just want the record to show that my crabs and I are innocent.

On Tuesday, I did a squid pop consumption assay out in Dean Creek. It was really hot and boy was I sweating. After getting them out I waited 4 hours before going back to collect them. I was flying solo on this one (with backup on standby). Several times I didn't think I wasn't going to make it, but I dragged myself through that marsh and finished the job. It was also the 4th of July so after a little swim I watched Drive with my roommates. You know that patriotic movie with the Ken guy.

On Wednesday, I started the day by getting some of the snails Emlyn collected ready for shedding. This took me awhile to finish, and the infection prevalence only turned out to be about 1.5% :/. After that I tethered mud crabs for my consumption assay I'm putting out tomorrow. I devised a new method of keeping the crabbos organized so hopefully it goes well. I only included 3 extra tethers into my plan because I never make mistakes.

Oh my god today was a awesomeeeeeeeeeeeee :(. I started the day at 6:30 with Matt by putting out his pull traps and my minnow traps at each of my 9 sites. It was actually pretty cool out that early in the morning, but I did have to crawl around in the mud more than I was hoping to. I made banana pancakes after as a little reward. After that I went back out with my roommates (shout out) at 11 to place my tethered mud crabs at each of the sites. It went well as I provided the tunes and good vibes. After that I helped Emlyn with some snail stuff before going out with Shawna again at 3. Now I don't make mistakes, but I had been up since 6, and long story short we lost a minnow trap and misplaced a set of tethered crabs. But we brought those crabbos home and the creek now owns a minnow trap so everyone is happy. Afterrr that I reorganized all the tethers for tomorrow's run and got some well plates ready for some more snail shedding. I ended the day with a little oceanic soak and tried to manifest a girlfriend. 

On Friday, I had to speed tether 72 crabs while finishing the set up of the snail shed. Shawna and Clara helped me and we finished just in time to go out at 11. I also put out minnow traps at each of my 9 sites. Putting the tethers out went smoothly and four hours later we came back to collect them. There wasn't much in the minnow traps, but anything I did catch was measured and weighed before being released. I released all the remaining crabs and headed back to the lab to clean up the destruction I had left in my wake this morning. We ended the day with Blade Runner (Clara's pick) and a turtle walk (no turtles).