White Lightning

Another few weeks have come and gone and I'm still on top of the world. It's funny, you would think that travelling halfway across the globe would put my restless spirit at ease, but I feel as though it has been enhanced. Every time I see something amazing, like whales breaching out of the water or sunrises that glisten on the waves, all I can think is, "this has always been happening, and I'm just getting a brief glimpse of what life in this part of the world is like all the time." While I've been in California going to school and doing my trivial tasks, turtles have been making their migrations, kangaroos have been nursing their young, and koalas have been munching their eucalyptus leaves. The world is so much bigger than I can fathom and life is happening everywhere, not just where I am. Crazy, beautiful, awe-inspiring phenomena are occurring somewhere, right now, but it's a mystery to us. This concept is just something that has been on my mind a lot lately and I suppose the only way to really quell this anxiety is to appreciate the life that's happening right here, in my chair as I write. I am fully alive and everything that I do is a crazy, beautiful, awe-inspiring phenomenon. But that doesn't mean I'm not still dying to see the rest of the world- I'm planning my next trip as I speak! (Peru, anyone?) I know my unrest may seem like I'm not enjoying my time in Australia, but that is definitely NOT the case. I'm just exploring my heart to see what makes it beat a little faster, and I'm realizing that it's these moments in which I experience something I've never experienced before. Newness is simply incomparable. It's like a drug I just can't seem to get enough of.

On that note, I'll describe the past few weeks and why my Australian adventure just keeps getting better and better. On September 20, we left for Stradbroke Island (or Straddie as the locals say) for our first Marine Biology Research project. The other 38 students and I were divided into five different research groups, depending on our area of interest. Before arriving on the Island, we planned out our entire experiment, established a timeline, and predicted how we would analyze our findings. My group was interested in working with a certain species of goby and whiting. Somehow our team name became Gobuymeadrank White Lightning because is vaguely resembles "Goby" and "Whiting," don't ask me how it happened.
Both fish feed on meiofauna (teeny tiny larvae in the sand) in the intertidal sand pits created by sting rays. However, gobies have sometimes been observed to feed on whiting. Our experiment was to test whether or not the whiting would change their feeding behavior in the presence of gobies due to predatory pressure. We ran six trials with 9 tanks each. We had three tanks with goby only, three tanks with whiting only, and three tanks with both whiting and gobies. At low tides my team and I waded out into the intertidal literally right outside the front door from the research station. We ran around with nets and buckets and caught over 150 fish- each about 15-20mm in length. After the were allowed to feed, with anesthetized them with clove oil (which smells like Christmas!) and then dissected their little tummys to see what they ate. To sum up our results, gobies don't really eat whiting so whiting don't really care if gobies are around. So we rejected our hypothesis, but still gained valuable information that could be used in management of the whiting fishery, a very important fishery in Australia. Oh, and our group won for giving the best presentation and was awarded a melon =] The whole experience was really quite important to me because I have been wrestling with the idea of doing research as a career. I went into the program leaning more away from research than towards it, and now after completing my first real research project, I'm about 75% sure it's not the lifestyle for me. Don't get me wrong, I had some of the best times of my life dissecting teeny fish, looking at their gut content, and counting meiofauna (really, I promise!) but again, my restless spirit could not do it for years on end.

Many of these projects last at least 3-5 years, usually longer. And after realizing how tedious it is to write a scientific paper and get it published, the whole prospect just seems a little more dismal. But I still love love love love love marine biology with all my heart and soul! And  my week at Stradbroke was probably the best part of the program so far, I absolutely loved my time there. I just think I'm more cut out for doing something where I can work with larger marine mammals and the public in some sort of educational program, that's all.

On our last day at Stradbroke, we took a walk to the other side of the island, which for some reason they had been keeping us from. There were whales EVERYWHERE. I'm not kidding you. Humpback whales to my left. Humpback whales to my right. Dolphins 50m directly in front of me, surfing the waves. We even saw a manta ray swimming on the surface! This is what I'm talking about when I say that life is happening here. The whales that I saw are doing what they've always done. They are living their lives and swimming and leaping and slapping their flukes. It's part of the beauty that is happening every day, whether there are people to witness it or not. Perhaps the reason I am so determined to see more of these eye-opening, shocking moments is because Australia has such a ready supply of them. There is nothing Australia can throw at me that doesn't take my breath away, at least not in the natural world. It really is a beautiful land and I still can't believe I'm here. There was one night when we went out to do a beach seine where we essentially dragged a huge net through the water and then examined the contents. We caught a stingray, some puffers, some gar, and some poisonous fish- of course, most of the stuff here is poisonous. But what was really cool was that as we walked around the sand-flat, our feet began to light up. Little stars beamed beneath our toes. It was as if the Milky Way galaxy lay beneath me and I was dancing along its path. The lights I saw were created by little microorganisms that bioluminesce. They are able to produce a light within themselves, emitting a blue-green glow that was activated by our footsteps. Soon we were all running around, dancing and jumping, forgetting all about our net and just acting like kids who just discovered a new toy. Just another moment to add to the list of unforgettable memories.