Of bionic turtles and more

It's time i kept up with my blog more regularly - always lots of thoughts and things to share, so will make a more conscious effort to log them here :o)
In Seattle right now - sitting in my friend savas' home office, in front of a 24in screen -- I tell you my Ecosim trajectories look a lot better on this!!!
The change of setting has been good - managed to finish a draft of my Caribbean model report. Hopefully the final final version is not very far away; then i get to write it up as a paper. First though I think I'll have to rejig a few things around - like disaggregate my fish groups and re aggregate them so that these species truly either resident in seagrass beds or dependent on seagrass are their stand alone functional groups. I also want to draw up a table with information on epiphytic algae and who consumes it. Potentially also look at what fisheries in the Caribbean in the 80s looked like so that I can at least come up with some reasonable projections.
So - enough to keep me busy on that front for a while!!!

Before I came out here, we had a really interesting lecture + workshop with Nancy Baron, the Ocean Science Outreach Director for SeaWeb and COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea). Trained as a scientist she now works with environmental scientists to help them communicate their research more effectively to journalists, policymakers and the public. Key to doing so effectively: keep your message clear and simple and answer the question "so what?"!

...and to end with a surprising story - how about this for strange things that happen in the turtle wold: caregivers seek prosthetic flipper for injured turtle. A little extreme if you ask me....

catching up to do ... but not there yet!

So I have been off the radar quite literally for a while -- swamped and then escaped down to baja for a short while ... I'll post stories and pics soon though for now all you need to know is that it was a fabulous trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Felt **ALIVE** like I have not in a while ... now scrambling to get thigns done on the work front... well it can't be xmas every day now can it?

Thus - on the more real life front, items below straight from the SEASPAN listserv...

EUROPE’S APPETITE FOR SEAFOOD PROPELS ILLEGAL TRADE
The illegal trade of fish is thriving in Europe. Over recent years, Europe has become the world’s largest market for fish. To support this growing appetite, it must import 60 percent of its stock. This demand has led to an increase in illegal trading. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, up to half of the fish sold in Europe are illegally caught or imported. The price has also risen, doubling and tripling due to surging demand, scarce availability, and recent fishing quotas imposed by the European Union in a desperate effort to save native species. In an attempt to control this situation, the European Union “is exploring the idea of requiring officials at its ports to check with officials from countries where boats are registered to make sure they are legal and have fishing rights.”

Source: Elisabeth Rosenthal, the New York Times 15 January, 2008

UNTIL ALL THE FISH ARE GONE: EDITORIAL AND ARTICLE
The World Trade Organization is negotiating new trade rules that would reduce subsidies for the world’s fishing fleets. These fleets receive subsides of approximately $35 billion annually for expenses such as boat building, equipment, and fuel. The hope is that by reducing or eliminating these subsidies, fleets would shrink in size, and destructive practices such as bottom trawling would become uneconomic. This action is illuminated by two recent New York Times’ articles: “Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow,” and “Europe’s Appetite for Seafood Propels Illegal Trade.” Both articles discuss the environmental, economic, and human consequences of the illegal industrial fishing.

Source: The New York Times, 21 January, 2008

Related Articles:
Sharon LaFraniere, Europe take's Africa's fish, The New York Times, 14 January, 2008

CUBA BANS MARINE TURTLE HUNT
Cuba recently banned the hunting of marine turtles endangered in the Caribbean. The ban, which took effect the weekend of 26 January, will last “until it is scientifically proven that the species is recovering,” according to Elisa Garcia the Cuban Fisheries Ministry's Director of Regulations.

Source: Reuters, 23 January, 2008

Free Rice

just one word for the day -- go to the following website www.freerice.com
it's fun and it helps feed people ...

in Halifax

-3 degrees!!! Yep that's the temperature outside right now at 9h30 am. Rather fresh like I like to say .. but the sun is filtering through the clouds and the light is absolutely gorgeous.
I've been here for a week - my oh my it doesn't feel that way at all!! - visiting my friend Marta who is a post doc here with Heike Lotze at Dalhousie university. The two of us met when she came for a short stint to UBC 4 years ago, whilst she was still working on her PhD. It's been wonderful wonderful to get to spend some time with her - and to have each other for company whilst we work 'til the wee hours of the night. Marta is a little machine -- very inspiring when lots of work needs to be done ;o)
However, we did take Tuesday off as Boris and Heike had invited us to their lovely house by the sea for dinner. It's an absolutely stunning place - in a little community of about 40 people, right by the water, it's quiet, idyllic, peaceful and yet you can see nature unfolding it's beautiful wildness right around you. The day before I arrived the tail of a hurricane had been sweeping through sending 15, yes FIFTEEN, meter waves crashing against the seashore!
After a week of working until 1 am we also took saturday off - which was a real treat!!! ...went into town and the market -- I LOVED it, it's located in a an old brewery and has so so much character, little stands of people selling cheese, right next to stand of people selling scarves, or ham or fruit of postcards! Full of visitors and regulars gently elbowing their way around... irish music playing at this corner, an incredible violinist practising at the other end. We sat on the steps in front of him for a while, his music delight to our ears... whilst eating a cinnamon bun that was rather tasty!!
On the way home we stopped in multiple small shops - getting inspiration for various xmas presents...
...and in the evening we went 'round to one of marta's friends' house, Diego and Allison - incredibly warm hosts and aquaria fans. They have truly stunning tanks -- 2 saltwater ones and 3 freshwater ones! The incredible thing about the saltwater ones is that they do not use any filtration equipment at all!!! and the corals look SUPER healthy - i was seriously amased -- trick of the trade - as few fish as possible ;o)

Diego is from Mexico - and his parents were visiting - so we got an amasing treat: mole. Absolutely fantastically delicious!!!
ahhhhhhhhhh life is good I tell ya!

Today we may brave the crazy cold and go explore a little bit when we take a break later this afternoon - Peggy's cove maybe.
Stay tuned ;o)

what it feels like in the tumble dryer

...this is exactly how I feel -- like I've been spun around and around and around and 'roud again... not really knowing where up nor down is... but slowly I am finding back onto my own two feet... the other day i said in an email to a friend of mine - i am trying to slowly move myself back into the eye of the storm.
the epiphany i had whilst caught in the storm and being tumbled around ... and whilst reading eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert (a book you HAVE TO read by the way) is that sometimes (that is relatively often these days) I've got my little control issues... i guess particularly as a scientist when you run experiments or play around with models, sure there is a certain amount of uncertainty that you have to content yourself with - but often you're the one in control... and studying in a place with so many strong personalities around 'control' is something important... but admitting deep within yourself that it's ok *NOT* to be in control and letting go is just as important ... and so i am smiling at myself as i know this but actually doing it is a whole other thing!!! ... and yet, it's just like in climbing where when you let go of the wall no matter how hard your brain is telling you don't do it, you know you ain't going to fall very far ... letting go in this instance is just as counter intuitive on some levels yet i also know nothing is really going to happen!!!

So i've moved to halifax for the next 2 weeks -- to focus on work and find my centre of balance again. I need to get a draft of my third chapter together - and it's been a real headache, to the point where it's had be up at night... the last couple of weeks have been relatively productive though so i am hoping to continue riding that wave. Plus my friend marta is here and she's got just as much insane amounts of work to get through so we can motivate each other and take breaks together :o) ... and she understands these crazy ecopath models better than i do so i hope to absorb some of those extra beams for sure and incorporate them solidly into my brain!!!!

the turtles are calling ;o)

wow nelly -- the work life does seem to have sucked me up... although part of the last three weeks have been :o) as I had visitors for part of them - the last 2 weeks have certainly seen me more or less hiding in a hole and working away... the last 2 weeks have been rather tough on my morale I must admit. Aspects of work and just a whole bunch of other curve balls thrown at me ... and this feeling that you somehow landed yourself in a pool a little too deep for you to be able to safely swim either to the side or to the shallow end. Perseverance here though is the key ... so i am sticking to it, trying to stay focused and disciplined and getting enough rest and exercise to keep my endorphin levels as high as possible!!!

I am about to escape to get a bit of fresh air-- and fresh it is! - only 7 degrees, but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from a hike I did when my friend Mike was visiting and Cara, a friend of the family was still in Vancouver as well - out to Eagle Bluffs. It was absolutely spectacular and fantastic - the day was perfect weather wise too, bright sunshine, blue sky, you get to walk through bits that are open, passing by numerous little lakes with orange trees pondering their own reflections...and then a whole stretch through the forest ... before coming out to a steep cliff with an absolute STUNNING view of Vancouver and Mount Baker to the south in the distance, whilst out west you could see the edged contours of Vancouver island sticking out black from the water. That hike definitely belongs to one of the most incredible hikes I've done since moving here.

As for work -- well, TAing (mostly marking assignments and exams) has been taking up quite a bit of my time ... reading what the students have been writing & their attitudes makes me wonder sometimes what the school system has become...
Then i need to hand in a draft of the write up of my Caribbean model results by the first week of November. It's making me nervous as - although I've got most of it together, there are so many things I feel are out of control or I don't know about or simply haven't had a chance, still, to wrap my head around. Hence, I've decided to take myself out to Halifax so i could spend some time with my friend Marta and have her inculcate some her Ecopath wisdom to me!!! I'm looking forward to it ... I think if I am absolutely honest with myself, I've terrified myself more than necessary by this model; and I simply need to jump with both feet and immerse myself in it. I am actually looking forward to it! As Dwight Moore taught us at a workshop I recently attended ("getting on track with your thesis") that would put me at developmental level D3 - i.e. I have moderate capacity but HIGH (to variable) motivation!
and here I go - back to my mediation functions - in other words describing how sea turtle cropping influences predator prey interactions in seagrass beds!

chronically ill indeed

As my friend Pablo commented on one of my posts the other day - are 'we' indeed chronically ill? mmm - it's a good question - I do think at least in parts we are. Looking up the definition for chronically it says - Lasting for a long period of time or marked by frequent recurrence, as certain diseases - well there you have it. The harms we have inflicted upon nature (and by extension onto ourselves?!) are definitely for long periods of time. However, somehow because it doesn't directly or immediately affect our health (in our cushy developed world that is) we somehow always foster the hope somehow it'll get fixed.... but look the ozone hole is still there and bog as ever despite the ban on CFCs back in the 90s... we give ourselves too much credit for understanding how this world functions and how we can 'fix' things gone awry. Well the world has an amasing capacity at being uncertain and full of surprises ... and we should think before acting .. rather than do it anyways and then hoping we can fix it later if it goes pear shaped. Just like that saying goes - better safe than sorry....

Speaking of our world being chronically ill ... A federal report shows that loggerhead sea turtle populations are suffering from significant declines - sad story indeed especially when you consider that data from 1989-1998 showed that the number of nesting sites had increased about 4% each year. In an article published in The New York Times reasons for the decline are mainly attributed to commercial fishing ... but it could be a whole slew of reasons and combination of things...

As for illness itself - I've not been feeling all that hot myself these past couple of days ... my body is intensely fighting a war against some bugs that want to take over my immune system for a little while... onset of fall, and the creeping-in cold always kind of throws your body in a bit of loop. So I've been making myself tasty veggie based soups, taking lots of vitamins, inhaling niaouli oil - a natural antiseptic - and getting more sleep than I usually do. Nothing more frustrating than trying to work and producing only blank mind waves.

So I am going back to bed - creating a comfy little corner for myself with a bunch of pillows and taking some scientific reading there with me -- and a cup of hot herbal tea.
If only it'd be that easy to help cure mother nature...

PS - oooh and that second chapter did get handed in to Daniel ... though it still needs some work