Summer in Italy

My family and I went to Rome and Florence this summer and my industrious little sister filmed our adventures. Thanks kaikaina!

Wandering: Summer 2012

On July 13 I quit my job (yes I put in my two weeks notice, jeez) and hopped a flight to the mainland. I will be away from Hawaii for over a month, starting in California, then to Vegas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and finally Vancouver for a Chondrythian conference. It all started out as a two week family vacation to California. When I found my dad was going to Indiana to visit his side of the family following our Cali venture, I decided to tag along. I haven't seen my grandparents in almost four years so I'm way past due. And they have no idea I'm coming. From there I'll be visiting my sister and her family in Dillsburg, PA. And to top it off I'll head to Canada to give a talk at a conference on deep sea sharks, skates, and rays. So this summer I'll be wandering.

 The California leg of the trip is already in full swing, so let me introduce you to the characters:

1) The Mom (Kiki) - planned this whole trip. Excites easily, and stresses way too much.
2) The Dad (Gramps) - just along for the ride. Cheesy and laid back.
3) The Younger Siblings - A younger sister (17), my dad in teenage girl form. A younger brother (20), thinks he's awesome. Dropped off the map about a year ago. This will be the first time the family's seen him in a while.
4) The Older Sister - happy and care-free. Lives in PA with her husband and two daughters. Basically awesome.
4) The Brother-in-Law - older sister's husband. Funny and outgoing. Kinda cheesy too.
5) The Girlfriend - Younger brother's gf. Knows what she likes and isn't shy to share it.
6) The Nieces - 5 and 8. The 5 year old is wild and hilarious, gets into lots of trouble. The 8 year old is smart and she knows it.

And finally there's me. I'm not nearly self-centered enough to describe myself, so I won't.

We touched down in LA on the 14th and headed to our first stop, Venice Beach. And the strange ramblings begin....

Mongooses on Kauai?

Yesterday the first live mongoose to be caught on Kauai was trapped at the Marriott Kauai Lagoons. Houston, we have a problem.

Photo courtesy of Hawaii News Now

In the late 1800s mongooses were introduced to Big Island, Maui, Molokai, Oahu in an effort to curb rat populations. Unfortunately rats are nocturnal, while mongooses are active in daylight hours, rendering their introduction completely useless. Mongoose populations exploded on the islands they were introduced, decimating ground-nesting  native bird populations including petrels, shearwaters, and Hawaii's state bird, the nene.

Kauai, it seems, had been spared. The story goes a ship loaded with a crate of the critters was destined for the island in 1883. One of the workers on board was bitten (they're not very nice), and in a fit of rage kicked the entire crate into the water (thank you random bipolar guy!). No other shipments of mongooses were sent to Kauai.

Growing up there, I had always thought of Kauai as mongoose-free. Just another reason it was the best island. (Uhh... I mean worst. Don't go there.) But every once in a while I'd hear someone describe a rat-like creature they'd seen but had no idea what it was. In 2003, my uncle came to visit from the mainland. He was walking along a beach on the north shore when he saw some sort of strange mammal he couldn't place. As he described it to us - kind of like a rat and squirrel mixed together - it sounded a lot like the mammal that wasn't supposed to exist on Kauai. February 2004 saw another report of a mongoose sighting appear in the local newspaper, The Garden Island.

In fact, there have apparently been over 160 "credible" reports of mongooses over the past 44 years, with sightings ranging all over the island.

Then they found one. In 1976 a lactating female was found dead on the road in Kalaheo. Kauai definitely had a mongoose problem. But the question shifted from "Are they here?" to "Are they established?" If mongooses had a stable breeding population, Kauai was in trouble.

Now that a live mongoose has actually been caught - this one a mature male - there is little doubt Kauai has an established population of mongooses in the Lihue area. Likely elsewhere too. What worries me are those sightings spanning the entire island. Just how serious is Kauai's mongoose infestation? And how can we stop it before the Garden Isle becomes as lifeless as Oahu (again, I'm a little biased)?

Check out the article on the KHON 2 News website: First Live Mongoose Captured on Kauai

The Oceans Sciences Conference 2012, Salt Lake City, Utah

My first conference! Oh, and I gave a talk! Maybe you missed that. I got the incredible opportunity to present my research at a major international conference. Needless to say I was excited... but mostly terribly nervous.

I submitted my abstract in October, with the full anticipation that I'd be assigned a poster. It's not very common for an undergrad to get a talk, so I wasn't expecting much. Honestly I just hoped my abstract would be accepted. In November I got the email that I was given a speaker slot, and I was instantaneously on cloud-9. But as November melted into December and December into January, the nerves started to take hold. I was going to be surrounded by these pillars of science, the experts that I cite endlessly in any paper or presentation. I needed to prepare. 

Flying in to Salt Lake City

I got into Salt Lake City last Saturday, not nearly as prepared as I wanted to be. On the plane over, I suddenly got this crazed new idea for the direction I wanted to go in, and began completely reorganizing my talk. This was probably not a good idea. So night one consisted of me endlessly tweaking my talk.

On Sunday, with fresh powder on the ground, my advisor, another researcher, and I decided to go skiing. Avoid the stress of my talk for a couple hours (maybe it was just procrastination). My advisor and his colleague were originally from the mainland and had been skiing since forever. In contrast, this would be the third time I had ever seen snow. I had been snowboarding once before so I stuck with that. The geography was incredible on the way up to Brighton.

Heading up to Brighton

Snowboarding was incredibly fun but also pretty painful. I managed to not fall getting off the lifts, but that's just about the only place I didn't fall. Trying to keep up with two experienced skiers is not the safest thing to do when you're on a snowboard for the second time in your entire life. I would get into the flow of it, get some good speed, then promptly catch an edge and fall. I fell pretty hard a couple of times, but I just kept wanting to go fast. By the third run, my advisor and his friend had ditched me and I was on my own, so I plugged in my iPod and just listened to music for the rest of the day as I explored the runs. Music and snowboarding is so much better than just snowboarding. It was more fun and I felt like I fell less for some reason. I'd just tune out and then suddenly I'd be at the bottom of the hill, lining up for the lift again.

Starting out...

Something a little steeper. 

Heading back to the city

That night a number of my labmates flew in so the house quickly became filled. And by filled I mean overbooked. Some of us had to sleep two to a bed (luckily they were queen sized beds!). Everyone was some combination of excited, nervous, and jet-lagged. For dinner we grilled up some sort of pork, some flounder, asparagus, and potatoes. Being the 'rabbit' that I am, I stuck with the veggies. 

Day 1 of the conference was exciting! The Salt Palace Convention Center is huge and I spent most of the morning wandering around various ballrooms. Thousands of people were in attendance, filling in and out of ballrooms as they attempted to see every talk of interest. This was impossible to me as so many cool talks were going on at the same time. I sat in on a session entitled "137: Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry and Ecology: Establishing Linkages Between Molecular Diversity and Ecosystem Functioning" and another called: "004: The Southern Ocean and Its Role in the Climate System."

Sitting in one of the talks...

Massive poster sessions!

Days 2 and 3 were a blur. Endlessly sitting in talks, then frantically speeding to the next one in the ballroom across the entire building. Day 3, Wednesday, was filled with plenary talks an there was a really interesting one about shark conservation and the impacts of the shark fin soup industry. 

Day 4. Before I knew it, Thursday was here. The day of my talk. There was an entire session devoted to the type of work I'd be presenting: compound specific isotope analysis of amino acids (AA-CSIA): 123: Compound-specific amino acid analysis: a rapidly evolving tool for ecology, paleoceanography and biogeochemical cycle research. The line up of speakers was amazing. Marylin Fogel, the opening speaker, basically pioneered this entire method over 20 years ago. Other big names included Matt McCarthy, Yoshito Chikaraishi, and my advisor Brian Popp. Put simply, this room was filled with anyone who understood the AA-CSIA method. And here I was, fresh out of my undergraduate life, with a B.S. in Global Environmental Science. The talks started at 8:00 am and I didn't talk until 10:45, so I had plenty of time to work up my nerves. I had to keep telling myself to think of Max (a dog) who lives a stress free life. 

On top of the sheer stress that comes from having to give a presentation to an audience of experts, I had two additional reasons to worry:

1) Both of my prospective advisors for grad school were in attendance, so this almost felt like a job interview. 

2) My talk was essentially going against everything that the guy presenting before me was supporting. And the guy before me was Yoshito Chikaraishi, one of the biggest names in this type of science. 

But you know what, I did it! I could feel my voice shaking a bit, but it wasn't bad. I knew my stuff and I could feel the repetition taking over as I settled into it. And I did alright! I didn't really get any difficult questions after, so I felt pretty good. After I sat back down, all the adrenaline left and I suddenly felt exhausted yet elated. It was over!

The poster session started at 4 pm every day and there was free beer for the first hour. I hadn't really taken advantage of this until now. I had to celebrate!

Title slide of my talk

The end of Friday's sessions at 4 pm marked the close of my first conference. It was a rush. A crazed, stressful, amazing rush. Now it's on to writing an abstract for an upcoming conference! It never ends. 

Here are some pics of the city: 

Mormon temple

The capitol building

Inside the capitol building

Beautiful ceiling, Capitol building

View from the top! Salt Lake City

See you at the next conference!

P.S. Here's a link to my abstract!
Hoen, D. K.; Popp, B. N.; Drazen, J. C.; Hussey, N. E.; Kim, S. L.; Wallsgrove, N. J.; Humphreys, R. L.; COMPOUND SPECIFIC ISOTOPE ANALYSIS IN FOOD WEB STUDIES: THE NEED FOR ACCURATE ESTIMATES OF TROPHIC ENRICHMENT FACTORS 

Adventures in Oregon: Pictures

My cousin's son getting ready to rope a bull.

Adventures in Oregon: the family reunion continues

The Box-R ranch was absolutely gorgeous. Way up, high in the mountains close to California, this ranch appears. A long gravel driveway. Dry grassland. Coniferous trees everywhere. Deer. At the end of the long gravel road we pull up to an open meadow. A pasture dotted with cows, horses, and donkeys stretches in front of us. To our left is a white two story house set behind a large droopy tree. The owner's house. Our cabin is further up the gravel road,

Adventures in Oregon

Family reunion. Enough said, right?

My sister, mom, and I left for Oregon on July 31st. We met up with my grandma and uncle (mom's mom and brother) at the terminal. True to form, my grandmother and uncle were worrying about what they'd do if we missed our flight.