![\"Jenna's](\"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/241\/2013\/07\/DSC_0609.jpg\")
<\/a>Day 1:<\/b> The crew sleepily rolled off our ferry onto the island of Newfoundland at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. A stop at Tim Horton\u2019s for coffee and nibbles before we headed down the Trans Canada Highway to the home of our host, Dr. Bob Scott [a former Ph.D. recipient of Clark and current director of the Bonne Bay Marine Station].<\/p>\n
After dropping off some things at Bob\u2019s, and figuring out that it would be most efficient to transport our gear with the trunk of the car closed<\/i>, we headed to our first lakes to observe and set traps. We were delighted to find that our exploratory trip to search for our favorite fish would not be in vain; stickleback, in all their glory, do indeed live here, and in many different environments! What a relief.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Day 2:<\/b> Saturday was a grey day, brightened drastically by a Disney sing-along in the car. The highlight of the day was a spot called Cook\u2019s Brook. Not only did we find hundreds of stickleback, but Bob\u2019s daughters joined us. The girls were so heartwarming to watch; once we told them a little bit about stickleback, they were eager to stomp through the brook to find the fish themselves. They had a great eye for the spotting them in the rolling waters, certainly better than I do. It\u2019s always fulfilling to share your interests with someone, but children do not pretend their interest nearly as often as most adults. It was touching to see them take on a fascination for observation in such a short period of time. It may help that their dad has instilled a sense of adventure and appreciation of nature in them, but their genuine curiosity was my favorite part of the day.<\/p>\n Day 3:<\/b> Sunday was even greyer! We used our seine in some terrible weather at Blue Pond and Pinchgut Lake.<\/p>\n A seine (rhymes with \u201crain\u201d) is a long, rectangular net that is dragged through the water to pick up fish. It covers a larger area than a trap would, and our seine was craftily tied to hockey sticks [donated by Bob] to make seining easier. Once you\u2019ve covered a certain area, you pull the seine out of the water, pick out any fish of interest, and throw the rest right back into the water.<\/p>\n We drove further down the coast* to our home for the next week, the Bonne (pronounced like \u201cbone\u2019\u201d) Bay Marine Station. We finished our day by setting traps at 4 spots in varying amounts of rain, grilled, and snuggled up for a research party. I love that this is group of people with whom I can hop into a lake, barbeque, sing embarrassing songs, then sit around discussing trimorphic plating of stickleback. The promise of sunny days and more discovered fish lies ahead!<\/p>\n *Newfoundland fact:<\/b> \u201cDown the coast\u201d actually refers to travelling north, and \u201cup the coast\u201d refers to going south; the currents off the west coast of the island that flow from north to south birthed these terms that are handy for confusing tourists.<\/p>\n Several packed days into this Newfoundland adventure, our team has already experienced a range of successes and emotions, from abject failure to thrilling triumph.\u00a0Below are some tidbits and highlights from the trip so far! The All-star Crew: Jenna Kosmo: Rising …<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
From left to right: Emma, Jenna, Jason, Melissa, Bob, Eric<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"