|
|
|
||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
This journal is mirrored at g-na.livejournal.com/, where it is open for comments. Older entries... Current October-December 2009 July-September 2009 April-June 2009 January-March 2009 October-December 2008 July-September 2008 April-June 2008 January-March 2008 October-December 2007 July-September 2007 April-June 2007 January-March 2007 October-December 2006 July-September 2006 April-June 2006 January-March 2006 October-December 2005 July-September 2005 April-June 2005 January-March 2005 October-December 2004 July-September 2004 April-June 2004 January-March 2004 October-December 2003 July-September 2003 April-June 2003 January-March 2003 October-December 2002 July-September 2002 April-June 2002 January-March 2002 October-December 2001 July-September 2001 April-June 2001 January-March 2001 October-December 2000 July-September 2000 April-June 2000 January-March 2000  |
29 December 08 I'm in the middle of two weeks of "winter vacation." We've been given a couple of weeks off at The Marine Mammal Center, and even though I only work (on-site) one day a week, this is a very nice break. Although, without a crew day to mark my Tuesdays, and these holidays falling in the middle of the week, I'm completely confused as to what day it is. I suppose it's good that I don't have to work right now because I'm just getting over a cold. It's nothing bad - just a run-of-the-mill head cold - but it's also the first time in three years (and the second time in five? six? seven?) years that I've been sick. Poop! Now I have to reset that clock. For whatever reason, lately I've been reading even more than usual. Looking back at my list (yes, I keep a list of the books I read) it appears that I am on a non-fiction kick. The last eleven books, plus the one I am currently reading and the next one in the queue, are all non-fiction, and all but two are about various biology/natural history-related topics. I'm looking forward to going back to work and being back on-call next week, especially since when I go back it should be to a brand-spanking-new, multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art (is that enough hyphens?) facility! P.S. Why I love San Francisco: 
26 November 08 The NOVA special featuring the Marine Mammal Center aired for the first time last night and it was exciting to watch! Sometimes when you're mired in day-to-day workings you don't realize the far-reaching effects of your work, and this just brought it all home for me. I was quite surprised at how often I appeared on camera. It's not like I was trying to get in there, but rather, the film crew kept coming back on days I was working. I was also at the Pier 39 rescue attempt showiing at the beginning of the documentary, although you can't see me. If you missed "Ocean Animal Emergency" it is being rebroadcast on PBS several times this week, and is also online here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ocean911/program.html. One of the animals featured in the special was a little harbour seal pup with a mass of tumours on his lower jaw. His post-mortem exam showed that "Brussel Sprouts," as he was aptly named, tissues contained abnormally high levels of petrochemicals. Last November, the Cosco Busan oil spill occurred in the San Francisco Bay at a time when female harbour seals were pregnant. At the time it was unknown if the oil spill had adversely affected marine mammals. We'd occasionally find a pinniped with a spot or two of oil on its fur, but nothing that was even worth catching the animal to clean it. But now with Brussel Sprouts' lab results we see that the oil spill did have long-lasting severe effects. And we don't know how many miscarriages, deformities, or deaths went undiscovered. The Center has been getting a lot of press coverage this week. Frances, our head veterinarian, was interviewed on the Today Show (short clip, about three minutes) on Monday morning. And Monday evening, Jeff, our Executive Director, appeared on Nightline (a six minute clip). This will probably be our last flurry of media coverage before our brand-new center opens in June. We're really looking forward to that! 24 November 08 Our big television special is tomorrow night, Tuesday the 25th! The Marine Mammal Center is being featured in the NOVA episode Ocean Animal Emergency which airs at 8pm on your local PBS station (Channel 9 in the Bay Area). The Center has shown up on many TV and news shows before, including an episode of Dirty Jobs, but afaik this will be the first quality prime-time science show that is dedicating an episode to us. I'm very excited to see it! The NOVA website has an interesting story from the producer of this show in which, among other things, he talks about a seal that was (most probably) caught in a fishing net and killed. It is sad, but what is worse is that this past year, out of approximately 32 harbour seals which were fitted with satellite tags and subsequently tracked, THREE of them were (to the best of our knowledge) caught and killed in fishing nets. That's ten percent of the pups that we followed, and that only includes the few weeks or months in which the satellite tags continue to transmit. That sort of thing is part of the reason why I will not eat fish and why I refuse to support the fishing industry. I took some photos of the NOVA crew when they were on-site earlier this year (click through for more):   14 November 08 (I'm posty today!) I have decided that my life will not be complete without a baby hippo. Exhibit a:  Exhibit b:  Exhibit c: So cute! 14 November 08 On a happier note ... on Wednesday Frederick and I drove out to Chimney Rock at the tip of Point Reyes to help release seven rehabilitated sea lions back into the wild. It's days like this that make up for all the hard work I've done.   We got back to the Marine Mammal Center after dark, dropped off the truck and empty crates, and headed home. As we drove up the hill we entered thick, pea-soup fog and I had to creep along at just a few miles per hour. Then once we crested the hill, like magic, the fog disappeared. We had to stop on the way back and enjoy the view for awhile, it was so pretty. Standing out there, taking photos, we heard coyotes howling to one another. It was just wonderful :)   14 November 08 I have to deal with death a lot. I suppose I am a good candidate for this as I have the ability to somewhat distance myself from it (without this ability I would be too emotionally affected, and it would be too difficult). But that doesn't mean it doesn't affect me at all, particularly when there's nothing I or anyone else can do about the situation. A few days ago I was called out to evaluate a California sea lion at Fort Funston. This area is in the very Southwestern corner of San Francisco; there is a parking lot and dog run area at the top of a 200' tall cliff, with a beach at the bottom. We could see the animal from the top of the cliff, and it was obvious that he was dying - he was rolling in the surf, unable to move himself out, and barely able to raise his head about the water to breathe. Normally we would capture the animal and take him back to the Marine Mammal Center for treatment, and if necessary, humane euthaniasia, however, we are unable to rescue most animals from Fort Funston. There are no roads to the beach, only steep, narrow trails, and it would have been impossible to carry a ~200 pound animal up the trail. Plus, with the animal in the surf we would be putting ourselves at risk in entering the water to get him, as even the sickest animal will use his last bit of strength to fight back or attempt to escape. So we just stood there watching the animal, knowing it was in the process of dying an unpleasant death. The more I think about this situation, the more it bothers me. Even if I was able to administer a euthanasia injection (which I cannot, because that can only be done by a licensed veterinarian) we couldn't just euthanize the animal and leave it there on the beach. The public wouldn't understand it and there would certainly be some sort of outcry regarding it. I know this is bothering me because this morning I had a dream in which I was supposed to euthanize a cat. Luckily, dream-things kept conspiring against me and I was never able to do it before I was awoken (by my yowling cat, ironically). 5 November 08 Yeah, everyone is cheering about the fact that we have elected what should be a great president. If nothing else, Obama is giving us a hope we have not had for many years. While I thought he would win, I was always cautiously optimistic because, hey, you never know what might happen at the 11th hour. And there is still a way to go before Obama is inaugurated; unfortunately, just by being a black man I fear there is a greater chance that someone may try and assassinate him, because face it: America is still a country filled with backwards fucktards ruled by religion. In California, Proposition 2 (better treatment of farm animals) passed, which is very good, but so did Proposition 8 (ban on gay marriage). That means people have actually made an effort to alter the status quo for the express reason to make other peoples' lives miserable. The yes on 8 coalition is so concerned about marriage that they want tens of thousands of happily married people to have their perfectly legal marriages dissolved. Fuck you California. Fuck you all you religious people who cannot keep their beliefs to yourself. Fuck any person who feels they need to control the lives of others because of ignorance. What happened to separation of church and state? I guess that's as non-existent as god himself. 3 November 08 I do not like politics. Not at all. I do not like lying, manipulation, twisting around of words and promises. (If you don't believe these exist, try reading the Pros and Cons in any ballot pamphlet.) I usually don't even like the people who like those things as I feel I can never trust them. And for those reasons I ignore politics as much as I can while still trying to have half a clue as to what's going on around me. But tomorrow is election day in the States and I find I am getting very anxious about it. There is A LOT at stake, possibly much more than any previous election. And after watching so many of my civil rights be eliminated these past eight years I am looking towards any glimmer of hope I can see in my future. I thought briefly about going to or holding an election party, where I could get together with some friends and watch (and hopefully celebrate) the results, but then realized it would be too nerve-wracking. At least I'll be in the Marin Headlands for most of the day, somewhat away from the election feedback. In the meantime, if you're American - make sure you vote! 2 November 08 More tales of marine mammal rescue: Yesterday morning I was awoken by a telephone call, asking if I was available to help rescue a stranded elephant seal. I was, so I woke up Frederick and we headed to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito to pick up a truck and rescue gear, then headed down to Newark, CA to find the animal.  We arrived to find two other volunteers on-site along with a couple of policemen who had blocked off the lane where the animal was lying. Looking at the animal, he was a juvenile Northern elephant seal with a superficial laceration along his back. We went to load the animal in a large crate, but he didn't move. I went to look at his eyes and realized he was dead. When I announced this, one of the cops sounded upset, saying, "But he was just moving a few minutes ago!" We loaded him up and brought him back to the Center for posthumous examination. Necropsy results came back showing the animal had suffered severe trauma: The dorsal wound that you saw externally was associated with bruising on the outside, as well as significant hemorrhage of the deep muscle below. He also had a ruptured spleen, and a diaphragmatic hernia, where the liver had been forced cranially from extreme pressure along the side of the stomach towards the thorax. There was also some bruising/ hemorrhage in the lungs, as well as a fractured skull.In other words, he had been hit by a car earlier that morning. There was a reporter on-site as well who wrote up the story for the local paper, and it seems to have been picked up by several other places as well. One interesting tidbit about law enforcement: they're always much, much nicer when you're on their side. I've often had to deal with the police or park rangers in the course of doing rescues, and when you're working with them they are friendly and cooperative. They pitch in to help, and there's never any of that attitude I've gotten before as a civilian requesting police help. As Frederick put it, things are different when you're the expert and you are calling the shots. 30 October 08 Today I:
30 October 08 It's after 7am and it is still dark. Our clocks don't change for another week and a half. Am I the only person who thinks that daylight savings time is a bunch of nonsense? The only reason I have heard to support daylight savings is to give people more afternoon daylight hours in which to pursue recreational activities. But then millions, if not billions, of people have to get up and go about their morning activities in the dark. Time is so arbitrary. It's just a number. Why change the clocks to make it seem like the day is longer? Why not just change your day so that the daylight falls at a time when it does you the most good? Until recently I was getting up (somewhat) with the sun. I'd usually be up somewhere around 7, and it was great because I had the entire day in front of me. But lately I've been sleeping past 8 or 8:30 and it just feels odd. And on the days when I go in to work at 6 or 7am it is still dark, which just feels unsafe considering I work in a desolate area. This whining is brought to you by the fact I woke up at 6am and couldn't go back to sleep. 27 October 08 I am looking at my calendar and it tells me that on Thursday afternoon, I am supposed to register for classes for my next semester at school, but I just don't think I can muster up the enthusiasm to go to class. First off, they are only offering one Biology course I really want to take - Animal Behaviour - which meets only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, elephant seal pup season coincides with spring semester which means I need to have my Tuesdays free to work, since that is a priority over school. So that class is not an option. Sure, there are other classes I need to take, but I'm not excited about them, not right now. I'm working at the Marine Mammal Center one full day a week, I'm on call a second day, plus I do get the occasional call to help on other days. "Sometime soon" I will begin working at the California Academy of Sciences (I have had my photo taken for my ID badge and am an official "unpaid staff member," but the guy organizing our department is very backed up and I haven't actually started diving there yet), and once I get in there I also want to start helping out doing field collections (i.e. going out and picking up bones!). Honestly, that stuff is a lot more exciting than sitting in a classroom. And it's all within my desired field. I blame this on SFSU's lame-ass registration system that, as a Junior/transfer student, made me wait a full year before taking the class I needed to progress any further in my studies. Frankly, after five years of school, I'm pretty burnt out. And still without a degree :/ 9 October 08 I am inherently a good person. Although I certainly have my faults, I am good and I treat my friends well. It makes me happy to do things for people that make them happy, but sometimes I realize too late that I am being taken advantage of. Sadly there are people in this world who are "takers" rather than "givers," and they have no qualms about their negative actions. Needless to say, I don't like that sort of person. Over the years I have made an effort to rid my life of those takers, those cancerous people who suck the well-being out of me. I've done a pretty good job of it, and as a result I have a circle of wonderful friends whom I love and trust whole-heartedly. I believe these are very positive relationships that improve all the lives involved. Occasionally my path crosses with that of one of these negative people from my past. Sometimes they literally cross, other times a mutual acquaintance passes on news or some such. Over the years I've seen a lot of these negative people deal with a lot of negative situations of their own, and I must say it really does trigger a sense of schadenfreude. I know, it's not a feeling to be proud of or anything, but there is something pleasing about karmic payback. |
 |