Introductions: Part 2

In all seriousness…I never really introduced myself here on the blog. I believe its time to do so in light of my previous…and partially comedic college post.

As a young boy I was always fascinated by aquatic ecosystems. I spent the majority of my adolescent years knee-deep in the closest stream or pond collecting all sorts of “critters”. In doing so, I would take a representative of each species back home with me and proceed to reference my small library of field guides to identify the days catch…once identified, I would make the trek back and set them free (my Mom made sure this step was taken).

Once I got older I secured a job in the tropical fish biz, haha. In doing so I became an avid aquarist, keeping all sorts of species from across the globe. I had so many aquariums up and running lets just say my parents quickly introduced me to a thing they called the electric bill. It got to the point where I had my aquariums stocked, aquascaped, and chemically identical to match specific geographic regions of the world, sometimes even particular water bodies. I had the Amazon, the Central American, the Lake Malawi, the Sumatra and Borneo, and so forth. After a few years of fish keeping I found myself studying their behavior, particularly that of Central American Cichlids. I kept a notebook and documented the behavior of a few breeding pairs of convict cichlids (separate tanks of course). Aside from writing down their behavior I would also include my own ideas and interpretations. At the tender age of sixteen I had no idea what a behavioral ecologist was or that I was unknowingly selecting a future career path.

One of my boys...

My pretty pink lady.

As it stands now, I’m currently a senior Organismal Biology/Ecology major looking to pursue a career in fisheries biology or aquatic ecology. During the course of my studies I gained an interest in aquatic macroinvertebrate behavior, particularly that of predatory stoneflies.

I believe that my infatuation with fly fishing is just another way for me to gain insight into the aquatic world, a direct spin off of my childhood fascination with aquatic ecosystems systems and fish behavior. When you think about it…Is there any tool better suited for understanding aquatic ecosystems and fish behavior than a fly rod?…

This is one of my favorites. I took this photo of Mark while we were out in the field collecting data. This research project was titled "Cyprinus carpio: The unveiling of a super predator"