Ok...long time without a post, besides the TED talk. I have been pretty busy with Vet school but I had some fun this past week. We went out on a boat to do some dives in order to fish for lion fish! Now, in the Cayman Islands you have to have a specific license from the Dept. of Environment in order to touch any lion fish in the ocean. Anyways, we ended up getting 49 lbs of lion fish!!!! I think they are absolutely beautiful fish but wow...49lbs!! The whole lot filled two five gallon buckets to the brim. I have taken a pretty good interest in the lion fish problem in the Caribbean since I have moved here in August 2011. I have been thrilled to be able to participate in the efforts to eliminate the lion fish from Cayman. I know I will never succeed since they are breeding and eating machines. I have recently helped out a friend doing his Masters on lion fish diet surveys, and let me tell you, they are out of control. The amount of food these fish can process is absolutely amazing. These things don't care what they eat, as long as they can swallow it. Gobies, shrimps, damsels, chromis, trumpetfish, crabs, octopus, mysids, squirrelfish and more are all being targeted by this glutton fish. The very first day helping in the lab just was scary to me. To think that this is only one or two fish in front of me but there are thousands out there still eating the same amount of prey items, just astonishing. I plan on doing some of my own research involving lion fish while I am down here and hope to update you all on my results.

Here is a motivational message for the day! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.