Back From Making The Scene In New Orleans At The ASIH Meeting

I had forgotten just how hot it is in New Orleans in July. The humidity was so intense that just walking down the street was stupefying; Alabama by comparison is almost temperate! But that's part of the charm of New Orleans, of course, and it provided a good sweaty backdrop for the annual meeting of the ASIH, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.

My major goal was to present my 15 minute talk on the reproductive ecology of burrhead and silverstripe shiners in a tight, coherent fashion. I've been a little spooked after the nasty reviews I received for my submitted manuscript. That prompted me to tighten up my analysis, especially through the use of ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) as a statistical tool to clarify seasonal trends in gonad growth (see several of my earlier entries). But at 8:15 a.m. Saturday in the Fish Reproduction session I got up and laid it out, and felt that I did it well. At least I didn't get any hostile catcalls during or after. Some people told me afterwards that they liked it, and I'll take that as a positive ego-boosting thing (I don't think they were jiving me...).

Meetings like this serve several functions for the average attendee like me. You get to see friends you usually don't see, and watch some of them progressing through the hierarchy of academia. For instance, Brady Porter at Duquesne University told me he's up for his third-year tenure review this year which I'm sure he'll get through. And you come across new techniques or approaches for your research; mentioning Brady again, he suggested to me a technique for extracting carotenoid pigments from fish that he had used in a 2002 paper ("Egg mimicry and allopaternal care: two mate-attracting tactics by which nesting striped darters [Etheostoma virgatum] males enhance reproductive success", in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 51: 350-359) that would be useful for the scarlet shiner work I've started. So I'm all gassed up and ready to go, and after reading Brady's paper with this technique I think I even understand the details of the chemistry involved (thank God I got a B in Organic Chemistry!).

My wife Ruth was able to join me on this trip which was fun since we both enjoy New Orleans as a unique crazy place. Much of the city is still in ruins, but the French Quarter, Downtown, and Magazine Street are all pretty much intact and functional. It's largely residential neighborhoods that are still blasted. Even though work is available many people can't find affordable places to live. This means that restaurants are often short-handed, as we found out. Don't expect fast service if you visit New Orleans, but most residents are grateful that the tourist/convention business is starting up again.

I also heard from Nick Sharp from the Walls of Jericho today. We've confirmed a trip there this Friday to scout out more flame chubs in Hurricane Creek on the property, and hopefully get some idea of the health and structure of this population. North 'bama still hasn't received much rain and probably won't before then so the creek should be low, making our job easier. I think Casper from Chattanooga is going to meet us too.