I'm Almost Famous, And Fundulus News

I've been meaning to post for 4 or 5 days, but I kept thinking I'd have something completely exciting to say. Well, not exactly, but things are progressing.

I haven't mentioned it yet because I didn't want to jinx it but I'll be in a new episode in the Alabama Public Television series, "Discovering Alabama". This series focuses on specific sites and habitats around the state of interest ecologically, which means they have a nearly endless list of possible topics. The episode I'm in focuses on the Flint River, just to the east of Huntsville. There is an interview of me along the banks of the Flint, and they did a session of me showing off preserved fishes from the Flint in my lab. Hopefully a shot of flame chubs or black darters will make it into the final rush. This episode will air sometime in July. The film crew was talking about a show dedicated to the freshwater fishes of Alabama so hopefully they'll be back and I can take them in-country for some hands-on show-and-tell.

I'm holding my breath on Kris' work to get good sequences for some of our mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) DNA from Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. We figured out some of the PCR-associated errors that can happen with amplifying DNA, and it's being fixed by some laboratory sleight of hand. These are 4 or 5 sequences which would tie together our project looking at genetic variation in this species along the Atlantic coast. All the years I lived in Boston, I only made it out to the Vineyard once to collect fish on another project, and luckily for this project I had some mummichogs in good condition in my collection. If anybody reading this is visiting the Vineyard or Nantucket soon and can collect some fish to ship to me I'd be your pal... talk to me!

Speaking of Fundulus killifish species, Joe Scanlan in Montgomery, AL, told me that his Fundulus bifax have produced over 80 offspring in a 55 gallon tank. That's great news because this species is disappearing from the wild along the Alabama/Georgia line in a fashion similar to flame chubs in my end of the state. This species could well be in need of some kind of domestic propagation effort before it disappears for good. The species still has "low conservation status" to the state of Alabama, of course, and the feds pretend it's not there. We'll see.... and be careful who you vote for in the next elections, for God's sakes!