To Dauphin Island And Back In Two Days

I don't recommend this kind of traveling, since it's about 390 miles each way from Huntsville to the mouth of Mobile Bay. But that's what I did on Thursday and Friday so that I could attend the Program Committee meeting of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Usually we stay for two nights, but between confusion about where we were staying and the sudden death of one of our foster rabbits late Friday morning we got in our already packed car at 1:30 and headed home.

The Sea Lab is in some flux, both doing well and stressed by the current economic craziness. George Crozier is Executive Director, coming out of retirement to do it but kinda hoping he could leave or maybe even be fired(!). The Sea Lab had lots of money when he retired two years ago, now it's up against the wall in some ways. The punch line might be that the money isn't there to do a typical job search for such a senior position. The good news is that the new research building in partnership with the National Marine Fisheries Service is under construction, and a new research vessel (the R/V Alabama Discovery) is under construction and will be delivered mid-summer. Enrollment is up for summer courses to almost record levels; we are sending 8 students from UAH, a high for the time that I've been campus liaison. With all of this success comes a housing crunch (as I discovered this weekend). There's really no more affordable housing on Dauphin Island, as is true in most resort areas, so graduate students, postdocs and visiting scientists may or may not have convenient, inexpensive housing. Some of the current doublewide trailers will be converted to graduate housing, a good idea but I realize that my ability to visit the Sea Lab easily and cheaply is now hugely reduced. The more things change.....

It's been raining like hell in north Alabama today and yesterday, with 3.25 inches in my zip code yesterday alone. I'm glad that I was able to get out over the last week and collect fish while the creeks were manageable, that won't be the case any time soon. And a lot more rain is on the way tonight and tomorrow.