Is it May yet???

So I am in the home stretch of completing my master's degree in biology. Its been somewhat of a long and trying process- I have completed the entire thing online while working full time...ick. But at any rate I am scheduled to graduate in May and only one thing currently stands between me and that very expensive piece of paper- the completion of my research project and writing my dissertation.

For this project, I am looking to characterize the Betsie River fall run of Chinook salmon. This includes estimating how many adults return to the river, how many of those are hatchery fish or wild fish, and how many are male or female...plus a whole lot of other little aspects that I will figure out as I go. But right now what that means is one day every week, I drag my poor boyfriend out to the river and we paddle long reaches in search of dead salmon carcasses. We then pick the carcass up, measure it, see if it is all spawned out, and some we take tail samples off of- it is exceptionally gross. Some of the fish we have come across are what Chris likes to call "exceptionally snarfy".

So since you guys can't go out in the field to sample with us, I thought I would bring some of the fun to you!

 Chris searching for salmon...

 Very cool underwater shot!

 Carefully measuring...

 This is what many of them look like- you literally pick them up and they disintegrate.

 There was a little crayfish living in this coho salmon!

 Look a fresh one!

Not so fresh!