Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Built (not) To Last

...and the worse things have finally occurred. When I went to my sampling site a few hours ago to monitor my sea cucumbers, the pond water was really warm, so warm that it was already considered a hostile environment. I together with Ma'am Ruth's RA (Research Assistant) recorded a short underwater video because she wanted to see the current condition of the pond.

The underwater condition was really different compared to my previous visit. It was really murky, which made the monitoring more difficult. While searching for my pens, he told me that in the 27th of May, they recorded the highest water temperature ever... at 42 degrees Celsius! We directly went to my pens and sad to say, we didn't find even a single Holothuria scabra. We surmised that all of them have died due to the extreme pond conditions.

We already did everything the best we could just to maintain the right temperature of water. We have already increased the frequency of pumping fresh salt water from the sea which resulted to an increased electric bill by up to 300%.

All of our efforts didn't pay.

So now, I have to tell my adviser about this tomorrow. I still have the data since January. I have so many possible solutions running in my mind about this predicament of mine. My data have been in jeopardy for months because of El Niño. My babies can no longer tolerate the intense heat of the pond.

And I expect major revisions starting from the objectives of my study. Major overhaul.
Don't get me wrong, I am not panicking right now.

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