So I'm off for Rio de Janeiro in a few days which marks the end of my time in the Amazon River basin. It's been a really interesting, albeit sweaty, 6 weeks. I'm lucky enough to have a friend of the family out here that put me up while in Manaus and also let me assist him and a colleague do some collecting throughout different rivers in the Amazon system. Thanks so much to Labbish, for letting me help and allowing me to see so much of the area.
The researchers are collecting 6 different fish from the the Solomois, Tapajos, Amazon, Madera, Negro and Branco rivers. They then take DNA samples and test to see if these same fish in different rivers are actually the same species. Due to different types of water and large distances in between some of these bodies of water it has already been shown that some of the fish have been seperated for so long (hundreds of thousands of years) that even though they look alike due to there isolated evolutionary paths they are actually now different species. The collecting was actually a lot of fun but now they have to take the samples back analyze them and write about their findings. I think this next step is what kept me from becoming a biologist.
The first trip was strictly research, which meant a smaller, barer boat. Nine days on the rivers dragging sanes up and down the beaches and hauling up trolling nets into wooden canoes. On the days when the fish were scarce it was a lot of work, but the days where everything we needed from a particular site was found in the first few nets it meant a nice lazy afternoon in the hammocks watching the river go by as we moved down river to the next sampling station. Even the longer days were filled with beatiful views and amazingly different fish pulled off the bottom. I feel like I spent a good part of the time with my camera in my hand so I'll let the pictures walk you through the trips.
