Must be something in the water

Once again, everyone around here has decided that rather than working they’ll turn our email system into a chat room. Below is an account of the strange conversation that has been emailed to EVERYONE at the lab all day. In some cases, long emails have been summarized, but many of the statements are direct quotes.

PP: I got a call from the sheriff’s dept last night saying that the front door was wide open. Lets not let that happen again.

VK: Dissolved Oxygen is really low out there. See my web site for data and plots.

CS: I also have some data. It’s not localized. See attached.

VK: That’s pretty scary. Are we talking about fish kills?

AT: I took some plankton samples yesterday. They were FULL of at least two mean looking dinoflagellates. I’m working on IDing them. If anyone sees any dead fish, please let me know.

RH: I saw a dead fish. It looked like it had a lesion, but I didn’t stop because I was afraid to pick it up.

JA: I also saw a number of dead fish. They were at Kool Ice, but they were definitely dead. I'll let you know on Monday how they taste once they're grilled.

PM: FRA fish fry? I’m in!

JC: While we’re on the subject of security, don’t call 911 then hang up. I had to escort the police around last night because somebody did that.

RH: I though we were talking about dead fish.

JA: Maybe next time we could ask the sheriff to pick up the dead fish for us.

JC: Good point, or maybe we could just issue RH some latex gloves and a zip lock bag to put his dead fish in.

Interestingly, I’ve also seen several dead fish lately. This worried me at first since I do have two recent cuts that were clearly infected with something from the river. But upon further inspection, the oozing has stopped and they look like normal healthy wounds. Will keep everyone posted on the toxic nature of the Choptank.

In other news, on my way to jellytime today, I was nearly rear-ended by an ambulance with lights flashing but no sirens. About the time I recovered from that shock, I rolled up to a stop sign where a drug bust (complete with SWAT team and assault rifles) was in progress. A little further from town I passed the paddy wagon. All before sunrise. Clearly I’ve been sleeping through the excitement.