20 July 2010

18th International Association of Astacology conference: Day 2

7:16 am: Oh dear. This is what you get for not paying attention. I heard something outside my room, looked out, and say a tree being whipped around quite heavily by wind.

Then the rain started. Soon followed by thunder and lightning.

Long range forecasts indicated mostly fine weather, so I had no umbrella or even a jacket. Luckily, my room and the life sciences building are very close. Still, I think I'm going to get wet today.

8:41 pm: Luckily, the rain stopped slowed by the time I walked to the sessions, stopped most of the day, and was just starting to drizzle after the poster session ended. I'm glad I didn't walk downtown to the pub, but otherwise, lucky.

I think even the few participants in the ungodly hour fun run managed to avoid the soaking (they were running at 6:00 am or something similarly crazy).

A few impressions from today:

Kids love crayfish, and are some of our best allies; the biggest crayfish in the world probably lives decades but not centuries; meeting another Marmorkrebs author, Tadashi Kawai; a beautiful talk about garbage; getting introduced to the first new crayfish species in a decade (and a big one); 53% of American crayfish species are imperiled, which is one of the highest values for any North American group.

Word of the day: Trogloxene, (n.): An organism that is associated with caves, but can't live its entire life in caves. E.g., bats.

Photo gallery for the meeting continues to expand here.

No comments: