A little about my life before this: I’m from a small town in the northern California mountains called Douglas City. It’s a tiny village with 713 people. What’s especially awesome about this place is the view of the mountains and the Trinity River that flows through. Every spring, salmon travel down this river headed towards the Pacific Ocean. I love watching the fish, fishing for them and knowing their incredible life cycle. Although they're born in high mountain streams, teenage salmon travel to the sea. From here, they travel north to the waters off Washington State or even Canada. They live and feed there for three years before making the sometimes 600-mile journey home to lay eggs back in their home streams. That’s a huge distance for a 65 centimeter-long fish!
In high school, I worked with the local state Fish and Game office as a field assistant. We’d count and measure the fish headed upstream to track how the local population was doing. Later, I worked for public radio stations in Alaska covering the salmon fishing season there. Eventually, I realized that I was so fascinated with fish that I got a Master's Degree in Environmental Resource Management. My research on reef fish is my first project since I got my degree.
I hope that through these blogs, I can offer you a view of life (and wildlife!) in Indonesia, particularly the island of Sulawesi where I am based. I'm glad you're joining me on the journey!
