-: The best part about my job is the fact that,
throughout the summer, you never know
exactly what you're going to run across while sampling.
The fish species change.
We might see more of one species as opposed to another.
You never know, you might see one of those big
almost state record sized fish,
and also fish that you've never seen in each site
that could be changed to another site
to kind of grow their range,
to see them, and knowing that if it's a sensitive species,
we're seeing a lot more of those throughout town,
knowing that it's a much better stream
than what I used to be.
So the most gratifying spot of my job, honestly,
would be when I get to give those presentations
at conferences and really engage with people
to tell them what they have in their backyard,
so when I talk to the public,
I really like to see people say,
"Oh my gosh, there's no way that you found all of those fish
"out in the river,
"there's no way there's 58 different species of fish
"you've found this year."
We have seen a total of 65 total, but 58 was this year,
and I think that's about average for what we would find
throughout the summer.
So knowing that the people kind of have that aha moment
in realizing what's out there
really kind of makes my career,
or the career choice of mine, very gratifying.
The most challenging part of being a fishery biologist
is honestly dealing with the weather.
It's one of those things where we have to make sure
we're keeping ourself safe
as well as monitoring the fish in a safe manner as well.
So dealing with the weather, the flow,
the current flow of the river, how fast it's going,
how turbid it is or how murky
so that we can actually see where we're going,
and dealing with the oncoming rains and things like that
really tend to be a challenge
when it comes to being a field biologist.