Random randomness

So no sculpting as of yet. With work and everything else going on, I haven't had a good block of time to finish the deer. It's probably best for a weekend day when I think about it, instead of a weekday evening. It'll probably take a couple of hours to finish the sculpt at least, and then the bake will probably take 3 hours not counting the time to adjust it during baking.

Yesterday I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned and have a checkup. Luckily cleanings are supposed to be 100% covered by my insurance so I didn't have to cancel that. I found that I have two small cavities on some back top right teeth. That does explain the pain I've been having in that area. I'm glad it's on the top teeth, that's easier to numb and keep numb than my bottom teeth. The dentist also said I had some flash on one of my other teeth, which is just one of the other fillings he did last needing to have some grinding down done because it's not quite right and is irritating my gums. But that should just be a small thing.
All night last night I kept feeling little bits of polishing stuff shifting around in my teeth, which was weird. It was only a tiny bit left hiding between my teeth, but it was really strange feeling. And then the dental hygienist had stabbed me in the gums by one of my back wisdom teeth and that was all sore. I really need to get those wisdom teeth out, but I haven't had the time/money to do that yet.

I set up the appointment for the end of the month, though I might have to reschedule that. After I get my next paycheck I should be able to swing the copay on that, though I'll have to see how we are by then. That copay shouldn't be too big though, and there isn't a deductible to deal with on dental stuff first, so here's hoping I can!

In other news, I am really hoping that the Gloom Beach set sale goes through soon! My car insurance expired a couple days ago and I now have like $5 in the bank after rent/water. e_e

Global warming and oceans, reflections on personal groundfish observing experience

So today while I was working, I listened to a couple of different programs. One I LOVED, it was about the Colossal squid that was finally captured live in 2008. I'm such a cephalopod geek but I hadn't seen this program yet. I thought it was great! It's also funny because that shows the realities of this type of work. You get to work with a lot of dead things. lol xP

Then there was a show about the invasion of Humboldt squid. It was really interesting because they're invading areas that they haven't previously been before, and the spread of their range matches the temperature changes happening due to global warming. The squid are taking out fish stocks, so fishermen are pulling up squid where before they were pulling up traditional catches. As much as I might take fishermen's claims with skepticism, I do believe that they are harming fish stocks. It's not like the fish in those areas are prepared to deal with swarms of these squid in these areas, and they are able to reproduce very quickly.

The next thing I watched, from a different source, was about the invasion of giant jellyfish. That caught my attention because I remember from being a groundfish observer seeing tonnes of jellyfish being hauled on board of one of the pollock catcher vessels I was on. We'd pull up the giant trawl net and in certain locations it would be just brimming with jellyfish. Sometimes they'd just dump the net back into the water and start over. Other times they'd pull it up and jellyfish would be just hanging off the lines and filling up the boat before the net even reached the deck. After the net was emptied below decks they'd literally be sweeping jellyfish back into the Bering. This boat normally did no at sea sorting, all fish, bycatch and all were just dumped into cold water tanks to be sorted at the processing plant. Some of these catches were so full of jellyfish that the crew would come down and have to start doing a fast sort of the fish to get rid of the majority of the jellyfish. I'd get my sample totes (1 ton each) filled with fish, and I remember endlessly scooping jellyfish out into my little baskets to weigh and count them.

The jellyfish in this show were different as the species wasn't the same, but the show did mention a jellyfish invasion of a different sort in the Bering Straight. The cause of this jellyfish invasion in Japan was also due to global warming and increasing water temperatures. It was also due to urbanization near coastlines and overfishing, but like with the Humboldt squid it is related to our activity.

I wonder if this might cause more pressure from the fishing industry to fix things. I'd say that they would have more clout than a bunch of biologists saying that something is at risk that has a less tangible price tag attached to it.