So, our final presentations are on Friday.

I am just about finished putting together my presentation. I practiced a few times starting yesterday, so I should be feeling pretty confident by Friday afternoon.  I used a new layout for the visual portion of my presentation.  Instead of putting the talking points up on the screen, like I am accustom to seeing in lecture and other presentation, the main focus of the slide will be a picture, framed by a heading and subheading.  The heading states the main idea of the slide and the subheading states by its important.  My fellow Hatfield residents and I were lucky enough to receive a seminar about how to use visuals more effectively in oral presentations.  We were told that the researchers and users of the new format we regularly voted best oral presentation at conferences.  So far I’ve gotten good feedback from my practice audience.

The angler surveys are continuing to come back, though the numbers seem to be tapering off. The due date was just last Monday so a few more should be trickling in.  So far I have about a 30% response rate which is great!  I was told to expect about 25% so I’m pretty pleased.  Reading through them as I enter the data into the computer is really encouraging.  It seems like anglers are more likely to be on the side of using the device and are concerned with the conservation of the fishery.

Last Friday I met with ODFW’s web designer, who usually works out of Salem but found himself on the coast last week. He has kindly offered his help in the production processes for the series on informational videos about rockfish conservation I have been working on. Having helped make a video form the black rockfish PIT tagging program, he experience will be invaluable for getting the videos finished.  He stopped in to hear more about how I envision the videos beyond the pictures on the story boards, as the filming will likely take place the first few weeks in September, after I have returned to Michigan. I am excited about seeing the final result post online.  It feels a little bit like the way I imagine it would feel to co-author my first publication.  I am excited and a little bit nervous.

This past weekend was a bit of a last hooray for the summer.  Some of my fellow Hatfield residents and I took a weekend trip to the redwood forest in California.  The trees were beautiful but driving down the coast was almost better. I’m going to miss Oregon when I’m gone.