My paper got published - Kutsuwahaze Behavior

 

 

Can't believe it took me so long to write a blog post about this. So yea, my Kutsuwahaze (Istigobius campbelli) behavior paper was recently published. I honestly had all but moved on from it until I saw it in review from my latest submission at Environmental Biology of Fishes. After so many rejections I thought it simply wasn't worth publishing but I stuck it through and finally have my name as a first author to yet another published piece. I'm glad I didn't give up on it. The feeling of getting published is unlike any other. Truly euphoric. 

Above are the highlighted videos I used as supplementary material to support my behavior claims. Basically my strongest evidence. It took 37 hours of direct observation and much more through planning and executing the dives needed to accumulate that many hours. But when I was just floating there, watching this little fish diligently, seeing them scuttle about, I caught glimpses of a more interesting life than just the deadpan stare most fish give you. Its almost like I saw emotions, relationships, and simple life in a fish. Sure it sounds like I played a creep voyeur over the course of this study, but its okay, National Geographic does it all the time. My previous works only detail 1 or 2 behaviors and mainly focused on agonism, whereas this one I got to witness so many more complex situations and interactions that still puzzle me. 

Thank you everyone who dove with me and supported me on this project. Big shoutout to Reiji for guiding me through that final submission and providing some of his population data to support my claims. Below is a link to the paper in case anyone would like to read it themselves. 

https://rdcu.be/eSQEg

Peace.
       ~Hunter