A summer of #fieldworkfails for TU intern

A self-admitted fish-kisser, TU intern Jennifer Graves planted a wet one on this big brown trout before it dawned on her that the stream from which it came smelled like a sewer.

By Jennifer Graves

There is a hashtag on Twitter that I feel most people would find hilarious. It is called #fieldworkfail. It is a platform in which scientists from all around the world can share their mishaps that invariably happen while working in the field.

My summer with TU is my second field season positon and I can honestly say that this motto is eerily accurate. I would like to share a few of the #fieldworkfail stories from my summer spent working for TU.

As expected working for TU, we had to complete a number of fisheries surveys. This task becomes exceedingly difficult and pretty much impossible due to rain. There were countless times we spent sitting around waiting for the rain to stop, getting caught mid-survey in a downpour, and improvising creative ways to keep us and the shocker dry.

For example, there was an unassessed stream in the Delaware River basin that was too high to accurately shock on our first attempt. So, after a month of waiting to get to it again, we were finally on our way to re-survey it. And what does the weather do? Downpours. When we got there, the stream was just as high as when we initially tried to assess it. #fieldworkfail

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Sitting out rainstorms was a regular occurrence for Graves and her fellow field technicians during a summer of stream sampling in Pennsylvania.

Spending 8-plus hours in the woods all day every day presents a problem that field scientists quickly learn to overcome. Peeing in the woods. Unless you are a human camel, it happens. Luckily for us at TU, we are in waders all day. While waders have their downside (so hot!), they also come with many perks, like keeping us safe from electric shock and splash protection while peeing.

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When nature calls, waders can be a help and a hindrance.

Taking off our waders at the end of a long day in the field is usually the highlight of the day. Except when you forget you took them off and go to pee…on your foot. #fieldworkfail

I love trout, and get just as excited when we find them as everyone else. I just have a different way of expressing that love. Yes, I am known as the fish-kisser. Only special trout are lucky enough to receive a kiss from me, whether they are extremely pretty are extremely large. While surveying a stream in the Delaware watershed, we caught a 20-inch-plus trout! Although it was a brown trout, it was definitely deserving of a kiss. So I smacked one right on it and held it there long enough for a couple of pictures to be taken. It only dawned on me hours later that that stream smelled 100 percent like raw sewage and we were all commenting as such throughout the entire survey. #fieldworkfail

While #fieldworkfail might imply negativity, I feel as though all the #fieldworkfail stories capture what I love most about field work. It is the unexpected nature of it that creates hilarious moments and lasting memories, all while doing something that field scientists love. So, even though the hashtag states #fieldworkfail, my experience with TU has definitely been a #fieldworkwin!

Jennifer Graves is an intern working out of TU's Lock Haven, Pa., field office.