We arrived Thursday night and were greeted by smiling,
familiar faces. After unloading our things, checking in, and getting to our
rooms, we were able to catch up with many of our colleagues. It is still
amazing to be able to talk to giants in the field of parasitology about
everything from specific nuances of vastly understudied groups of parasites to
big-picture issues like the impacts of climate change on parasite biodiversity.
Equally amazing is discussing these same sorts of topics with other budding
parasitologists.
The next day was packed to the gills with parasite talks.
Literally. We had a LOT of people presenting their work on the parasites of
fish this year. Big fish. Little fish. Freshwater. Marine. Everything from life
cycle work, to heavy metal bioaccumulation was covered this year. I think we
could definitely call this the “Year of the Fish” if we so wanted. There were
also several talks on birds: ducks, quail, and turkeys for the most part. There
were a handful of talks on anurans (frogs, specifically) and several small
mammal parasite surveys. There were even a few talks on pathogenic amoebae that
are starting to be studied in Oklahoma. Then of course there were many talks on
parasites that utilize invertebrate hosts, such as gregarines and nematamorphs. (There was also a pretty nice talk on turtle coccidia and a couple of interesting archaeoparasitology talks if I do say so myself. :p)
After the talks and eating dinner, the society held their
business meeting where we discussed several important issues that are emerging
in our field. Student awards were given out for the presentations and for
research proposals submitted prior to the conference. I was fortunate enough to
receive a student research grant this year, which will help to fund some of my
dissertation research! The meeting concluded with everyone’s favorite part…the
resolutions committee’s hilarious recap of the meeting’s events. The people who
get together to write the resolution every year have great senses of humor and
I think I’m certainly not alone in saying that this is the best way
to end a business meeting!
Next we had yummy cheeses on fancy crackers whilst we sipped
wine and made our rounds to check out all of the posters for the year. Like the
talks, there was a lot of diversity in topics, with several of the posters
pertaining to fish. We drank, chatted, and reminisced the night away before
collapsing in our beds to grasp a few remaining hours of sleep prior to the next day's talks
that were scheduled to begin at 8am the following morning.
Arising with tired, but eager eyes, I had a quick breakfast
supplemented by a big cup of coffee that I carried to the library for the last
few talks. These non-competitive presentations were exciting and interesting
just as those the day before had been. We sang Johnny Cash ditties at the
request of a marine fish parasitologist talking about a group of parasites that
have “been everywhere…man”, including in the “ring of fire”. We also heard
about ticks, cryptic parasite species in eels, an elusive life cycle of a
freshwater fish parasite, a great new repository for
parasites, and about how “sexy” bobcat parasites can be…but only if you
properly deposit your specimens in a museum collection.
Unfortunately, we had a long drive ahead of us, so we had to
load up quickly and take off. I didn’t get a chance for proper goodbyes with
most of the wonderful people that I’ve met over the years or for the first time
this year. I suppose we have Facebook though, so that makes our goodbyes seem
unneeded as we will hopefully interact before the next meeting via social
media. Such a great time, but soon it will be back to the end of the semester
grind. I think this meeting may have been what I needed to pick up some
motivation to get through the next few weeks so that we can stick a fork in
this spring semester and call it done. So long, SWAP! (And thanks for all the
fish!)
