The Perfect Comic Book Character
About seven years ago, a friend of mine gave me a couple comic books to read. They were the first two issues of a new comic book series called Fathom. She had already read them and said the main character was perfect for me. That day I found the perfect comic book character and my fascination with her began. I followed the series through the end of volume one and collected every issue I could find. So who is this perfect character? Her name is Aspen Matthews.
Aspen Matthews is a beautiful woman with a mysterious past. She was rescued at sea from a cruise ship that had been missing for ten years by Captain Matthews, a navy officer who adopted her as his own. Having always had a love for water, as a teenager she became an Olympic swimmer who nearly won Gold until she was disqualified amid controversy after a blood test revealed unusually high levels of oxygen in her blood. She decided to focus on college where she earned multiple degrees in marine biology. She became an expert in her field and earned a position at Deep Marine Discovery, a high-tech underwater research lab studying species that inhabit the bottom of the ocean. This began her double life above and below the surface. Her search to learn more about her unknown past revealed that she is really the daughter of the former leaders of an aquatic race that dwells in the depths of the ocean. This discovery will change her life forever as she battles an evil aquatic race that’s trying to annihilate the human race. Through it all, Aspen continues to search for clues from her past in order to balance the turmoil between the two worlds she inhabits.
It’s easy to see why Wendy said Aspen was perfect for me. Let’s see, a female marine biologist who battles evil in the ocean. Did I mention she is an awesome surfer and loves dolphins? It’s as if her character was created just for me. That’s why I’m working on getting up to speed with volume two. I’m glad they’re finally continuing with the series. It’s the perfect comic book with the perfect character.
Studying Dolphins for a Day
In college, I majored in marine biology and psychology so I could study marine mammal behavior. My dream was to work with dolphins, but the field was filled with people like me so I found myself working with harbor seals instead. Today was one of those rare opportunities to actually do something I’ve always wanted to do. I spent the entire day studying the behavior of bottlenose dolphins in the wild and then assisted with the necropsy of a dead bottlenose dolphin that washed ashore overnight. It was an incredible experience.
The first part of the morning was spent on a boat cruising up and down the coastline searching for pods of bottlenose dolphins to observe. The weather was beautiful and it didn’t take long to find them. There was plenty of activity to observe near a shallow flat just south of Cape Henry Lighthouse. It’s difficult to accurately count how many were in the area because our vision was limited to the surface. If I had to give an estimate it would be in the area of about 30 animals and probably 6 of those were calves. I had the chance to observe a variety of different behaviors in the four hours I was on the water.
Something I found interesting was that I never saw an animal by itself, they were always in groups of two or more and their interactions appeared to be mainly milling and social behaviors. There weren’t any noticeable feeding behaviors and they stayed in the same area swimming around appearing to only be interacting with each other and occasionally the boat. I watched as several animals kept rolling on the surface and swimming back and forth over each other. They seemed curious and would swim beside the boat rolling over on one side as if to get a better look at what I was doing. Something else that I noticed was that the mothers always had their flipper underneath their calf’s belly as they surfaced and the calf always seemed to be on the mother’s left side no matter what direction they were heading. The last thing I observed was on the way back to the marina. Everyone knows how much they enjoy riding the wake of a boat. It was an awesome sight to count as many as nine at a time riding the wake of the boat. They would take turns as some rode at the bow and others rode the wake to either side. It was the perfect final observation to record.
The afternoon was set aside to perform a necropsy on a dead bottlenose dolphin that had washed ashore in the middle of the night. It wasn’t part of the original plans but an opportunity I couldn’t pass on. The carcass had already begun to decompose so the necropsy was mainly to determine the possible cause of death and collect any samples possible for research purposes. It was exciting because I actually got to assist the lead scientist with the entire procedure.
The specimen was a juvenile male that measured 6 feet in length. The only external evidence of the cause of death were net marks around his rostrum which are a pretty good sign that he had been caught in a fishing net and probably drowned. Otherwise, he appeared to have been a healthy animal. The internal examination didn’t show anything out of the ordinary but did provide evidence that he was healthy and feeding right up to his death. Examining his stomach contents backed up the theory that he was caught in a fishing net and drowned. His first stomach was filled with whole and partially digested fish. The presence of whole fish suggests that he had been feeding at the time of his death. The contents of the stomachs were collected for a scientist that’s studying feeding habits of the local population. Several teeth and tissue samples were also collected to help determine the age of the animal and presence of chemicals and pollutants. It was an unnecessary death but not a wasted one.
It was a long day, nine hours to be exact, but in the end it was too short. I have been out of the field an in the classroom for six years and this experience reminded me of how much I miss being out there. I do enjoy teaching, but it was great to be a real scientist again even if it was just for a day.
