College now, Fish can stand to wait a little longer

   Today, I added more details for specific schools to the Common app. The November 1 deadline is fast approaching, but I am confident I will have my applications completed in time. I also had my survey finally distributed to the juniors and seniors, so data analysis will come soon, hopefully. I also started looking for websites I can source "fun facts" from, to hopefully plaster highly visible areas with.

College Now, Fish Later

Today I worked on 2 of 4 admissions essays, and added Purdue and SUNY-ESF to the Common App. I did nothing about my thesis today.

Uhh.. I can't think of anything witty.

Today I revised my survey questions according to the suggestions of my former statistics teacher. She said I should give answer choices ranging from strong agreement to strong disagreement ( the Likert Scale) and reduce the bias on some of the questions. I also wrote out what goals I have for each facet of this yet-unnamed, proposed advocacy/conservation group.
Advertising: Encourage the masses who'd normally overlook freshwater fish to care enough to keep them, breed them, and make donations.
Donations: Money comes from group members and fundraising events, which I need to research and brainstorm. Will go to breeding, husbandry, and reintroduction.
Networking: Possibly a hybrid of internet forum/ major social media site. Hopefully informal and inviting. I can't program, so I'm left with proposing an outline. Maybe I'll try to host a couple of brick and mortar meetings, to see how things would go.
Breeding/Research: Members of group will breed fish depending on skill level. Offspring would go to pet stores, other members, and to their natural habitat, if possible. Laymen's observations and findings will be shared with group members via forum.

My sources aren't off-topic.

   Today I checked my progress on the Common App.I only need to add activities, edit the essay, and put in parental information. This took up time I could have used to look at sources. Sources now will have less of a focus on fish as I attempt to find ways to make conservation and the fishkeeping hobby more palatable to the masses.

http://artsmarketing.org/sites/default/files/documents/practical-lessons/lesson_6.pdf
This source is about marketing artistic events to minorities. Using minority-focused plays and paintings to build support in the community is  the main idea of the article. It also goes over ways to appeal to specific minority groups. Since I want White people in on fish conservation too, I'll look for more general sources.

Focus of the Next 6 Weeks

Because of ACT registration and thesis presentations, I haven't posted. The presentation was a success, however, with many people asking me questions. I'll keep them in mind as I enter the next phase: audience research.

Annotated Bibliography

   Today I did most of my annotated bibliography. Since I left some information at home, I couldn't do all of it, nor post my other survey questions. Here's what I've done so far:

Many freshwater environments containing thousands of unique species are endangered by pollution and habitat loss. Also, freshwater creatures are not really noticed by the media and general public, who'd rather pay attention and donate to funds protecting large and/or cute mammals and birds. This has led me to make my senior thesis about a freshwater fish advocacy group.

This project sets out to answer two questions: Why don’t people care about freshwater fish? How can we make them care enough to do something to aid their conservation? I will do research on these two questions using surveys and internet sources, and then compile my findings into a video which I hope will answer the second question.

Jepson, P., & Darwall, W. (2013, June 13). Is freshwater advocacy group the solution? Retrieved August 28, 2014, from http://www.seriouslyfish.com/is-freshwater-advocacy-group-the-solution/

    This is a video discussing how small and isolated the groups discussing freshwater biodiversity are compared to marine and charismatic land animal conservation groups. It proposed a freshwater biodiversity advocacy group that amateurs who care, like anglers and aquarists, can join. This source was the one giving me the idea for this thesis project. It is geared towards conservationists and serious aquarists.

Leathwick, J. R., Collier, K. J., & Chadderton, W. L. (2007). Identifying freshwater ecosystems with nationally important natural heritage values: Development of a biogeographic framework. Wellington, N.Z.: Science & Technical Pub., Dept. of Conservation. Retrieved September 2, 2014, from http://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/science-and-technical/sfc274.pdf

    This source talks about the effects of catastrophic events like earthquakes on recolonizing freshwater ecosystems, as well as the worth of conserving some specific habitats in New Zealand. It considers the distributions of diadromic (pure freshwater) organisms highly important in gauging changes over time in New Zealand’s biota, as they don’t leave the rivers and lakes they call home. This source is geared towards researchers and college students studying ecology and not the general public or amateur naturalists, judging by the length and language.

The freshwater biome. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2014, from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/freshwater.php

    A source giving background as to what habitats I’m actually studying. Has little to do with fish, but does describe where they live. Will be used in the very beginning of products and presentations, to provide background. This source is intended for use by laymen, as the article contains little jargon and explains what it does have.

Maceda-Veiga, A. (2014, August 13). The aquarium hobby: Can sinners become saints in freshwater fish conservation? [PDF]. John Wiley & Sons.

    A rare scholarly source on the aquarium hobby. It has a neutral tone on it, because it has led to the introduction of invasive species into worldwide freshwaters and has many ignorant amateurs killing fish earlier than they should, despite the hobby of fishkeeping leading to a greater awareness of fish amongst a small section of the general public and a few passionate aquarists leading conservation and research efforts.

Endangered Species and Habitats. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.neaq.org/conservation_and_research/projects/project_pages/SustainableOrnamentalFishInitiative.php

Ofish - Conservation Benefits of Wild Capture. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2014, from http://www.ornamental-fish-int.org/data-area/conservation/untitled2/-conservation-benefits-of-wild-capture

Conservation - Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2014, from http://www.ornamentalfish.org/conservation-welfare/conservation

Conservation Fisheries :: Home. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://conservationfisheries.org/

Duda, M. (2003). PUBLIC OPINION ON FISH AND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT ISSUES AND THE REPUTATION AND CREDIBILITY OF FISH AND WILDLIFE AGENCIES IN THE NORTHEAST UNITED STATES. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://fishandboat.com/response_mgmt03.pdf

Hinman, K. (2001). BOOSTING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF FISH. Saltwater Sportsman. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://wildoceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SWS_301_for_web.pdf

    A flyer posted in 2001 with very obvious intent. The date's significant because it's before Finding Nemo, a movie that boosted awareness of marine fish significantly for a while. This flyer argues people don't consider fish as animals worthy of respect, and only a source of food in rivers and oceans. However, it mentioned a significant improvement in conservation efforts at the time. This article is about marine sport and food fish, so isn’t as directly involved with my thesis as other sources. Since I’m concerned with the general public’s opinion in such matters, though, it’s still valuable.

Here's what I'm actually doing.

  Today I wrote down a general outline of what I want to do with this group. I feel in previous posts, I never made that clear enough. Here's the list of things, in bullets:

-Provide captive breeding and reintroduction services
-Be made up of aquarists and ichthyologists constantly sharing information with each other
-Educate the public about the wonders of freshwater life
-Discourage people from introducing invasive species
-Educate people on their proper care
-Work with pet stores, public aquaria, and other people working with fish to further the cause

Also, I stated I want all freshwater fish feasible to keep to be considered aquarium fish. This opens up the possibility of some random guy buying a bunch of red-tailed black sharks, or some other endangered or fragile species, and killing them all. My solution is an achievement system. Aquarists who are members of the group score points for time as a fishkeeper, number of fish bred, number of fish killed, tank size, etc. I plan to give different fish different point values, to incentivize the purchase of fish.