Mike Westfall's Page

I stumbled upon this today while browsing the good ol' intertubes.

Apparently, there's a parasitic isopod out there that's burrowing into fish, eating their tongues, and replacing the tongues with themselves. After doing a little more research, I found that the parasites don't actually eat the tongue. The creature latches on to the fish-tongue's base and leeches blood from it. As the creature grows, less blood makes is able to enter the tongue, and the tongue atrophies. The isopod then takes th… Continue

Matt and I woke up around 7:30 and headed to breakfast, which consisted of what most hotel breakfasts do – bagels generic bran flake cereal, various fruit, do-it-yourself waffles – you get the idea. Following breakfast, the entire group took a shuttle to the airport where we departed after about half an hour.
In the plane with me were Dakota, Chris, Nick, Mr. Nash, Shelby, Terra, and Jayse. [picture from in the plane] I sat in the back of the plane by myself. When I sat down, the seat made a lou… Continue

My post is basically based on Terra's post, and a little of what I remember from last class. So, here we go...

I chose an article on Microbes in the thermal vents. I have always been interested in microbiology since middle school, when my seventh grade biology teacher, Nate Arnold, briefly touched on various single celled organisms. One organism in particular, Volvox, stood… Continue

Chapter twelve continues with the destructive fishing techniques by introducing muro-ami. Muro-ami was pretty interesting, if you ask me. Little kids scaring fish into a net with ropes and stuff. Sounds like fun. That is, until you realize the destruction caused by the weights at the bottom of the scary ropes. The weighted ropes would smash into coral and other sessile organisms at the sea floor and basically kill it all off. The poor things didn't stand a chance. It's really very surpris… Continue

Chapter eleven has gained a place in my top three favorite chapters in The Enchanted Braid. My interest in this chapter comes more from the sociological aspects of the chapter than the more relative coral destruction parts. The dive to survive idea blew me away after reading it. It's very similar to a sort of primitive struggle for life; the people are having to put their very lives at risk in order to barely get by. I suppose the divers are better of than I am leading myself to believe.… Continue