{"id":218,"date":"2013-09-03T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T17:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/?p=218"},"modified":"2017-01-12T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T00:23:28","slug":"comics-and-crayfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/2013\/09\/03\/comics-and-crayfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Comics and Crayfish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invasive species have once again made it into the newspapers, but this time in the comics section. In a wonderful blend of science and art, nationally syndicated\u00a0Stone Soup<\/i> creator Jan Eliot\u2019s latest storyline involves her character Alix, a young girl interested in science, who releases an invasive crayfish into the wild. Inspired by getting to know former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) director Jane Lubchenco and soon-to-be director Kathy Sullivan, Eliot created the strip with science education in mind.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/a>

Kids learn about Oregon’s native signal crayfish.<\/p><\/div>\n

Alix is a young biologist-in-the-making, based off of Eliot\u2019s own interest in ecology and marine biology. \u201cI thought for a brief period of time that I might study marine biology, but I ended up going into art and English,\u201d Eliot says. \u201cBut I just love that world. I\u2019m an itinerant tide pool stalker; I\u2019m the one that searches out the science stories in the newspaper, so it\u2019s really fun that I have this character who can be a vehicle for those interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliot consulted with Sam Chan, Oregon Sea Grant\u2019s aquatic invasive species specialist, to make sure she had some of the details right \u2013 that the red swamp crayfish is in fact a common invasive species and that it preys on smaller, native crayfish.<\/p>\n

In the story, Eliot says that Alix finds a crayfish while on a camping trip, but when she realizes she can\u2019t keep the crustacean as a pet, she releases it into a local creek near her home, not realizing the danger she’s creating for native crayfish. As the crayfish flies through the air towards the water, it thinks, \u201cInvasive species in the house!\u201d While the the story is fiction, the scenario is a way that invasive species are spread. \u00a0 See the strip here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/stonesoup\/2013\/08\/03<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Eliot was going to end the story there, but a fan encouraged her to pursue the topic, impressed by Eliot\u2019s inclusion of invasive species in her comic. \u201cIt\u2019s the perfect storyline for the first weeks of school,\u201d Eliot says, \u201cto have [Alix\u2019s] science teacher take a trip to the creek with her students and all they can find is this huge [crayfish] that has eliminated the rest of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliot\u2019s science teacher character Erma was named after a user-friendly decision tool on the NOAA website called ERMA (Emergency Response Management Application). Since Alix is so involved with science, Erma\u2019s science-savvy ways allow Eliot to channel her own love for science through her comic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fun purpose in it too, addressing the whole \u2018girls in science\u2019 aspect,\u201d Eliot explains, \u201cand having a little girl that\u2019s fascinated by all things in the marine world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The invasive species storyline will play out over the next few weeks, and you can follow Stone Soup online at Go Comics<\/a>. You can read more about Sea Grant’s involvement with Jan Eliot at Oregon Sea Grant’s blog, Breaking Waves<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invasive species have once again made it into the newspapers, but this time in the comics section. In a wonderful blend of science and art, nationally syndicated\u00a0Stone Soup creator Jan Eliot\u2019s latest storyline involves her character Alix, a young girl … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4811,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-resources","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/wise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}