What inspires our undergraduates to pursue a degree all about aquatic and fishery science? We caught up with Eli Nettlebeck—a junior at SAFS, a transfer student from Seattle Central College, and someone who loves fish.
I absolutely love fish. I had seven fish tanks when I was a kid, and was completely enamored by how funny a lot of them behave and look. Some of my favorite fish I ever kept were Garra Rufa, or “doctor fish.” They had tons of energy; sometimes, when I stuck my hand in my tank, they would nibble on the dead skin. I already spend hours of my day reading and watching videos about fish, so I figured studying them was probably the next best step for me!
I’m originally from Poulsbo, Washington. I did running start through Olympic College when I was in High School, then took a couple of gap years after I graduated to figure out what I wanted to do. Once I realized that fish was the way, I started taking some prerequisites for the AFS (Aquatic and Fishery Sciences) Major at Seattle Central College since I was already living in Seattle at the time! Honestly for me the hardest part of transferring to UW was writing the application essay. I knew that since I had gotten most of the credits out of the way in running start and through Seattle Central, I had a fairly good chance of getting in, but writing the essay was daunting because it was so broad.
Since I’m so into fish, I decided to start planning my capstone when I started my first quarter to maximize the time I have working on it. I’m hoping to identify the status of hermaphroditism within a species or genus of goby that hasn’t been known whether it expresses hermaphroditic tendencies or not. I’ve started this process by evaluating almost all the species within the family Gobiidae to identify any common traits within the hermaphroditic genera of the family. I will most likely be doing this under the guidance of Luke Tornabene and his lab: Fish Systematics and Biodiversity.
I’m so thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to learn as much as I have already through SAFS, especially when taking Fish 311: Biology of Fishes. I am also so thankful for all of the staff that have helped me so far on my academic journey!
