The literature

I have a new found love for searching library websites and databases. Doing most of my daily study at the local library, I have found there is more to libraries than just shelves and shelves of books. Apart from the fact that my library does a weekly drama club session every Tuesday, I have slowly learned more and more about libraries thanks to the lessons that were given in Week 1.

The topic I have chosen to write for my paper was "A 10-year moratorium should be placed on commercial eel fishing to ensure the survival of this species". Before I started researching sources for this position paper, I wanted to identify which side I was arguing for. A lot of questions have been floating through my head as I was mainly thinking "what would happen to the ecosystem in NZ if these Eels had become extinct?" After learning a lot about the native NZ longfin eel, I fell in love and had found my position for this topic. SAVE THE EEL!

Researching and gathering information has been a very interesting and educating process. First off, I resorted to google. Google is great, I use it in my daily life so I have become quite addicted to "Googling" things. It had seemed that I had hit a road bump and most of the information I was finding was mostly targeted towards young children. Also, It is sometimes difficult to source the correct reference for some of these websites so I gave them a miss. After following the lessons, I decided the next step was to look in Google Scholar. There was a very minimal amount of suitable articles but I had found one that will be useful!

One man's name continuously came up when trying to find reports about the eels and commercial eel fishing. Dr Don Jellyman, He leads NIWAs research on freshwater fish and fisheries. So anything remotely relating to NZ native eels, he is probably involved. His research and reports became very valuable for my position paper as they contained a great amount of detail about why eels are disappearing and the history of commercial eel fishing.

There hasn't been many resources that oppose placing a 10-year moratorium, but through reading a lot of information about the eel and commercial eel fishing I have formed my own conclusion why once should not be placed and have used these informative resources to back up my opinion.

Just on an end note, look how enormous these creatures can get. Why would you want these to disappear?

http://www.longfineel.co.nz/tuna-news/large-longfins-found-in-selwyn-river/

Welcome!

Kia Ora,

My name is Grace Nicholas and I am 22 years old. I am from beautiful Upper Hutt which is located north of windy Wellington. I have previously lived in Dunedin for 2 years; I studied at University of Otago and started Health Science First Year. My ambition was to get into Pharmacy but unfortunately due to my lack of focus I did not achieve my goal. Dunedin was absolutely crazy. It is true what they say, my first night there the neighbours had placed a couch in the middle of the road and set it alight. Those Scarfies are absolutely insane, I could write a whole book on the antics they get up to.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scarfie

I started at Massey University in the second semester of this year as a part time distance student. I have enrolled to do a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science. I chose this as a degree and career, as my ambition is to still work in healthcare. A Medical Laboratory Scientist works behind the scenes rather than directly with customers/patients. I felt this would be more appropriate for me as I'm not much of a people person. I do not enjoy working with people I am unfamiliar with but I will enjoy working in a Lab with other scientists.

My ambitions for this degree and paper is to stay focused, be successful and graduate. I wish to do well in all papers for my degree. From previous experience, I have personally learned that you 100% need to keep up to date with all your work and take the time to understand everything. I cannot say that I am always focused but I strive to do well in all my papers.
Steps I have taken to achieve this are:

• Start the day bright and early with a nutritional breakfast
• Set goals for what I have to do for the day
• Go to the library and do my study

From this course I want to gain confidence in writing essays and reports as well as researching relevant information. All previous papers I have done, there was not a lot of researching and outside thinking involved. They have all involved learning the content for the course and being able to apply that knowledge in the exams and tests. I have very little experience in writing reports and essays so I believe this will be an interesting and challenging paper to do.

Having very little knowledge of what my future career will entail, I am not sure if this communication paper will be useful. I feel this paper will be more useful working towards my career. It will hopefully be helpful for later courses I start in this degree.

I can honestly say I am not the greatest communicator. I try my hardest to get all my points across and explain carefully what I am doing and have achieved. Through this course I want to gain confidence and strength in my ability to communicate ideas and thoughts I may have.

I am excited to start this course and push through all the challenges it throws at me. Through my past experience at University of Otago, I wish to put 100% effort into all my studies. Although I am not the best communicator I wish to learn as much as possible and be the best I can be.