 Through my work with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission where I currently serve as co-water research coordinator, I'm involved with several projects and one of which is working with our stock trout program and within that program we produce sterile fish for our stockings and those fish are triploid fish which simply means that they have an extra set of chromosomes than a normal fish would and the reason that we do that is to render those fish sterile and that's their goal of our triploid process is to make sure that the fish that we stock in those waters where we're committed to stocking fish to maintain fisheries for those waters within our public mountain trout water program we want to make sure that the fish we put in are sterile and that's why we utilize the triploid process. So the reason that we stock sterile fish is to provide a greater level of protection for our native trout species in particular that's brook trout which is the only trout native to North Carolina and by stocking sterile fish we have the ability to make sure that the fish get into systems that we do not want them to because certainly we do not stock on top of native trout but if in case fish do happen to get there we don't want their impact to be that significant and so if they're sterile they do not have the ability to reproduce and hopefully their impact will be relatively short or not at all. As triploid trout are sterile we maintain fertile brood stock and so once fish are spawned shortly after the eggs are fertilized triploids are produced via pressure and so we have two machines that we put fertilized eggs in and depending on how warm or cold the water and air temperatures are based on the species there's essentially a recipe that based on the time after fertilization and those temperature variables we apply a certain amount of pressure to the eggs and it forces the retention of the second polar body during myotic division and so that's how we do it and we maintain those fertile fish so that we can continue to produce offspring each year. So as the cold water research coordinator for the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission I have the opportunity to essentially think about and then days that I'm lucky I get to touch a trout just about every day and I'm involved with all assets of the cold water in other words trout program for the state and that's working with stock trout resources which we've got over a thousand miles of and we've got several thousand miles of wild trout resources which are self-sustaining populations that do not need stockings and I work with all of the animals but I also work with the policy regulation and also get to work with anglers in the public and so it's a diversity of all of those things that go into hopefully at the end of the day what we could consider as making fish and better and working to conserve our aquatic resources. My interest in this field came from an early passion in fishing that was what I like to do and I started out my education going to North Carolina State University on a different track but I took courses that let me explore the natural resources and that sort of science and after undergraduate school I went to graduate school at Virginia Tech and got a master's degree in fisheries and wildlife science from there and from that point it was working with various jobs even working with freshwater mussel propagation and other fisheries management jobs that have had with North Carolina throughout the last couple years. Probably the best advice I have for anyone interested in this career is to talk with folks the individuals that are working in this career I think everyone will find passionate about what they are doing and have a genuine interest in the resources but also in working to foster the next generation of those resource stewards and those people that are going to replace them and work with them through time and with that said they'd be happy to speak with anyone and give their own individual advice and ultimately if someone has the opportunity there's nothing like getting out and volunteering and being active in that field and being able to see hands on what's happening and the types of work that's going on and what it takes to sort of achieve those goals and certainly for me personally that was one of the more beneficial things that I was able to do and I'm certainly willing to talk to anyone that has that interest or if it's not me they need to talk to me I'll be glad to put them in touch with someone that can likely help them.