Belligerent Naturists

I'm sure I just picked up a whole slew of new readers with that post title!

Last week, for the second time in my professional career, I ended up sampling at a nude beach. Perhaps my previous field work was in the winter, when the naturists are more scarce but last week, with 85 degree weather in the area, the population was high...not a lot of tan lines going around. I instantly had flash-backs to my last nude beach sampling (the fish fauna, not the human fauna), when my rather-senior manager decided to make a field visit 6 mos. into the project, not knowing he had chosen a nude beach as the sampling site. I, being the most junior member and the only one still under 30 and therefore a kid, was pulled aside and told that if I didn't feel comfortable with the field site, we could change or I could refrain from participating there. I let out an internal chuckle...it was obviously he who was uncomfortable! Perhaps it was the man sitting on the sand with legs akimbo just over my shoulder.

Anyway, so here we were back at it. Different project, different nude beach, still mostly old men (what gives?). Thankfully, the one man who decided to inquire about our activities and why we might have been dressed in chest-waders while everyone else was wandering around in the buff had donned a towel before he approached--it just would have been awkward otherwise. In truth, we were probably the more oddly clad bunch (it being hot, sunny, summer and all).

Now, a week later, we get word of a belligerent nudist at our very field site on the very day we were there! I don't know how we missed it! But as one of my compadres pointed out, "The only thing worse than a creepy naked guy is an angry creepy naked guy." Amen, sister. Looks like we'll have to add belligerent naturists to our list of field hazards (oh, won't the legal department have a field day with that one...)!