Week 3- Fish!

This week we dove in to the subject of fish. Starting off strong, on day 1 we were introduced to our new professor, Su Sponaugle, and TA, Jessie Reimer. We wasted no time, powering through 3 lectures ranging from anatomy to habitats, and learned how to identify all kinds of local species of fish in lab using dichotomous keys.

Yaquina Bay Seining 

On Tuesday we made the "long" journey to Yaquina Bay, where we participated in a beach seine. That was a first for many of us. Anticipation grew as two students dragged the net in to shore. As soon as the water had drained, we were all scrambling to locate as many varying fish species as possible. We were able to find Syngnathus leptorhynchus (Bay pipefish), Platichthys stellatus (Starry flounder), Parophrys vetulus (English sole), Oncorhynchus keta (Chum salmon), and about a million different sculpin.

All captured specimen were measured for total length and counted, before being released (for the most part).

Bright and early Wednesday morning we readied ourselves for another education packed day, starting with a lecture in which we tried to understand otolith measurements in relation to age determination, followed by a guest lecture. Dr. Bob Cowen was able to take time from his busy schedule of leading all of HMSC to talk to us about rocky reefs and kelp beds. This lecture did an excellent job of expanding on the characteristics of the rocky intertidal shore that we had begun to learn the first week.

Newport Aquarium

In order to prepare for our short reports on a species of our choice, we headed to the aquarium next door to take a look at subtidal species. Everyone went their own ways, furiously sketching and taking notes on many species, and strangely all converging near the rockfish tanks and the shark tunnel. 

When we returned, we learned about 3 very related subjects, swimming, schooling, and migration.

Boiler Bay

For the first time in the history of the past 3 weeks, we had a real Oregon field day, rain and all. After climbing down into the bay, we dispersed and had our first try at finding fish in tidepools. Many were discouraged, though some struck gold, finding various types of...sculpin. Luckily we found a singular Xiphister artropurpureus (Black prickleback) that became the subject of many of our lab notebook drawings.

After our rainy excursion we dried off and made our way to a guest lecture by PhD student Jessica Luo, who taught us about the importance of plankton and size relationships between levels of the trophic system. We also took time to plan an observational study with the whole class that would be carried out the following day. We discussed methods of measurements of tidepool characteristics, planned data tables, as well as posed questions we would like answered in regards to the relationships between tidepools and their fish inhabitants. 

Strawberry Hill

On our last day of week 3 we were greeted by the sun once again and were able to conduct our data collections in comfort. We set out in groups of 3-4 and measured tidepool surface area, depth, rugosity, substrate cover, and attempted to capture and measure all the fish in each tidepool we worked on. It seemed that most people were enthused about catching fish, with the number of fish per tidepool varying from 0 to 21. The discovery of the day was a juvenile Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus).

Here we see some students measuring for the surface area of the tidepool.

Sculpin!

Overall, we have had a great and adventurous week learning about fish. On to the next!

Written by: Raine Robison, Britnee Niehus, & Adam Brown

Hello Hatfield!

Welcome to Hatfield spring 2014! 22 of us have now found a new home here. We are all very enthusiastic about the journey to come; lectures, lab and field work included. This first week included beautiful weather and fantastic conditions for playing, I mean working outside. In lecture this week we learned all about sponges, cnidarians, ctenophores and about the super cool worms! We are all adjusting to this new and fast-paced work load.

Our new home/lab

Cascade Head  

On Tuesday our class had the opportunity of hiking Cascade Head and looking out across the ocean and shoreline. We were fortunate in that we could see for miles and miles as the weather was awesome! We learned earlier in the day that the Oregon Silver Spot Butterfly is endangered and can only survive as larvae on purple violets. These flowers are being out competed by prairie grasses and are very low in abundance. The adult butterflies don’t feed on these violets, however, the caterpillar of this species does.  We spent much time looking for these tiny, and I mean tiny, flowers and butterflies. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the insects but we did spot some violets!

The beginning of the hike was treacherous; nah just kidding. Everyone should hike up there for the beautiful view

Boiler Bay

Our next adventure took place at Boiler bay which is just North of Depot Bay.  The class had a fun time climbing and searching for different invertebrates throughout the tide pools and rocks.  Some of the species we found include:

Top picture: Clown Nudibranch (Triopha catalinae). Bottom left: Purple Sea Urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus). Bottom right: Giant Green Anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) All these lucky individuals had the privilege of coming back with us to be put in our laboratory tanks. (Don’t worry we are taking good care of our marine friends! They are so photogenic for the pictures we have to draw for our lab notebooks).  

Boiler Bay is as named because of a 

shipwreck in the early 1900's. Here is  

a picture of the boiler that still sits 

among the rocks. If you are able to 

visit during really low tides, you may 

even be able to catch a glimpse of the 

anchor.

Strawberry Hill

Thursday consisted of a trip to Strawberry Hill, nope no strawberries to be found, to collect more invertebrates. This site also had a few different species of Nudibranchs which we immediately fell in love with.

Ready for our “mud shots”!

Our last field trip of this first week took us on a special trip that not all were especially prepared for.  We went to Yaquina Bay to get “down n' dirty” in the mud flats to collect shrimp and worms.  What we thought would be a very cheap mud bath turned into a very interesting trek into the deep mud, let’s just say that sticks were VERY helpful.

By Ashtyn Isaak and Kristi Knoll

Another Sunny Day in the Intertidal

Today we woke up to another gorgeous day. With the sun streaming in the windows of our lecture room this morning, we began addressing the world of worms. After lunch, we made our way to the laboratory to sketch and describe the invertebrates we had collected at the docks and Boiler Bay. The colored pencils were out as everyone did their best to illustrate the characteristics of each organism.

At four we loaded the vans and headed to Strawberry Hill for some more invertebrate collection. Again the tide was not extremely low at 0.13m, but we made the most of the sunshine by finding many nudibranchs, crabs and sponges. Our earlier lectures were also put to good use in the collection of many species we had just learned about including nemerteans, polychaetes, and peanut worms. Our new friends are situated in their tanks and we are looking forward to the hike at Cascade Head tomorrow.