Week 8: The Final Countdown - Research Projects!

Week 8: The Final Countdown - Research Projects!

Monday 05/20

We are all feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed as we finally get to take all that we have learned
from this course and get going on our group projects. All nine of the groups got started on their
projects today, whether that meant going to the tide pools, mud flats, or setting up tanks in the lab.
Many groups are working with inverts for their projects which means the tanks are full of some pretty
crabby creatures. With teams testing different crab trap types, observing how Nucella feeds in the presence
of crabs, comparing which crabs live in which estuary habitats, and conducting crab competition
experiments there’s a lot of hope that we’ll get to feast on some crabs at the end of the week.
In addition to the crabs, we have tanks full of nudibranchs, anemones, pipefish, and mussels.
A feeding experiment is being conducted by Emily M., Charlotte, and Bri on the nudibranch
Hermissenda crassicornis and the anemone anthopleura elegantissima. Chelsey, Grace, and
Ashley have been working hard doing beach seines daily in order to collect enough pipefish to
observe their orientation in relation to eelgrass. An experiment on microplastics is being conducted
by Elise, Megan C., and Emily V. using Mytilus californianus and glitter. Renee, Alison, and Sarah K.
are using light bulbs, glow sticks, and no light to see what different organisms get drawn to their light traps.

A group dissecting mussels to study microplastics.

Tuesday 05/21

Students are putting in long hours at the lab making observations both in the tanks and through their
microscopes. Stephania, Laura, and Sarah H. have spent hours every day this week observing different
diatoms they have collected under their microscopes. It may only be day two of projects week but everyone
has put in so many hours of hard work that you can already see just how tired everyone is. Even though
everyone is tired you can still see the excitement on everyone's faces when you ask them how their
projects going and they get to tell you things are going well! During collection among the tide pools
for nudibranchs by Emily M., Charlotte, and Bri’s group, a very interesting nudibranch was found,
not yet seen or collected by our class. “It looks like a Pokemon”, said Charlotte. And indeed, this
cartoon-like gastropod was identified as Dirona albolineata. This species of nudibranch is mostly
translucent, and the color of its large cerata may vary from a white to a pinkish hue. D. albolineata
can even reach sizes up to 18 cm in length!

A group observing their collected diatoms under their microscopes!
D. alboineata, a nudibranch not previously collected by our class.

Wednesday 05/22

Another day of collecting data for projects! Every group is well on their way and chugging along as
we meet the halfway mark for working on projects. Chelsey, Grace, and Ashley’s group, which have
been monitoring their pipefish to observe their orientation in relation to eelgrass, have collected lots
of pipefish and have been spending many hours observing them in the lab. Some groups that are
sampling in the field are still heading out at their various intertidal locations of interest (some at
multiple times of the day). Allison, Renne, and Sarah’s group are examining phytoplankton, and
are often seen in the lab viewing their samples from the field in the laboratory. Many groups have
had meetings today with various instructors and TA’s to discuss how their projects are progressing
and to figure out what statistical tests may be best to run on their experiments. Additionally, people
are starting to think about the end of the term presentations and paper. Sources are being gathered,
and lots of ideas are getting bounced around!

A pipefish monitoring experiment underway.

A group getting ready to head out for project collections!

Even when it rains, there’s often a beautiful sunset at Hatfield that is arguably best viewed from the
estuary trail (just a minute’s walk from Hatfield itself). Whether you are a tired current student, a
future student thinking about taking the BI450 course, or are someone just visiting Newport,
don’t miss this trail on a beautiful evening.

Thursday 05/23

All downhill from here! Many of our groups are starting to see some patterns from their hard work
on the projects! Students are getting very excited as their ideas for their hypothesis are really
starting to mold. It was very common to come in at night and see some groups still working hard
on their data. One group was even counting crabs well past 10:00 pm on some nights! Charlie, Cori,
and Eric Cole are looking at crab counts in different parts of the Yaquina Bay. “We head out twice a
day around low tide to identify and measure the crabs in our 24 pitfall traps in the mudflats,” said Eric.
“It is somewhat tiring, especially at night, but then you stumble upon a big boy in the trap and everyone
gets excited.”

To conclude the week, we will be returning back to the classroom to spend the next week and tomorrow
discussing conservation and policy for our oceans. We will have a presentation and a little project the next
week to help us understand just the kind of process it is for conservation actions to be put into place.

Not even the sun can stop Charlie D. from collecting Hemigrapsus oregonensis from his pitfall traps

Friday 05/24

It’s halftime on the projects folks. Due to the tides this year we are putting our projects on pause for
a week. So for the next week and today, we will be reviewing articles and discussing different aspects
of conservation and policy. Today we talked about the state of our oceans in relation to the changing
climate. A large piece of today’s lecture was about the increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Dr. Henkel discussed how our planet has reached over 410 parts per million of CO2 in all of April!
After a lengthy discussion on what is being done to address certain issues about the changing
climate and marine pollution, we shifted focus on marine reserves versus marine protected areas.
We learned that some marine species benefit from reserves while other species populations do better
in a protected area. We ended the long day with a talk about how Oregon chose its marine reserves
along the Pacific Coast and the lengthy, layered process that it takes to make these decisions.

This week has been long and fun for many of us. We are excited to have Dr. Henkel back as she steers
our class vessel into Week 9! We are looking forward to our three day weekend and honoring those who
gave the greatest sacrifice of all for our safety and freedom. To our Veterans, we say thank you and
never forget.

Eric Cole with a Carcinus maenas posing for its close up

Week 8: Policy and Independent Projects

Enjoying the sun and spectacular view on Cape Perpetua while on the lookout for whales.

We started off the week with a beautiful hike at Cape Perpetua. Paul Englemeyer led us up to the top of Cape Perpetua and talked about Oregon’s marine reserves and conservation policies. His work involves rehabilitation of old growth forests for birds and stream restoration for salmon and other fish. We took a moment to whale watch from our high vantage point, but had no luck. However, a few sea lions were spotted playing in the water! We then walked along the Ten-Mile Creek trail, stopping from time to time to enjoy the scenery and talk about efforts to restore and protect the plants and animals in the area. We ate lunch along the creek and some students practiced their rock skipping skills while others waded into the water to cool off.

Hiking through the old growth forest at Ten-Mile Creek

Dr. Sarah Henkel and Paul Englemeyer showing us a map of northwest rivers and the health of the watersheds. Most of them (in red) have poor water quality.

Redfish Rocks, one of the first marine reserves in Oregon.

Oregon marine reserves are managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. These sites are dedicated to research and conservation, prohibiting all removal of species. The protected areas range from 3 sq km to 36.5 sq km. The first marine reserves became protected in early 2012 with the newest addition at Cape Falcon, in 2016, for a total of five along our coast. Each reserve has different attractions, from hiking trails, to sea lion caves and lighthouses. Despite their differences they all give  unique views of our beautiful coastline.

On Tuesday we went down to the docks to meet up with Laura Anderson, the owner of Local Ocean Seafoods. She took us to the docks where we talked to some fishermen about their work. They told us about the various regulations placed on the fish they were catching and showed us what types of gear they used to catch different types of fish. Afterwards we filed into Local Ocean to enjoy a delicious lunch! Once back at Hatfield we had lectures on tools used to aid fisheries management and  science policy. Thanks to the great weather we were able to sit out on the grass for a discussion on science, policy, and ethics. During the discussion we talked about ways to communicate science to the public, career ideas in the field of marine biology, and the difficulties of writing research papers.

I’M ON A BOAT

Food is life.

Wednesday was our final day of class. We had lectures about aquaculture and wave energy in the morning and gave group presentations in the afternoon. These were different than our normal presentations because we had to pick a non-science audience (i.e. state lawmakers) and provide non-partial information about a current issue to guide their decisions. It was more challenging than we expected to provide options without “telling them what they should want to do.” Regardless, communicating science to non-scientists is important and we need to learn how to do it effectively.  We also wrote practice op-ed articles about our presentation topic. It was a long day, but none of us could believe that eight weeks have flown by and we only have two left!

Dana and Melissa presenting about plastic pollution in the ocean.

Thursday we decided on our final research project ideas and discussed them with the teachers and TA’s. They helped us hammer out kinks in our methods or steered us in the right direction if we weren’t sure what question to explore. After the meetings we started writing our proposals, which were due at 5:00 pm, leaving us only a few hours to finish! Several of us got up early to collect organisms for our projects, taking advantage of some of the lowest tides of the entire year. The tidepooling was excellent!

Science has begun!

Friday kicked off the start of our final research projects! Many groups took advantage of the low tide and were out in the field by 6:00 am conducting surveys or collecting organisms. The sunshine was worth the early start!

By: Katie, Miranda, and Melissa

Week 6: Conservation

Monday, May 5th:

This week was all about Marine Conservation and Policy! We met our instructor Sarah Henkel at 9:00am. This first day we learned about the oceans, climate change, oceanic resources such as tidal and wave energy, and aquaculture. The day consisted of lectures and deciding upon our conservation/policy research topics. 

Tuesday, May 6th:

In lecture, we learned about marine reserves and their ecological importance, and the struggles of regulation within marine reserves. 

Marine Reserves (MR), essentially are preservation lands prohibiting all commercial and recreational uses as well as oceanic development where as Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are regulated commercial and recreational areas but also prohibit oceanic development. 

MRs and MPAs are most commonly adjacent to one another; Cape Perpetua is a fine example. 

A stunning photo of Cape Perpetua's Marine Reserve during some strong winds (from Thursday's field trip).

When the sun began to set, in a large room in the Guin Library, a group of 22 students and their instructor, loudly speculated their ideas of science, policy, and ethics and their connectivity within the life of a scientist. What an eye-opening discussion it was!

Wednesday, May 7th:

This was one of the most exciting days of the week! We had a dock walk with Laura Anderson, owner of Local Ocean Seafoods in business for over a decade now, where she talked to us about fishing and where her fish and crustaceans came from. 

One of the boats she buys fish from, uses glazing as a means of keeping fish "fresh." Glazing flash freezes caught fish, leaving them in the same conditions they were in when first caught for longer preservation time.

Check out this neat tuna fishing boat! Laura pointed out to us certain key features that can help distinguish what type of catch this boat fishes. 

Having a cover for the tuna is essential in reducing diseases by decreasing the beat of the sun, avoiding the rise in temperature of their bodies.

These wooden doors are features found on a pink shrimp boat.

The doors have good buoyancy and help the net to stay open. 

After our lovely dock walk with Laura, we had lunch at Local Ocean Seafoods. Food choices ranged from fish wraps and salmon salads, to crab cakes and Albacore tuna kabobs. 

 Fish and crabs were displayed upon entrance in a case full of ice with the name of the boat from which they were caught. Thumbs up for them!

A plate of fish tacos marinated in a chili-garlic sauce. YUM!

Thursday, May 8th:

We had another exciting field trip to Cape Perpetua and Ten-Mile Creek. 

Paul Engelmeyer, a conservation advocate, discussed his work in MRs and MPAs and his 1000 acre land protection project. He also talked about the watershed councils all around Oregon and the health of the water. Looking at one of his maps, our water systems aren't doing so well.

We then piled back into the warmth of the dry vans and headed to Ten-Mile Creek to meet Chris Lorion, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, and Jack Sleeper, fish biologist. 

Chris Lorion showed us the neat fish collecting trap that allows him to record data on the fish abundance and diversity in the river. 

This is the fish trap used by ODFW. Fish are directed into the trap and taken out for recording fish dynamics every day.

One of the fish caught on this day was the Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus. These adult female lamprey recently laid their eggs. 

We had the opportunity of holding them. Look at that smiling face!

In the open forest, Jack Sleeper talked to us about the importance of fallen trees in the river to steady water flow and for creating a complex habitat for fish. He also noted the seriousness of not having roads impede accessible waterways for fish, such as culverts do. 

This fallen tree is vital for juvenile salmon populations as a means of protection from predators and fast flowing waters. 

Friday, May 9th:

Presentations! One right after the other. Eleven presentations, all concerning different topics about the oceans. Our topics included ocean acidification, arctic ice caps melting, hypoxia, marine mammal containment, coral reefs, artificial reefs, seafood labelling, invasive species, Bluefin tuna migration, and fish hatcheries. Each group had a specific target audience, varying from the general public to policy-makers. Every topic had something interesting to say, capturing our attention. Needless to say, we all learned something new from each issue.

Two students presenting their research on marine mammal containment as if their audience were the general public. Great job ladies!