Category Archives: Former scholars

Will my voice ever be the same?

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It’s only the second week and I’m already learning and being tested on so much information about not only the Oregon Coast, but also biology itself.  While mainly working the front desk this week at the Hatfield Marine Science visitor’s center, I talked to visitor’s constantly.  I welcome them, ask where they’re from, give them a 30 second tour of the visitor’s center, ask for a donation and then send them on they’re merry way.  I also work at the tide pool touch tank where I teach people to touch gently and actually what’s in the touch tank to begin with.  Lastly, my main job is to lead the estuary walk and give insight into what an estuary is and what happens there.  Does my job end there? NO! Lies completely!!! I get to do so much more!!! Not only do I get to work with marine education, I also get to work with the aquarists.  Already since I have been here I have done water quality tests on the “west wing” water, fixed problems with tanks in the visitor’s center and got to “de-leech” rock fish! Oh yeah! I have been walking around, helping visitor’s and learning more and more about Oregon from everyone around me.

I definitely had to face a few challenges this week, but they were mainly because of my left knee. Earlier in the summer I had torn part of my ACL, LCL, Meniscus and brusied the knee bone.  This left me needing an ACL derotation brace and I had to get it here. Too bad the nearest orthopedic and prosthesis place that takes my health insurance is in Corvallis! Thus, figuring out my work schedule to take days off and finding a way to get to corvallis was an interesting task all on its own.  Yet, it was all worth it because now I can move around with ease and feel much safer all around.

One of the main things that was completely new was touching our giant pacific octopus Squirt! It was awesome!!! He even almost came out of the tank, but we got him.  I got to interact with him and help him move through the circular hole that is placed between the front of the tank and the back of the tank.  It was amazing to see this creature move and interact with visitor’s all while learning about him and his tendencies. Yet, definitely one of the most amazing things that has happened to me so far is how welcomed I feel.  The volunteer’s, aquarists and my supervisors have all made me feel like I am one of the family and that I am completely worthy of working at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.  Next week that main things to face will be fixing exhibits, dealing with large groups coming to the visitor’s center all at once and becoming even more acquainted with the science behind the center.  Bring it on!

Crabs, clams, and shrimp (Oh my!)

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The title pretty much explains the theme of the past week.

Most of my time was spent collecting, measuring, weighing, and tagging Dungeness and Red Rock crabs for an abundance/life history study. I worked with my mentor, Scott, and Sylvia, a researcher from OSU. We started Monday afternoon by deploying about a dozen crab traps throughout Charleston marina. Tuesday morning, the survey began. Aside from an occasional kelp crab, the traps contained only Dungeness and Red Rock crabs. We started by measuring and weighing the Dungeness crabs. We measured carapice width and then took their weight in grams. This information was later uploaded to a database so Scott could make continuing estimates of the size distribution and biomass of the crabs in the Charleston area. The Red Rock crabs were measured and weighed in the same manner as the Dungeness crabs but were then tagged as part of a mark-recapture study being conducted by Sylvia. As I recall, the tags were called “flow tags” and were attached to the crabs using a plastic “gun,” which had a needle that was inserted into the crab’s carapice at the molting seam. When the trigger was pulled, the tag was attached and hung off the crabs by a small plastic thread. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a photo, because the work was fairly wet, and we wanted to keep the pace up. I’ll try to upload a photo of the tagging this week. The tagging is believed to have no effect on the crabs’ mortality, because the needle is inserted into a hollow area of the carapice, but I think it would make for a cool study to confirm this. The tagging procedure was performed every day of the week, and we’ll be doing it again this Monday and Tuesday. We tagged over 200 rock crabs and measured/weighed over 500 crabs total. And to think I only got pinched once! This procedure provided an introduction to crab sampling and also got me started on my first in-depth work with databases.

At various times over the week I also measured and weighed pink shrimp as part of an abundance/size study. This work was conducted in the lab. Shrimp boat captains graciously provide us samples of their catch, which we measure and weigh to determine the most common size present. Measurements were taken using electronic calipers that were plugged into a laptop so the data were injected directly into a spreadsheet for later analysis.

Finally, this past Saturday was the Clamboree festival in nearby Empire, OR. Clamboree is a culinary festival celebrating……clams (and other shellfish as well). I helped staff the ODFW booth with Stacey and Cami from ODFW, Newport. We had much literature to pass out regarding shellfish identification and good crabbing/clamming locations around Coos Bay. We also had live specimens of gaper, butter, littleneck, cockle, and softshell clams, as well as a live Dungeness crab. These proved popular with everybody; especially the kids. I learned how to properly clean clams and some popular ways of preparing them for the table–chowders, fritters, steamers. Visitors to the booth readily shared tips and tricks for cooking clams. The only downer of the day was the weather: it was cool and rainy, and it definitely had a negative effect on festival attendance. We kept busy at our booth, though, and had a steady flow of visitors throughout the day.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Backtrack to Monday. The week actually started off with a staff meeting, via conference call, between various ODFW biologists and managers. I sat in on the meeting with Scott and Steve Rumrill, leader of the ODFW Shellfish Program. At one point during the meeting people took turns discussing what they had done/accomplished the previous week and what their plans were for the upcoming week. It was at this point that Scott had to excuse himself to take a call in his office. No big deal right? Well, turns out the Charleston office (where I’m interning) was first up. Steve talked some about what he was doing and then says something like “And now Eric will discuss what he and Scott have been working on.” Yikes! You mean I actually have to speak? Despite being caught off-guard, I think I did pretty well. I reported on our exploratory cockle study, beach seining, and GIS work and then spoke about the upcoming crab sampling. Steve was very reassuring and gave me the thumbs up when I finished. A bit nerve-wracking at first, but I actually felt pretty good when it was over.

I’ll leave you with some photos of crabs and clams and will try to upload some detailed photos of the tagging this week. I bid you peace.

 

 

At the ODFW booth. Clamboree! Empire, OR.

Our live specimens at Clamboree 2012.

Measuring a Dungeness crab.

 

 

to dredge or not to dredge?

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… that was the question of the week. And I learned that it is a difficult question to answer.

Dredging is serious business… we had professional divers and everything. Basically there is a pump on a boat, a water intake tube, the dredge head (it sucks up the mud and clams and whatever), and a water discharge head that has the sample bag attached to it. It’s really hard to explain how it works and I don’t have a picture, but all you need to know is that the sediment gets sucked up and thrown out the back, into the mesh sample bag. The bag is later sorted to find the good stuff.

Here’s a picture of some of what we got out of our dredge samples. We found gaper clams, cockles, macoma clams, brittle stars, baby dungeness crabs, and olive snails.

We did subtidal dredging in Yaquina on both Wednesday and Thursday this week, but we only got to 30 of the 40 spots we wanted to sample. The weather and tides were not  cooperative, and the divers had to stop early both days (but we still worked over 8 hours each day!). The whole process really showed me how much the combination of tides and wind and weather can effect the boats and divers. The wind was strong enough to counteract the effect of the tides on the boat; but the outgoing tide was so strong that the divers couldn’t hold the dredge system in place. All of this totally threw off our plan to have a separate boat place anchors before we got to a site, because by the time the dredge boat got to the point, the winds and tide had changed enough to require the anchor to be reset.

So basically all day I was dropping and hauling in anchors and the dredge system. Even with gloves my hands were pretty sore from all that rope!

A little background on why we were dredging for clams in the first place:
Back in 2010 (… I think), the NOAA Pacific Fleet moved from WA to Newport. In order to keep all their giant research vessels here they had to build a huge dock, which disturbed a large area of subtidal clam habitat. My team is studying the long term effect of this disturbance and the recolonization rate of the Gaper clam in the area. This is the 3rd post-construction sampling of the area around the NOAA dock. We also are taking some samples in a subtidal area in Sally’s Bend, an area in Yaquina Bay unaffected by the NOAA dock that can be used as a comparison. This creates a BACI study: Before-After-Control-Impact.

Now we just have to determine when we’ll get our last 10 samples. But until then, I’ll just have to be content digging for more clams in the mud and beach flats this coming week.

~Maryna

 

Interacting with the Public

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This week has been very interesting in the least. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend an ODF&W office meeting with all the department heads. For this meeting, my mentor, Melissa was trying to give people in her office more information on the community fishing profiles that the Marine Reserves department released. Melissa explained to a mostly biologist-filled audience how qualitative social science methods work and that they should be respected as a form of science. It was interesting, because you could tell that the biologists had a really hard time wrapping their heads around the idea of a report that included only text and quotes, and they kept asking for more numbers. For me this didn’t seem like an issue of right or wrong, but more of an issue of being right or left-brained and it was really rich to watch them try to compromise so that both groups could comprehend the information.

I also started doing pressure counts this week, through which I have learned a lot as well. Pressure counts involve a ton of driving, and take up most of the day, because I drive the width of the marine reserve/MPA at Cape Perpetua and make 10 stops, then repeat this three times per day. When I count people I also have to include their age, sex, and what kind of activity they are doing. In a trial run I quickly figured out that this can be very difficult when you have tour groups of 30 people coming through and I had to refine my methods a bit. So far the counts have gone smoothly and I am definitely enjoying the scenery, but not so much the driving time.

The biggest amusement so far for me has been the people that come up and interact with me. Although I dress in normal clothes, I don’t look very inconspicuous with a pair of binoculars and a clipboard. By the end of the day I end up feeling like a huge creeper. This is part of the reason why I don’t like to tell people what I am doing (Melissa also told me to keep it very vague, because this is such a controversial issue). I started trying to explain it at first, but by the end I gave up and just nodded whenever people asked me if I was doing a specific job. I mean what I am I supposed to say when someone comes up and asks me if I am counting seals…..No… I am counting you? Creeper status. So as of right now people think I am counting fish, seals, cleaning up the beach, and watching for Tsunami debris. Speaking of which, I found a float from the tsunami covered in invasive mussels and they were some of the strangest organisms I have ever seen. I also had a conversation with an elderly man, who told me that he was on the lookout for a boat coming in from the tsunami. I told him about the float and the invasive mussels, and he responded with, “I always knew Japan would invade us eventually.” Oh dear! Then he started launching into some World War II stories. I think this helped prepare me a little better for some of the things I might hear when I conduct interviews with people visiting the marine reserve next week. Melissa trained/prepared me really well to give straight and unbiased interviews, but you never know what someone is going to say to through you off…Nevertheless I am sure I will have some good stories for next week.

What a whirlwind week!

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My brain feels as though it may just shut down from information overload, but I have been totally having a blast!  I’ve taken tons of notes and pictures and written a couple of posts on my personal blog where you can see some of said pictures: BioGeoNerd.blogspot.com.

I have really enjoyed the hands on training we’ve had this week.  The other 3 visitor center interns and I spent Tuesday morning gleaning knowledge from estuary experts.  We got to tromp around on the mud flats, where we dug up ghost shrimp and mud shrimp, explored many crab species, and even found a nice sized polychaete.  We got to take a first hand look at the isopod parasites that are plaguing the mud shrimp.  Dr. Chapman was an excellent guide to discuss these important invasive species issues with us.  As far as the estuary, we learned from a great power point presentation and also had the opportunity to go on the tour given by 3 different presenters so we can witness a variety of styles.  We are going two more times over the weekend and this time the public will go along.  We are encouraged to create our own style and realize that every estuary tour is different!  I’m really excited to begin presenting these tours.  I won’t have the responsibility to run these tours on a regular basis like the other 3 interns will, but I hope to be able to do it as frequently as anyone will let me!

Some of the other great hands-on trainings we’ve had were going to the tide pools at Yaquina Head where we found many creatures of interest, particularly (for me) a sunflower sea star and gumboot chiton (the largest chiton in the world), and doing many tours by various experts who graciously gave of their time.  Tim took us on a salt water tour to see where the water is pumped in from the bay at high tide, filtered and sent around the center, and later filtered again and treated before going back to the bay.  I learned about the water treatment methods last year in Environmental Management so it was awesome to see sand filters, settling tanks, and my personal favorite- the pig, first-hand.  Kaety educated us on fisheries.  The aquarists gave us a wealth of information by showing us all the animals on display in the visitor center, and showing us things in the back including how they sedate a fish to work on them (they were removing leaches from a rock fish), and the highlight of the week for me was seeing the Giant Pacific Octopus and getting to let her grab on to my fingers.

Another program I will get to help with in the visitor center is the Ocean Quest presentation.  This showcases Dr. Hanshumaker’s work with the Axial Seamount.  This is an undersea volcano at the Pacific/ Juan de Fuca plate boundary where the ocean floor is thin and spreading.  This presentation educates the public on plate tectonics, volcanism on land and under the sea, and various equipment used to measure seismic indicators such as gas emissions and ground deformation.  As with the estuary walk, I’m excited to give this presentation and hope to be able to do so as often as possible.

The most challenging thing this week was processing all the information I received.  I usually “digest” info by going through my notes and blogging about it to reduce the amount of info into a cohesive unit.  I haven’t completed half of what I’d like to with the notes I collected this week.  I hope to get caught up in the next few days.

Next week I will hopefully be able to lead the estuary walk and continue preparing for the Ocean Quest presentation, and will go through some training on wave energy.  I will also be spending a great deal of time in the library doing research on my project, which is to create the plans for a climate change exhibit for the visitor center.

So far I completely love it here at Hatfield and I am super excited for my internship.  This week has been a wicked kickoff with some experiences I will never forget!

Wait, it rains here?

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Another Hatfield adventure began for me last Monday, this time as an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar.  I am working at the HMSC visitor center under the mentorship of Bill Hanshumaker, a marine education specialist whose passion is free choice learning.  I forgot to post on the blog last night (oops) but now I have the unique opportunity among the other interns at the visitor center to talk about the first day of actual work on the floor.

Among the eclectic duties as a visitor center intern, by far my favorite today was showing kids the touch tank.  Some were pretty frightened of touching the urchins and the anemones and others didn’t even blink an eye and just went for it.  It was very entertaining to watch.  Last spring I took a series of classes out at HMSC all about marine biology so I thought I had pretty good grasp of the touch tanks.  I learned very quickly that people know how to ask difficult questions that my classes did not prepare me for.  All the better…I like being kept on my toes.

I am looking forward to giving estuary walks and presenting on deep sea volcanic activity in the upcoming weeks, as well as anything else that I can do to help out around HMSC.

 

The journey begins

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Well, actually my summer internship with Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) began last Wednesday. I arrived here at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) in Charleston, OR and barely got settled in before meeting my mentor, ODFW shellfish biologist Scott Groth, and starting in with fieldwork.

At this point allow me to call your attention to the Oregon Sea Grant “Meet the Scholars” webpage. There you can find out a little bit more about me, my fellow interns, and the projects we’ll be working on throughout the summer.

Although my internship is centered on shellfish, my first task was to assist the ODFW fish biologist with shore seining efforts. We worked in a team of four and seined five locations in the south slough of Coos Bay over a three-hour period. We were seining for salmonids as part of a population study conducted by the fish biologist, but many species turned up in the net: flounders, sculpins, gunnels, surf smelts, surfperch, jellyfish, dungeness crabs—it had all the makings for a chowder! We sorted out all the salmonids and took length measurements before returning them to the slough. I learned to tell the difference between an english sole and a sand sole and got my first experience in shore seining. It was pretty cool.

The next day Scott and I traveled out into the south slough and took some preliminary measurements for the heart cockle study. Our goal was to set some points via GPS that would serve to outline the boundaries for the survey area. We encountered some areas of soft mud, and it was then that I learned than I’m “a sinker” as opposed to “a floater.” Darn! Well, it made things a bit more challenging, but far from impossible. If nothing else I know I’ll be getting a good workout trudging through the mudflats this summer. We encountered a friendly cockle harvester who was quite willing to let us take some measurements of his catch. I got some experience using digital calipers and measuring cockle shells. Other new experiences included my first introduction to ArcGIS, maintenance of outboard motors, and cockle harvesting techniques—basically you just drag a rake through the mud, and out they pop.

This coming week our focus is shifting to the tagging of red crabs. What variety! Stay tuned…..more to come!

OSG Week 1 in review

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Hello! After completing my first week as a science communications Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar, I have much to share. First of all, everyone at the program has been amazing. I’m working in the OSG main office at the Oregon State University campus under OSG Director Stephen Brandt and Marine Program Specialist Jenna Borberg, who are my direct supervisors. I am also working closely with Sarah Kolesar and Eric Dickey, who have been instrumental in acquainting me with the OSG and what it has to offer.

As a communicator, much of my work surrounds research, so I’ve done quite a bit of reading this week and learned A LOT. In the office I’ve been developing content to help raise awareness about the OSG, OSU’s Marine Council, and the Marine Sciences collaborative at the University—in addition to the partnerships OSG has with local, state, and national entities. Reviewing the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) that is used for the Oregon MarineMap and spatial planning of Oregon’s Territorial Sea, I learned how many layers there are in the decision-making processes. Also, the vast amount of data that must be collected and organized by each of the entities involved illustrates what is at stake for marine life, stakeholders, and future planning.

I was also fortunate enough to sit in on a conference call among marine science professionals whose collaboration illustrated the direct and instant action that must be taken when dealing with unforeseen crisis such as the tsunami debris. Everyone addressed the issue with a clarity and precision that showed how each entity must work together to produce the most effective and efficient solutions possible.

Finally, being an Oregonian, I have visited the coast many times, but primarily as a tourist—visiting the beach and devouring copious amounts of seafood. But after researching coastal happenings for story ideas, I am beginning to appreciate the coast and what it has to offer in a new way. The coast communities and institutions that support them work together in a network almost as complex as the ocean itself. During my stay at OSG I hope to help raise awareness about the OSG and the innovation they support in coastal fisheries and communities.

On queue for next week: Start developing the story pitches into articles and learn more about everything.

P.S. I’ve also picked up some fun stuff, like that juvenile oysters are called “spat.” Who would have thunk?

Week 1: Acclimation

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While I might not have traveled far to reach the Sea Grant office in the same campus I spent the last four years roaming around, this last week was no short of surprises in the town I call home.

The Sea Grant Office is located in the Kerr Administration building on OSU’s main campus, and in my first week I not only became familiar with the bustling office, but also some of the other Sea Grant affiliated spaces on campus, including a top-secret video editing room where the Sea Grant sponsored videos are put together, and also another extension office in Ballard Hall where invasive species expert Sam Chan works, among others.

After getting acquainted with all of the different Sea Grant people and places around Corvallis, I got settled in at my cozy desk in the heart of Sea Grant’s main office. As a Marine Science and Policy intern, I was originally selected to work on marine science and policy event planning during the course of the summer, but I soon learned that my projects could become diversified because of a recent buzzing issue in the office.

In the wake of the hardly inconspicuous arrival of tsunami marine debris on the West Coast, I found myself getting in on the action as state and federal agencies continue their efforts to decide what to do in order to prepare researchers and the public to deal with eminent debris. On my first day in the office, I got to sit in on a conference call between Corvallis Sea Grant and those at Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) while topics related to marine debris were covered, ranging from how the public has been responding and what types of misconceptions they might have; to research proposals being submitted to Sea Grant by various researchers who want to take advantage of this opportunity to gain insights into oceanographic dynamics and invasive species. This call was exciting to listen to, especially because it gave me an important look into how agencies such as ODFW, NOAA and Sea Grant communicate within and between themselves, and how action plans are developed in response to issues that affect multiple spatial and temporal scales simultaneously.  This call also brought up many important points about the challenges in educating the public in such a short amount of time about how to respond to these types of issues. In the call it was brought up that at least one member of the public interpreted the recent arrival of the dock to mean ‘bad science’ on behalf of NOAA researchers and other scientists who predict(ed) most debris to arrive in October. I was surprised to hear this interpretation and I, among others, were curious what other misconceptions about marine debris the public might have, and consequently,  how to address these misconceptions. Instantly, an idea for a  research project began to brew. Fortuitously, just as my wheels began to turn, during the call two of my mentors Jenna Borberg and Sarah Kolesar mentioned that there was at least one eager intern willing to work on this, or related projects this summer.

While Sea Grant and the other agencies continue to hash out who’s doing what and when, I began work on some of my other event planning projects, namely the Heceta Head Coastal Conference (HHCC). The opportunity to work on this event in particular was one of the original reasons I was interested in this position, since I was able to attend last years conference and was particularly compelled by the unique Oregon-specific and interdisciplinary approach. Even though I attended last year’s conference, I first spent some time familiarizing myself with the programs from previous years. Next, I began work on a Facebook page for the conference (facebook.com/HecetaHeadCC) where Oregonians and beyond can learn about HHCC, “like” it, or attend this year’s event! I know this sounds unbelievably simple, but between figuring out my desk’s MacBook and finding all the appropriate information, pictures, and PDF conversions, this actually took quite a bit of legwork. After completing this task, I began drafting invitations to potential speakers at this conference. I was especially excited to see a great diversity of scientists, politicians, and economists on the invite list this year. Similar to the facebook page, a seemingly simple task came with a whole new set of challenges. In particular, finding the ‘right’ way to address people from disciplines outside of science was novel to me, as was finding and naming the appropriate credentials to discuss in their letter in order to demonstrate the value they would bring to the event. After I finished the letters and got some feedback from Sarah, we decided they were ready to be reviewed by my mentor, and director of Oregon Sea Grant, Stephen Brandt.

As I prepare for the next week of work, I find myself curious to see what new adventures and surprises this week will bring, because if there’s anything this week has taught me most, is that there is no shortage of opportunities for work in the office and I can’t wait to dive in.

 

Nick Pitz Week 1 blog

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Last week we started our training at the HMSC under the supervision of Bill Hanshumaker. On Tuesday we took our first little tour of the estuary. We had to get up at around 6 AM in order to make the low tide.  We were informed that at least one of us was going to sink into the mud that day. That person ended up being me. I was able to recover my boots (using a bucket to pry myself out) but they still smell like Hydrogen Sulfide. We learned a lot about the estuary as well as the organisms (both native and invasive) that live there. We spent the rest of the day getting a little behind the scenes tour of HMSC.

On Wednesday we met at Yaquina Head and explored the tide pools and sea birds to help familiarize ourselves with intertidal life. Later we arrived for the Markham Symposium going on in the visitor center.   We got a little tour of more of the  facilities at HMSC and ended the day in the auditorium working on the Ocean Quest slide show (it still has a few bugs to work out). We later helped Bill Hanshumaker take down some of the older exhibits and relocate them to a ware house about 15 minutes up the road. He left for Alaska the next morning and we will probably not see him again until July 2.

On Thursday we practiced worked on the Ocean Quest presentation again. We learned about the feeding processed at HMSC. We also got to meet “Pearl” (the octopus that is currently not on display) and watched a Rock fish get some of its parasites removed. We did the estuary walk again with another volunteer who encouraged us to find our own particular way of making the walk interesting

On friday we worked on more behind the scenes stuff. We got to see some of the seawater pumping system that runs all throughout the facility.  We also had  more practice with the estuary walks and finally seemed to make some progress with Ocean Quest (then we lost half of the videos somehow). Later we learned all about marine fisheries (and some of the relevant exhibits) off of the Oregon Coast.

On Saturday we “gave” our first estuary walks to the public (under close supervision). And Sunday I gave my first estuary walk, apparently I did “fine” for my first try. All in all it was a good first week and I’m looking forward to next week.