The South Slough–and estuaries in general–are important spawning and nursery grounds for many marine fish species. However, the last time that there was a comprehensive assessment of the fish community in the South Slough was back in 1987. So approximately two years ago, the South Slough received funding to monitor the fish populations again. Once a week almost every month, a set of six sites are sampled at high and low tide. The information on the species and number of fish caught in each sample helps the reserve understand how fish communities in the slough are changing across seasons and years in different parts of the estuary. By combining this species abundance and richness data with water quality data, they can also assess how environmental conditions influence species presence, absence, and abundance. Overall, this project aims to characterize long-term trends in habitat use by fish, and it can additionally help evaluate the effectiveness of past restoration efforts.

This fish monitoring project is the other main part of my internship with South Slough, in addition to the green crab work, and this week was the first fish sampling week scheduled since I started my internship. So starting this Monday, my time this week was almost entirely spent with fish work. The method used for the fish monitoring is called seining. Seining consists of a large net that hangs vertically in the water, with a float line on the top and a weighted line on the bottom. As the net is deployed along the shore, the weighted line drops the net to the bottom of the water and the float line keeps it buoyed on the water surface, creating a large barrier that scoops up all the fish in the seine net area.

To deploy the seine net, we first set a person on shore as the anchor, holding a rope at one end of the net. Then a person on the boat deploys the net from the bow, creating an arc near the shore.

Two people then each hold one end of the net, and haul the net through the water to the shore.

Once the net reaches the shore, everything in the net is funneled to the bag at the bottom of the net. All the fish and crabs in the net are then placed in buckets (with oxygenators).

All of the fish and crabs caught are then identified, and their length and weight are measured.

This week, we caught dozens of different kinds of fish and crabs–Chinook salmon juveniles (both wild and hatchery-released), different kinds of perch and sole, herring, anchovies, pipefish, and more.

It was exciting to learn new field techniques and to become better with fish identification as the week went on. The next week of fish seining will be sometime in August, and I’m excited to do it all again!

In addition to the fun of catching green crabs over the past few weeks, I have also been able to explore some of the sites around Charleston and in central Oregon.

In just a 20 minute drive from the South Slough offices down Cape Arago Highway, there are a series of beautiful spots along the coast. One afternoon a couple weeks ago, Katie and I decided to just start driving and see what we could find.

A view of Sunset Beach (PC: Katie Gregory)

We first hit Bastendorff Beach, a long, sandy strip of beach that always has plenty of open space to have a bonfire or just sit and enjoy the view of the ocean. I’ve seen people surfing and paddleboarding, but I have only managed to get my toes in because the water is freezing so I’m not sure how the surfers manage.

We then got to Sunset Beach, but for some reason the park closes at 9 pm–before the sunset during the summer–so despite the name, I have yet to see the sunset at Sunset Beach. It’s still a gorgeous beach, with sandy shores surrounded by tall rocky cliffs. Simpson Reef is one of the best spots to view pinnipeds on the southern coast. The cliff overlooks large rocky islands right offshore where harbor seals, northern elephant seals, Steller sea lions, and California sea lions congregate. By the time we got there, the fog had started to roll in so we couldn’t see anything, but we could hear a lot of seals! Lastly, we got to Cape Arago State Park, the end of Cape Arago Highway, where we followed a few trails to spots where you could see the extensive rocky outcrops that line the coast. The trail down to the beach was closed due to seal pupping season, but hopefully we’ll be able to make it back later in the summer.

Last weekend, Katie and I decided to head the other direction and explore the sand dunes north of Charleston. We decided to hike the John Dellenback Trail, a 6-mile roundtrip trail that goes through a small forest, across a stretch of sand dunes, and then through a marshy forest to the ocean. Hiking across the dunes, where everywhere you look around you is sand except for a stretch of trees out in the distance, feels like you’re in the Sahara, not southern Oregon. But then you get to the swampy strip of forest, and the long expanse of ocean, and it feels like Oregon again.

More sand dunes, with some people included for scale. (PC: Katie Gregory)

Sand dunes at the John Dellenback Trail. (PC: Katie Gregory)

Last weekend, Katie and I decided to head the other direction and explore the sand dunes north of Charleston. We decided to hike the John Dellenback Trail, a 6-mile roundtrip trail that goes through a small forest, across a stretch of sand dunes, and then through a marshy forest to the ocean. Hiking across the dunes, where everywhere you look around you is sand except for a stretch of trees out in the distance, feels like you’re in the Sahara, not southern Oregon. But then you get to the swampy strip of forest, and the long expanse of ocean, and it feels like Oregon again.

For the 4^th of July, I left the coast behind and visited family vacationing in Bend, located in central Oregon near the Willamette National Forest. The drive from Charleston to Bend was gorgeous, passing through endless forest and past large mountain lakes. We hiked Tumalo Falls, though we didn’t make it through the entire loop because my seven- and eight-year-old cousins were getting tired. We also floated in tubes down the Deschutes River, drank some beer from local breweries, and ate some amazing gelato. It was awesome to be able to see a completely different part of Oregon. It was sunny and hot (over 90 degrees, whoo!), and though I love the southern coast, it was nice to be able to wear shorts, have to put on sunscreen, and swim in the river without wearing waders.

Tubing down the Deschutes:

Tumalo Falls:

I’m looking forward to seeing more of the area (I’m hoping to make it to the northern part of the redwoods and to Crater Lake) over the rest of the summer.

(Also, thanks to Katie for letting me use all your pictures since I never take any!)

highlight of the week: meeting Frank

This week really flew by. I don’t know if it was because of July 4 or because I finally feel established here but it just seemed like everything was a blur. My weekdays have just morphed together to become some depressingly adult blend of waking up early, making myself breakfast and lunch, driving to work, working, working, working, driving home, then doing stuff of which has no real significance because I have to wake up at 7 again the next day (more like 7:20 because of all the ‘snoozes’). I say of no real significance not because it really has no significance but more so because I’m a night owl whose inspiration and work ethic are at its peak at 2am. So considering I am a very nap-loving human being who needs at least 6 hours of rest to not set up shop underneath his office desk like George Costanza, I must go to bed well before I can blossom into the sleep-deprived individual who I was born to be.

Despite this lack of energy and sense of accomplishment outside the workplace, within the workplace I am inspired! On Monday, we didn’t go into the office but got work done at the college’s library instead. There, Miles had Catie and I make a very detailed outline for this summer. The document is extremely thorough and literally covers every day of the internship along with what we plan on doing those days, meetings scheduled, and the amount of hours dedicated to each task. While it was pretty overwhelming to create such a future-oriented plan (I can barely even plan what I’ll be eating for dinner some days) it definitely made things clearer as to what I will be doing this summer and the skills that I’ll be taking away once I head back to San Diego. And I can happily say that I am excited! However, this excitement did not hit immediately but rather built up as the week progressed. Various meetings, daily duties, talks with Miles, and my own observations of the South Coast have not only opened my eyes to the various issues and things that are trying to be accomplished here, but it’s helped me understand where I may be able to fit into it all. I know I’m only an intern but there’s just so much potential for change and progress and it’s just really neat to be a part of it all.

I’ve been thinking of whether I would move here if I had a job lined up for me. I know it’s rash and maybe unrealistic to think I could get a job position out of this but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fantasizing about the future. So with that being said, I’ve been fantasizing! I’ve just been imagining if I could see myself living in such a small place like this. I drive around the town, staring at the stores as they pass by just wondering “Would I be cool with this being my life?” I’m enjoying the work and I think there’s a lot of potential for growth, both in this position and the South Coast community in general, and that’s neat, but it seems scary to think I may one day uproot myself from California. But hey, I figure there’s no point in getting too invested in fantasies so I’m just gonna enjoy these next 7 weeks here and live as if I was living here.

In other news, on Friday, Catie and I went to the beach to take photos of people kayaking. We also got to kayak ourselves which was awesome. It was definitely a surreal experience to just paddle out and gradually hear the voices on the beach drown out. After that we enjoyed an incredible seafood barbecue, adorable dogs, good company, and country music. I went to the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene this weekend. My roommate Brendon and I drove up on Saturday and met up with some of his homies who joined our party. The fair was interesting to say the least. I have never seen so many painted boobs in my life, that’s for sure. That was my first real taste of Eugene and I can confirm, it’s a beautiful town. But as sweet as my weekend was, it was very relieving to finally see the Coos Bay bridge, it was a very home-y sight. 

Last week’s water incubation experiment was useful. The plot of the dissolved oxygen levels over the weekend showed clear declines in all of the samples, but there was some strange “noise” at around the same point in the plots of both of the ziplock bags. There was no way to determine an accurate respiration rate from the data. Additionally, the magnitude of change in the dissolved oxygen was much greater in the ziplock bags than in the carboys. My mentor, Cheryl Brown, found an interesting paper in which similar methods were employed to determine respiration rates, and the researchers found that enough oxygen would leach out of the plastic containers and into the water to confound their results. They carried on using plastic containers for incubations, but incubated additional “blank” containers containing ultra purified water to determine a rate for the oxygen leaching from the plastic so that they could correct for it.

I am currently running several incubations of ultrapure water in carboys and ziplock bags to see if leaching could be the source of the noise in our dissolved oxygen plots. We also went to Tillamook and collected more water samples that are now incubating in glass BOD bottles, glass bottles specifically designed for the purpose of measuring biological oxygen demand through incubation. The oxygen sensor we are using for the bottles is optical like the HOBO loggers, but much smaller and designed to fit into the mouth of the bottles. The sensor does not take a time series of readings, and will be used to take only initial and final readings of dissolved oxygen.

The main purpose of this week’s Tillamook trip was not to collect water for incubation experiments, but as a trial run of the bi-weekly water sampling plan of Tillamook Bay and the tributaries that will take place over the summer. Two teams with boats went out on Friday and collected water samples to measure the carbonate chemistry and nutrients of the bay and the tributaries. I rode along with the team sampling the tributaries. We did a little boating in the lower end of a couple rivers and went out only a short way into the bay before pulling out the boat and driving to all five of the rivers to gather water samples both above and below the agricultural zone. It was a long day, and aside from the pungent smell of dairy cows, or “the smell of ice cream”, I saw juvenile salmon leaping out of the water eating bugs in the morning, green herons and pairs of bald eagles, and even one large juvenile chinook in a pool up the Miami River. We will be doing these sampling trips every two weeks for the rest of the summer and I hope to observe and learn more about the ecology of the Tillamook region as I continue to learn about the science of water.

Collecting water with a Van Dorn sampler.

Nutrient sampling on the boat.

A beautiful morning on the Trask River.

Week 3: Tillamook 101

The Lead Up

Following the holiday this week (which we enjoyed with firework-viewing and snacks on the beach) I traveled 4 hours north to accompany Tony at the Tillamook Estuary Partnership’s (referred to hereafter as TEP) meeting to discuss their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP).
TEP is a non-profit organization consisting of many partner groups from federal and more local levels- from Oregon Department of Forestry to Bureau of Land Management to Oregon Department of Agriculture- that exists to conserve and restore Tillamook County’s estuaries and watersheds. This is no small feat, as there are 5 different bays and estuaries that fall under their protection, the largest of them being Tillamook Bay which holds a designation as a “Bay of National Significance” for its role as an economic and ecological resource. For more background on the watersheds themselves and TEP see here: http://www.tbnep.org/about-us.php.
The premise of this meeting was to revise the existing nearly 20-year-old document that serves as the current CCMP. So, my first step to prepare for attendance was to read over and take notes on the ten-odd chapters of the old plan, as well as several pdf documents Tony had sent me that encompassed the planning thus far. When they call this plan “comprehensive” they aren’t kidding. It was a lot of reading about many different aspects of resource management, with focus on four main issues: water quality, habitat loss/simplification, erosion/sedimentation, and flooding. Beyond that, it included a section on the implementation and financing of the plan (money makes the world go ‘round), as well as future research needs. Since my internship surrounds the assessment of shellfish and their habitat, I paid extra close attention to sections regarding those animals. I gathered that Tillamook has a long history of commercial oyster fishing and clamming as well as recreational use.

Armed with my notes, I packed my bag and started my journey to Newport, where I’d be meeting Tony and we’d carpool the rest of the way to Tillamook. I took advantage of my early start and use of the state vehicle and made a pit stop at the Coos Bay farmer’s market (which for some odd reason is held on Wednesday mornings). After picking up some blackberries and the most beautiful breakfast taco I’ve ever seen (pictured below), I was on my way. The drive was very scenic and went well despite the on and off radio availability and bridge construction. On the second leg of the trip Tony drove and talked to me about the history of each town we went through on U.S. Route 101, which basically forms the main road in all of those towns (makes for slow driving). The 101, or Oregon Coast highway here, is teeming with tourists in the summer months, which is no surprise considering it accesses more than 80 state parks along its length. The amount of hotels and resorts was a little perplexing to me, as the climate here does not really meet my expectations for a beach side vacation, but nonetheless most signs read no vacancy. And don’t even get me started on the R.V.s / R.V. parks. R.V.s far as the eye can see. We didn’t have a set time for arrival to Tillamook since the meeting was not till the next morning, so we made a few stops to stretch/check out the scenery. We pulled onto the beach in Pacific City (you can drive on the beaches here!) to take a look at Chief Kiawanda Rock- basically a huge rock standing by its lonesome just off the beach. Pretty neat. Once in Tillamook, we ate dinner and checked into the hotel. I was spoiled with my own king bed and hot tub privileges for a night. All in the name of science. :)

The Meeting

The meeting was held at the local community college in a nice big conference room which could comfortably seat the 20 or so members that showed up. Tony and I were first to arrive, and I was introduced to Lisa Phipps, director of the TEP. She had tacked large sheets of paper all over the front of the room, some with writing and some to be written on later. I took a look at the proposed agenda and could understand why it was predicted to be a 3-hour meeting. There was a lot to cover.
The meeting began with introductions, and I got an idea for how many representatives of each partner group were present. Some had more than others but there was definitely a lot of diversity. They proceeded to reiterate some of the decisions discussed in the previous meeting to give everyone a refresher and then got to work on the agenda items. An example of one such item was the proposal to reorganize the management units. Before the plan had been sectioned by issue, but the proposed change was to break it down by land use; dividing the estuaries into upper, lower, and head of tide, and then address problems specific to those areas. This was the first exchange of ideas I saw, as there was a discussion on what distinction to use to make the land divisions- By salinity or by bacterial line? Several people stated their opinions and gave advice on specific terminology to use in the document. That was how the entire proceedings went on: a question or issue was presented, then they would brainstorm, Lisa would write, and so on. It was step by step decision making, and as we went down the board I began to see who weighed in on what issues, who was knowledgeable about each category. For example, the “forest people” may not give any input regarding burrowing shrimp on the mud flats. The atmosphere was friendly and professional; people gave honest feedback, freely voiced their concerns, and addressed misconceptions if they arose.

Takeaways

I learned a lot from this experience, not only on issues specific to Tillamook but about how these sorts of meetings operate in general. I learned how much the waterways there are influenced by agriculture, and that managing land owners is a very dynamic process. I learned that the TEP’s future goals focus on being more proactive than reactive, which will require more outreach and public education. They also want to identify data gaps where more research may be needed. I learned that making a plan like this has to be so all-encompassing because they are planning for the next decade, and this document will be referred to for grant funding throughout that timeframe. I even got to speak up during the meeting, when Oregon Department of Agriculture reps were discussing the role of “hobby farmers” and the expectation that they follow responsible land use practices even though they’re not held as accountable as large industry farmers. One woman brought up the difficulty in knowing just how many people own animals and making sure they are informed. I asked if there was an online resource available to those people, and suggested that they incorporate a place where hobby farmers could register themselves, submit a plan of action, and get their questions answered all on one site. My comments were very well-received and I was glad I had raised my hand (even if my bright red face begged to differ). There are still a few meetings left till the CCMP document can be written up, but it will eventually be submitted to the EPA for approval. I am thankful I got to participate in the meeting and get my first taste of resource management on a large scale (getting out of field work and driving a car again weren’t bad perks either).

Here are some photos of me enjoying the scenic 101.

On to week 4!

-Katie Gregory

Week 3, the dorms really felt like a summer camp this week. Seagrant interns and REU scholars have officially merged into one large group of amazing people. With the extended holiday weekend we left camp and explored the southern coast. We hiked along the Cape Perpetua Coastline to get a peek at the marine reserve, explored tidal pools and their large starfish and got completely drenched by a rogue wave slamming against the rocks. It was a lovely day. We spent the rest of our long holiday weekend seeing what else the town of Newport had to offer (that Fred Meyer place is pretty neat-o, we don’t get that place on the east coast). On the 4^th we celebrated in classic American style: beach, food, fireworks, mediocre country music and extensive temporary patriotism. We all pitched in to throw a big BBQ full of burgers, vege sausages, baked goods and corn on the cob (the key ingredient for a successful cookout).

Who would have guessed that a bunch of 20 somethings hiking, exploring and living together in one of the most beautiful states in the US would be an enjoyable experience? Well… most people would probably say that, 10/10 weekend for sure. The only thing that would have made it better is if we had gotten paid… Curse y’all Seagrants that got paid on the first day! We need that sweet sweet summer internship money. With that lets transition to the main point of the blog, learning the ropes of working for a government agency.

Coming back from the festivities we were stoked to get back into the work we were here to do. I dove right into the Marine Reserves human dimensions reports, looking to get a better understanding of our audiences and the kind of questions and misconceptions we would be tackling (also s/o to Haley for making them straight and to the point, you’re a great writer). These reports were conducted during the implementation and design of the marine reserves. They were loaded with public perceptions of the reserves, perceived and actual economic impacts of the reserves, and comments from both fishers and recreational users of the coastal waters.

These reports are free to look through on www.oregonmarinereserves.com! The entire website has loads of content ranging from reports, to blog posts, underwater videos, and even pictures of the amazing ODFW Seagrant interns.

Anyway, combined with discussions that I had with locals during the outreach events I was really starting to brainstorm story ideas on how to better communicate topics they wanted to hear more about. There seemed to be confusion on the boundaries and rules with the reserves and misconceptions of what research we were doing and why we were doing it the way that we are.

As I ran my story and communications ideas by my supervisor I met my first challenge of working for a government agency with such a large audience. Due to the fact that we have so many target audiences we have to be very careful not to polarize any of those groups. If we come out too positive and sound too supportive of the reserves we risk polarizing the fishers who argued against the reserves. If we were too negative or not supportive enough we risked polarizing the conservationists. Both groups are extremely important to the success of our reserves, so we are walking a fine line.

We had practiced this already during the outreach events, but it seemed natural during the human to human interaction. We were listening to the public to hear their perceptions and answer their questions. When we did speak it was factual, we told them what and how our research worked. Now it was no longer a two way conversation, it was us communicating towards a much larger audience. We could no longer change how our message was to be communicated for each specific person we were talking to. We had to create a single message that got the point across while making it as specific as possible for our target audience. Not only did it limit the variety of stories we could publish and how we wrote those stories. It limited how effective they were at changing attitudes. With a smaller target audience our specific tailored message could really resonate with their interests and answer their questions. With a one size fits all message it rarely resonates as effectively with anyone, but at least it raises awareness of the message subject.

This brings me to the second challenge, funding and work force. The entire ODFW Marine Reserves program communications team is essentially my boss Kelsey. For the limited resources that she has and the amount of constant things she is requested to do, I’m thoroughly impressed. She has done loads of graphic design, science communications, organizing events and manages our content creation for social media and website. It’s a massive job and I don’t know how she does it. Unfortunately because she is stretched so thin, she is almost forced to try and reach as many people with each post as possible. She rarely has time or resources to organize or make it to outreach events. I’m hoping that I can take some of that pressure off her shoulders so that more of these events can happen.

The example that really gets me the most is of the signs. Many of the people I talked to at the events were not entirely sure on where the boundaries of the reserves were or where they could access them for recreation. When I asked about this I was shocked to find there were no signs at the reserves. Surely there would be signs talking about the reserve, the rules, the boundaries, maybe a map?? But no, there ain’t. Surely that would be the first step to making the reserves more attractive to visitors and to help spread knowledge to those who were visiting. However, when I asked if creating signs would be possible I learned the process that it takes to make them. Finding a contractor, talking to multiple agencies to get permission to put in a sign, talk with the communities to get their opinion on what should be on the sign. Lots of work and lots of time. Unfortunately because this would not hit a large audience, this was not high on the priority list or even on it. It boggled my mind that this had not been addressed earlier. Surely there is a solution to this? I sure hope there is because it seems like a necessary thing to have at a reserve. Also I had this sweet idea to have lookout points over the reserves where the signs would go. These signs would not only have maps with boundaries and pictures of the land where the boundaries start, but also have QR codes that could be scanned to take you right to underwater footage of the reserve you were currently standing at. It would totally go along with the “take a deeper look” and “see what’s beneath the surface” thing we’ve got going. Maybe I can settle for some sick stickers with that slogan and code on them.

Anyway… going camping this weekend, that’ll be neat.