Despite being a short week for 4^th of July weekend this week was full of activity.

Morning at the Cascade Head marine reserve

Tuesday, I helped with a fellow intern with his sea star survey. We went out to the tide pools at Cascade Head and measured all of the sea stars we could find and checked them for signs of wasting. Wasting disease has decimated sea star populations all along the pacific coast. Scientists are curious to see if populations are recovering this year and how the juvenile recruits are faring. We searched on hands and knees in every nook and crevasse and found some juveniles on the scale of millimeters as well as many larger adults.

Sea stars were not the only thing we found. The tide pools at Cascade Head are some of the best I have ever seen. We found a tiny octopus, a school of rockfish and my personal favorite, opalescent nudibranchs!

Opalescent Nudibranch

The word nudibranch translates to naked-gill. This describes the tentacle-like structures, or cerata, found all over their bodies that are used for breathing, digestion and defense. Nudibranchs prey on many stinging organisms including the venomous Portuguese-Man-O-War. They can take the toxins from their prey and incorporate them into their cerata to use for their own defense.

The rest of the week was spent reading papers, CBRAT project meetings and attending an interesting seminar given by Dr. Burke Hales about the effects of ocean acidification on oyster larvae in Willapa Bay, WA.

The weekend came with unpredictable coastal weather. Saturday we managed to find a rain free window in the afternoon for some browsing at the weekly Newport farmer’s market and hiking at Beaver Creek state park. A benefit of the rainy weekend was all of the wildlife we found out on the trail.

Garter snake at Beaver Creek state park

We caught a garter snake lounging on a blackberry vine, a newt making his way through a pile of soggy leaves and a few quarter-sized frogs. The clouds may have obscured most of the viewpoints but we made up for that with many berry stops to sample the thimbleberry and not-quite-ripe blackberries lining the trail. We were clearly not the only ones enjoying the berries, every few yards we came tracks and scat from bear, deer and elk. Unfortunately, all of the mammals managed to hide from us, we didn’t end up spotting any bears. Maybe next time!

Whoops a little overdue for an update. Week three was spent mostly reading, I’m still working through the literature related to decapods and pH. I had my most intern-like task of all this week which involved reorganizing my mentor’s bookshelves. Now I’m just waiting for the coffee orders to start coming in. Ha-ha.

Through all of my reading the thing that stands out the most is how far science has come in the past century. During our first days at HMSC it was remarked that now is a great time to be a scientist. This brings to mind the quote or curse (depends on who you ask) “may you live in interesting times.” Human caused global climate change has altered and will continue to alter our world in ways that are difficult to predict and understand. Many of the advances in science, especially ocean and atmospheric science in this century stem from pressing necessity rather than simple curiosity.

Waiting at the HMSC bus stop

The studies I look at focus on pH and its effect on marine invertebrates. Studies done after the year 2000 all include standardized methods of bubbling CO2 through ambient seawater pumped in from an area near to where organisms were collected. Multiple components of pH are measured and all other conditions are monitored constantly. Organisms are exposed to pH conditions predicted for the year 2100 determined by complex ocean/atmosphere computer models. In other words, good accurate science is being conducted.

In contrast, a study from 1975 looking at pH tolerance of crayfish simply put some crayfish in a jar of acid, a jar of NaOH and measured how long it took for them to die. Turns out crayfish will die within 24 hours if put in a beaker of HCl (Newcombe, 1975). They say there is no such thing as a bad question but there is definitely such a thing as poor scientific design and I am sure at least the crayfish involved would wonder if the question of how long an organism can live in pure acid is something we really need to answer.

Friday I caught a bus out of Newport and headed home for a long relaxing 4th of July weekend. It was nice to have a break from the bunkhouse and see family and friends. 

How is it already the end of week 4…? Crazy. Time is starting to really fly by. Not a whole lot of new stuff has happened at work this week. The samples from our Tillamook field work are still being processed slowly but surely. A few fairly cool things did happen this week though.

First, I learned how to run particle size analysis (PSA) on sediment samples. While it may seem pretty useless to know what the sizes of your sediment grains are, this is actually very important information. By determining the particle sizes, you can infer lots of other info about the hydrology of the habitat. For instance, in marsh sediment samples PSA can help model how fast the marsh will drain as the tide goes out or how fast it will fill. I’m sure reading Jess’ blogs will give you more info about this since her research revolves around this kind of analysis. PSA also lets you infer what the microhabitat of the environment is like. The term “meiofauna” refers to organisms that spend their lives living in between sediment particles such as grains of sand on a beach. This is a very dynamic habitat and there is huge diversity in the taxa that call this environment home. The project I’m working on is mainly interested in how fecal indicator bacteria can colonize the top layer of sediment and potentially become resuspended by wave action and storm winds. For some reason I can’t caption the picture below but it’s a few of the representative meiofaunal taxa.

Second, Amy and I went on a road trip up Yaquina Bay Rd. to try and find some eelgrass sampling sites for my side project. All in all, we were pretty successful! We found three sites that were fairly accessible and easy to relocate so we can definitely resample them later in July. The mud was easier to deal with this time but I don’t think I’ll ever really enjoy standing on a surface that isn’t solid haha; my brother keeps making fun of me that I’m fine with freediving and skydiving but I hate walking on some soft mud. Something about solid ground giving way just isn’t natural haha. The mud was actually so bad in one site that Amy and I decided to butt-scooch down two fallen trees to get to the waterline. I’m sure anyone who saw us had a good laugh.

Third and finally, the results of the IDEXX tests targeting Fecal Coliform and Enterococci are continually returning high hits for eelgrass leaves! The loosely-attached biomass on eelgrass leaves is full of indicator bacteria and this result suggests that gentle agitation by rain, storm action, waves, and wake could release the bacteria into the water column. This is an important early result because it suggests that storm-based water sampling for indicator bacteria could be very inaccurate in Oregon and might be resulting in extended closures of shellfish harvesting areas.

On a non-work note I found out about an ultimate Frisbee league this week that happens every Monday and Thursday night in Newport. “League” might be a bit of an overstatement but it’s certainly a whole lot of fun! One of the researchers at the EPA and Jess’s boss, Jody Stecher, and his wife, Linda, are very into ultimate and always show up. Jess, another intern, Amy, and myself are actually going to their house tonight to make pasta. Not a bad way to round out week 4!

Image references:

http://www.marbef.org/wiki/Meiofauna_of_Sandy_Beaches

Invasive species are an especially hot topic among today’s scientific community. Non-native species have been shown to negatively impact the health of native ecosystems, especially in aquatic environments (e.g. Lionfish, Snakehead, Zebra Mussel, Nutria, and Asian Carp). It is important for coastal managers to detect invasive species soon after their arrival so that successful eradication and management plans can be implemented. Therefore, invasive species monitoring is conducted at most NERRs.

The South Slough NERR alone is home to over 50 non-native marine species. Of these species, few are as infamous as the European green crab. As I discussed in my last post, I recently started a project aimed to investigate the distribution and population of green crabs in South Slough. I collected samples continuously for 2 days at my first set of sites. While dungeness and hairy shore crabs were most abundant, I collected 15 green crabs at the mouth of the estuary. Specimens were measured, sexed, and weighed before being humanely disposed of. The data collected from this project will be used to manage the spread these little green aliens and potentially prevent future invasions along other coastlines.

Aquatic invaders at SSNERR #OSGscholars pic.twitter.com/mUavLAlwbd

— Collin Williams (@Capn_Collin) July 4, 2016

So the quintessential dilemma in environmental policy seems to be the conservationist versus the hungry farmer/fishermen debate, which you’ve probably heard before. The conservationist has many arguments about protecting the forest or sea for its endless values, not just timber and fish but hard to quantify values like oxygen output and water purification, and also impossible to quantify values (although willingness-to-pay measures are trying) like aesthetic pleasure that creates wellness and feelings of wonder, connectedness, and fulfillment. But of those arguments can seem a bit diminished against a person that says, “But what are my children going to eat?”  I’m interested in finding a middle ground – a conservation strategy that can provide for the community and standards that are met alongside addressing social issues. To simplify, I normally tell people that I’m interested in Sustainable Development.

But my experience and research at Wild Rivers Coast Alliance (WRCA) has me questioning just about everything surrounding sustainability. What qualifications render something “sustainable”? I’ve been running into a lot of definitions. Most people agree that there are three basic principles that should be met (although often in varying degrees): Community, people, culture, i.e. social issues; Environment, ecosystem, conservation, i.e. ensure that the human dimension does not harm the natural surroundings, the goal to actually enhance the wildlife and restore it to its condition prior to human presence; and Economy, with the theory being that if the economy can develop, then the social and environmental needs can continue to be addressed. I’ve found that this dimension can also be debatable.

To me, the debate on the necessity of a growing economy is one of the most interesting questions in regards to sustainability, and one I think I’ll continue to develop during my time here at WRCA. Is a growing economy really necessary for conservation? What would conservation look like in an area of economic strife, if even possible? History seems to suggest that natural resources are the quickly exploited in sake of the economy. Some examples come to mind: the Dust Bowl throughout the southern prairies in the 1930s; The War and the Great Depression pressured farmers for a high crop yield, and exploitive agricultural practices led to a decade of dust for the region; In the 1960s and 70s Costa Rica reluctantly agreed to clear-cut many of their Tropical Forests for these same monoculture practices in order to export bananas, pineapples, and coffee to pay off international debt. What would “sustainable” practices look like in these cases? Would they even be possible, given the high crop demand?

My preliminary research seems to suggest that we may be facing a similar situation here on the Oregon South Coast. Throughout our nations’ history, the economy of the South Coast was bolstered by timber and marine/fish production. At its peak, timber accounted for nearly all of the pine across the U.S., and over 700,000 jobs throughout Oregon, on both federal and private lands. New federal regulations, along with increased competition from Canada and the Southeast U.S., led to a decline in the Oregon timber industry, which now accounts for around 250,000 jobs, mostly on private land. I have yet to research the numbers on fish production, but I’ve heard that a similar decline occurred, with the U.S. now importing a lot of their fish from international waters.

So as many organizations, including WRCA, attempt to launch conservation programs throughout the region, they are faced with the same farmer verses conservationist debate. How can we address social, economic and environmental problems? Can we avoid repeating exploitive resource practices? Furthermore, what would programs look like if the greatest weight was placed on the social and environmental aspects of sustainability? Would they survive? Encouragingly, it seems like many of the organizations that we work with are conservationists at heart, and also realize the importance social and economic development. They, too, are attempting to find a middle ground and reach a solution that contains all three principles.

It’s very exciting and enlightening to work at the forefront of this debate that I’ve continuously discussed in classrooms. I don’t have an answer to any of the questions that I brought up, but I think I’ll have a lot more light shed on possible solutions by the end of my Sea Grant experience, and I’m excited to continue to ponder these big questions. To help me ponder, I’d love to hear your thoughts on any topics discussed.

This week I received more information about the CBRAT project and settled into my research duties. I am starting with the effects of ocean acidification on decapods (shrimp, true crabs, hermit crabs etc.). Decapods are relatively well studied compared to other marine taxa because of their economic importance, however, they are a diverse group of organisms and have varied adaptations for living in a low pH environment. I have a lot of papers to get through and I hope some clear trends will reveal themselves in the coming weeks.

Favorite sunset shot of the week from the Yaquina Bay Bridge

Every now and then it is necessary to take a short mental break from reading scientific journals. Fortunately, my office looks out on the courtyard that is frequented by several varieties of colorful finches, hummingbirds, one large out of place seagull and European starlings. I know I promised marine organism fun facts, however, my favorite organism fact I learned this week is terrestrial. My office mate, Maya, another intern with expertise in identifying the regional wildlife told me all about how European Starlings were brought over in the 1890’s in an attempt to bring all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to the Americas. Starlings were first introduced in Central Park, now there are over 200 million taking over North America. They are highly invasive species with a range spanning the entire US where they outcompete native birds for space. Who knew such an inconspicuous little black bird would have such an interesting story.

An epic face-off about to begin

In my free time I have been exploring Newport’s beaches, which has yielded some fascinating wildlife encounters. I spent a good amount of time watching a seagull have his beak snapped at as he attempted to eat a very much still alive crab twice the size of his head, a turkey vulture stealing a dead fish from a flock of seagulls (tough week for seagulls), seals lazing about the tide pools and the highlight of my week, spotting three Orcas heading into the Bay after sunset.

This Saturday was World Ocean Day and what better way to spend it than tide pooling in the morning and wandering through the Oregon Coast Aquarium with the other interns all afternoon. We finished off the weekend with some light hiking Sunday afternoon around the coast. All in all Its been a great week.

By the way, if you somehow missed out on properly celebrating World Ocean Day go pick up some trash off of your local beach or checkout what these awesome marine advocacy groups have to say: World Ocean Day, 5 Gyres.

Last week for me can be described in two words: field work. I was able to get outside and work on a different project each day. I started off my week by assisting South Slough lab technicians in the retrieval of SONDES water quality sensors located along tide gates in the upper Coos estuary. In the following days, I tagged along with Fisheries Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW). My first day with ODFW consisted of fish seining at five sites throughout the estuary. The main goal of this work was to monitor the size and abundance of chinook salmon smolt. The next day I traveled with ODFW Biologists South to The Devil’s Backbone for littleneck clam population assessments. Working alongside these biologist taught me a great deal about the coastal species found on Oregon’s coast and the methods used to manage their populations. I concluded my week by analyzing settlement plates as part of an Olympia Oyster monitoring project and scouting out potential sample sites for my personal research project that I will begin this week.

I have decided to complete my own research project this summer on the European Green grab’s presence in the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. Green crabs have invaded the waters of the United States’ Atlantic and Pacific coasts. For years green crabs on California’s coast were unable to establish populations in Oregon and Washington due to colder waters. The invasive crab was first discovered in the Pacific Northwest in 1998 after an El Nino event which temporarily warmed waters long enough to allow the species to move North. The magnitude of the 2015/2016 El Nino is the largest since 1998 and incidental landings of green crabs in the Coos estuary have increased. I plan to compare my results to data collected from a previous green crab population assessment in South Slough conducted after the 1998 El Nino. The results of my study have potential importance in the management of dungeness crab fisheries as european green crabs have been shown to outcompete the less aggressive, commercially important native species.

I leave you with a picture of a garter snake I found just outside of my yurt a few mornings back. Follow my instagram account @CollinHoldingCreatures for more pictures of animals I encounter throughout my field work.

pic.twitter.com/HXgTm1ryQE

— Collin Williams (@Capn_Collin) June 27, 2016