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.

Jumping Right Into Fieldwork Week One

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It has been a great first seven days in Newport, Oregon! I began my work at the US EPA Western Ecology Division last Monday. Immediately after finishing up the orientation with the Oregon Sea Grant, I was introduced to the labs and offices at the EPA and I then started in on the rigorous safety training required of EPA government employees. My mentor wasted no time in getting me finished with that part because he has ambitious plans for the research this summer, which I am excited to be a part of.

To briefly introduce myself, I’m Kate and I’m from Illinois, near Chicago. I go to a great school in that area, North Central College, where I major in Biology. Through this Oregon Sea Grant Scholar program, I was fortunate enough to work on the project I was most interested in studying nutrient uptake in tidal wetlands of the Pacific Northwest. Wetlands do the kind service of taking up nutrients from the water like reactive nitrogen that could be harmful to fish and other wildlife or that would cause harmful algal blooms. The experiments our lab group are doing will look at various parameters (nutrient concentration, ratio of one nutrient to another, habitat type, light, temperature) and see how nutrient uptake is affected by changing them.

Basically, I’m involved in three different things: doing experiments for the big, overall project where we will travel to estuaries all over the Oregon coast, assisting an REU intern with her independently designed experiment, and carrying out my own independent project, which she and others will assist me with. Our projects will take place in the local estuary here in Newport. Wednesday I was introduced to basic fieldwork techniques and then Thursday I was out at Alsea Bay taking measurements important for the master project. I learned quickly that field work requires a lot of planning and a lot of teamwork. We forgot the gas for the boat on Thursday, but thankfully we were only a twenty minute drive away when we realized it. Good thing we weren’t two hours away!

This coming week we are carrying out experiments at Salmon River and Tillamook Bay estuaries. We will also scout out good places to do our independent experiments in the Yaquina Bay estuary here. I also need to formulate my plan for the experiment I will be responsible for and then start preliminary testing later in the week. It sounds like a huge challenge as there is limited time and manpower to get quality data this summer. I need to be deliberate in whatever I do.

In the midst of all this work I’ve been enjoying the cool weather (in Chicago it is sweltering), playing tons of volleyball, meeting the neat people here at the HMSC, and exploring Newport and the beaches and trails around here. Next week should be good!

A Great Start

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It’s been a wonderful week! I eased into my position this week and because most of my work will require traveling and collecting data I spent most of my time learning how to go about this in the weeks ahead. My internship this summer is centered around figuring out how the  implementation of new marine reserves will affect the people in the communities surrounding them. I will be focusing on three locations along the coast; Cascade Head, Cape Perpetua, and Pacific City. Cascade Head and Cape Perpetua are slated to become Marine Reserves in combination with Marine Protected Areas in 2014. However, before these reserves go into effect, it is required that the government collect two years of baseline data on the use, economic implications, and human dimensions of the reserve, and this is where my job comes into play this summer.

My job is to help gather the baseline data in the form of pressure counts, local business interviews, and assistance with recreational fishing surveys. For the pressure counts, I will actually travel to the future marine reserve and count the number of visitors at the reserve each day. I will repeat this three times per day to give the government an idea of how many people use the area. I already traveled with my mentor, Melissa to Cape Perpetua and it is absolutely breathtaking! I couldn’t be happier to have my office this summer be the best beaches and vistas that Oregon has to offer. In between the pressure counts I plan to head over to local businesses in the area and interview them about their awareness and opinions of the proposed marine reserves.

I am also getting along really well with my mentor, Melissa Murphy. She graduated with the same degree as me from Oregon State (Environmental, Economics, and Policy) so I feel like it will be really helpful for me to get insight on her career path. Likewise, Melissa is very excited to have another economist in the office, because she claims that most everyone else in the Oregon Department of Wildlife are biologists and they don’t always see where she is coming from. While the people in the office work hard, they are also very relaxed and like to have fun. Melissa’s boss even offered to take me out surfing, she says they like to have “board meetings”….haha

Since we didn’t do pressure counts this week, I had some extra time to get settled in and explore the coast. I went hiking at Cape Perpetua, tide-pooling at Strawberry Hill, and slid down the sand dunes in Florence. I can’t wait to start pressure counts and see more of the coast in the weeks ahead!

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1: SHEMs, SOPs, and PFDs at the PCEB of the EPA

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Wow, what a week! After Thursday and Friday finals, moving out and cleaning out Saturday, and a Sunday afternoon graduation featuring First Lady Michelle Obama, Monday arrived with orientation with Sea Grant and the PCEB of the EPA at HMSC! That would be the Pacific Coastal Ecology Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency, located at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and yes, this is only the beginning of the dizzying array of acronyms I would encounter this week.

 

In turns out, working for the federal government involves some fairly extensive training. The EPA requires employees to undergo 24 hours of Safety, Health and Environmental Management training (SHEM). Once those 24 hours were completed, I was able to move on to the science paperwork and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)! Believe me, while not sounding incredibly interesting, these documents were a relief from the SHEM training. It was in these documents that I was able to see a glimpse of the future science I would be performing. Despite the endless amounts of paperwork that came through my door and unto my desk Tuesday, Wednesday, and into Thursday, I remained incredibly excited about the opportunity that I had received, and that excitement was rewarded on Friday.

 

On Friday I got my first taste of fieldwork with the EPA. We took the boat out with our personal flotation devices (PFDs) securely fastened and collected samples showing the effects of different nutrient solutions on the growth of periphyton. While this project was not the one I will be working on, it was an important opportunity to get familiar with some of the procedures and equipment that I will be using in my own project. My project will examine nutrient limitations on phytoplankton, and it begins next week! So stay tuned for next week’s post where I will have exciting descriptions of my experimental design, and hopefully some super cool pictures of my laboratory work! Believe me, this lab is neat. Think mesocosm. I have said too much! See you next week!

 

Hello Oregon, Hello clams!

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Boy, has it been a whirlwind first week here at the Hatfield. But before I get into that, here’s a brief introduction to myself and the job I’m doing.

My name is Maryna Sedoryk and I’m from the University of Califronia, Santa Cruz (you may have seen our fighting banana slug mascot, Sammy, around before). This summer I will be working under the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) on the Shellfish and Estuarine Habitat Assessment of Coastal Oregon (SEACOR: pronounced “seeker”) project. Basically we will be doing surveys in the Yaquina Bay to determine the location, abundance, and habitat preferences of recreationally important clams. I’ll also be working on a clam aging study.

So, back to the good stuff. My summer adventure officially began last Friday, June 15, which is the day my mom and I began our ~800 mile journey to Corvallis by car from Monterey, CA. We made a nice trip of it, enjoying the scenery and lots of beaches and state parks over a 2 day trip up the coast.

Monday we had our orientation and I finally got to see Sarah, Eric, and the rest of the Summer Scholars in person. I was really surprised at the diverse group we have. I am the only person from CA, but there are people from Utah, Maryland, and Illinois also! We also learned that a total of 40 students will be living at the Hatfield housing this summer! It will be quite a crowd!

I must admit, I was a little intimidated of what was going to be happening on Tuesday for my first day of work. I got an email on Friday from my mentor telling me to be prepared to be at the office at 5:30am for fieldwork. I liked the idea of having the chance to do fieldwork right away, because that is the fastest way to get a good understanding of what your job is. But I was also dreading that first morning because I would have to show up so early and get to know my team and figure out exactly what we were doing all while wandering around an unfamiliar environment.
Luckily, my colleagues are wonderfully nice and did their best to fill me in as we worked. I eventually figured out the easiest jobs and did those while I tried to figure out how everything else was completed. I spent Tuesday in the sandflats under the bridge, and Thursday in some sticky (…very sticky…) mudflats doing some RAM transects.

RAM=Rapid Assessment Method
RAM is basically the first step in doing the overall clam population study. It involves going to a randomly picked location and taking data such as sediment temperature, sediment type (mud/sand), and the species present for invertebrates, algae, and eelgrass. The whole process takes maybe 15 minutes per site – hence the “rapid”.

On Friday I had some real fun and got to go digging for clams! We were out at 7am (which felt awfully late after 5:30am & 6am start times earlier in the week!) and went to the flat behind the EPA office at Hatfield where we know gaper clams are found.
I have never dug for clams before in my life, so this was completely foreign to me. But eventually with the help of a shrimp gun and some careful digging I was able to pull a few out. I was very surprised at how delicate the shells actually are. I was told at the beginning to be careful with the shrimp gun because the water pressure could break the shell, but I broke a couple shells just from the pressure of my hand digging out the sand/mud! It was definitely a learning experience but I enjoyed sliding around in the mud and getting my hands dirty (and a little scraped up from shell fragments in the mud).

Now that I am more settled here, I’m hoping to have some time to explore the area in my free time. I went to the farmers market this morning with 2 of my housemates and we bought a big pot of herbs to grow and use all summer. Some other things we want to accomplish over the summer: surfing, ukelele, host a clambake, a trip to Seattle/Portland, and I’m sure we will think of more. Maybe we should make a big bucket list and hang it on our fridge… (and I would love recommendations!)

I’ll leave you with a picture of me with one of the gapers I dug up on Friday morning, this one with it’s shell intact.

 

 

~Maryna

 

Oregon…What is this place?

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As a native east coast resident of Maryland and having never been to Oregon or the Pacific coast really, I was shocked at what Oregon was like.  When I first arrived it was cold and rainy; while in Maryland it does rain a good bit during the summer, it’s mainly summer showers that come in large thunderstorms compared to a drizzle all day long.  This week I was trained at the Hatfield Marine Science Center with a boat load of things including leading an estuary walk, a presentation about detecting earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and various other things including fishery knowledge and animal husbandry.  All of this information was amazing because I learned so much not only about biology and education, but the Oregon coast as well.

I learned all about the cold upwelling that occurs in the Pacific ocean as well as the axial seamount that is created by the Pacific plate and Juan de Fuca plate spreading.  This axial seamount is an underwater volcano that we don’t worry about with mega thrust earthquakes or tsunamis because it regularly erupts compared to becoming pressurized and then having a mega thrust earthquake and volcanic eruption.  I’ve never been very interested in plate tectonics, earthquakes or volcanoes, but having to do a presentation about them has made me very interested and wonder more about them.  So much technology is being created to detect this events soon especially technologies that are used underwater.  Many challenges come with these technologies like the pressure of the water and the fact that the deep sea is dark.  Challenges have been seen throughout this week such as learning all this new information to start work on Saturday and learning more about the west coast so I can answer guest questions at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Next week is going to be a huge challenge because it will be the start of my actual job of leading estaury walks and working in the Marine Science Center.  I feel like I’m ready for some things, but not all since I’m not as familiar with the environment.  Yet, I have high hopes for all of us summer interns and I hope we’ll be able to learn more and more as the summer goes on.  Especially since while doing all of the 40 hour a week work, we also have to do a project and create a plan for it that’s due 2 weeks from now.  My life will certainly be busy to say the least, but i’m up for the challenge.  Playing volleyball, talking to home friends online and just getting to more people here at HMSC has really helped me get into the groove of things.  My hope is that only more fun is to come and that mosquitoes will go down in number.

 

Spring Transition

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This last term I took Comparative Embryology and Larval Biology taught by Dr. Maslakova at OIMB.  In the course we had the rare opportunity to witness first hand the development of many phyla of marine invertebrates.  We also maintained our own cultures of larvae changing their water and feeding them every other day.  The experience of  watching the organisms develop right before our very eyes was one I will never forget.  The class was very informative and I learned a lot about the development of many species.  One of the assignments in the class was to photograph the larva or embryo of an organism and write a brief blurb for the course blog.  I posted about crab zoea, barnacle nauplii and a polychaete called Polygordius.  I highly recommend that folks check out this blog and get a feel for what the larvae of many organisms look like.

 

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In my advisors previous research he found a correlation between the date of the year of the spring transition  and the amount of megalopae returning.  Our hypothesis is that upwelling that occurs following the spring transition brings the megalopae onto the shelf. My goal was to conduct a research cruise the week before the spring transition and a cruise the week after the spring transition to see if the number of megalopae on the shelf increased. Surface plankton samples and CTD casts were conducted on a 10 km transect perpendicular to shore.  We used a manta net (pictured to the left) to collect surface plankton tows.  The net works by skimming across the surface of the water collecting a sample just from the top fraction of water.

IMG_4084We conducted the tows at night and in the surface because previous research has found that the megalopae of Dungeness crabs inhabit the surface of the water column at night.  After deploying the net we towed it behind the boat for 10 minutes (picture to the right).  The cruise before the spring transition was rough and we had wind gusts to 45 knots. The entire crew did great and nobody got sea sick!!! The weather during the cruise the week after the spring transition was much calmer and was rather enjoyable.  We caught many interesting organisms such as salps and doliolids. The night we were out there was a great sunset and we all had the opportunity to watch it.  I am still in the process of analyzing the samples but will post again with the results later.

IMGP0017On April 2nd I put out our light trap to monitor recruitment of megalopae and I have been checking it daily. The photo to the left is of a sample collected on May 28th.  In the photo are approximately 60,000 megalopae that had climbed into the trap during the course of the night.  The recruitment events are highly pulsed and catch has ranged from 60,000 animals in a night to 0 animals in a night.