AUGUST 2024
Maren's Blog
Maren Duffy, undergraduate student
1 August 2024
Hello!
It is wild that it is almost August, time has passed very quickly. Haley and I have been chugging along at our project, currently expanding our lists of various disturbance sources, including marinas, kayaking companies, construction sites and boat launches. We have been using mapping programs like GIS and Google Maps to measure areas and distances from the individual haul-out sites. Alongside this, I have been getting a lot of reading in, currently learning more about salmon and the various species’ patterns in the Puget Sound/Salish Sea.
We also have been participating in the SURP activities, which has been pretty cool to get to know other undergrads. The program visited Seattle on July 17th, and we got tours by researchers of various labs at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, which was a really cool opportunity. We also got to check out some labs at UW, and their greenhouse section, which was incredible. It was really interesting to hear about all the different pathways after finishing up at Western.
I am looking forward to the next couple weeks, where I will be visiting my family in Alaska for a bit and getting out to Homer, Alaska to fish and camp. It's a family trip that we go on every year and there are always cool marine mammals to spot. Growing up, I have had some incredible experiences with Steller sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters out there, so I am excited to get out and observe some behavior this year with my knowledge from the project in mind. We also get to get our subsistence catch of red salmon for the year in Kachemak Bay, and it is always a special experience catching and harvesting the fish, it means a lot to me!
Until next month,
Maren
Haley's Blog
Haley Recob, undergraduate student
1 August 2024
Hi everyone!
Summer has been very eventful so far. This past month I have done lots of traveling down to San Jose, Monterey Bay (and Monterey Bay aquarium!!), Northern Idaho, Seattle, the Olympic National Forest, and of course many trips to Whatcom Creek! With The Summer Undergraduate Research Program, we got to take an exciting trip down to Seattle to see the Fred Hutcherson research facilities as well as some of the UW research labs. We got to connect with some senior scientists and learn about the differences between research in the industry vs in academia. This trip was very informative and was interesting to see how different research labs are run. Also! This past week, I had the opportunity to volunteer with WDFW to perform a stranded marine mammal survey. I traveled to Forks where I stayed overnight and met up with Isabel, Alex, and Vic. After a few bumps in the road, Isabel drove to the Ozette triangle trailhead and hiked about 11 miles, searching for stranded marine mammals. We ended up not finding any strandings, which was bittersweet (bitter for us but sweet for the marine mammals!). Learning how to survey and hiking alongside Isabel, as well as the Olympic National Parks wildlife biologist, was a really cool experience. I hope I get the opportunity to volunteer with the stranding network again. Thank you to Alex for giving us this opportunity!!
As for things in Bellingham, the Whatcom Creek project has been starting to ramp up again as we get closer to the beginning of the Chinook run. The volunteers have been working hard and putting in the hours, collecting lots of data. Unfortunately, though, no one has seen any harbor seals during summer observation yet as most of them have been at low tide. But I am hopeful! I know our log pond peers have been seeing pups and lots of activity on the others side of the waterway.
Maren and I have been working hard on our independent project as well. After reading many research papers about human disturbance, we have started to focus on certain parameters of human disturbance like marinas and boat launches and measure their distance from the harbor seal haul out sites. For each haul out site, we are looking at how far away the disturbances are in a radius of about 30 miles. We hope that we can create a density map of the disturbances in relation to the haul out sites. Soon, we plan on doing the same thing for salmon runs. We want to measure the distance nearby salmon runs are to each haul out site while also taking into account the species of salmon. Eventually, we are going to get into the nitty gritty of data analysis and compare our mapping measurements to the harbor seal sex ratio data collected from our collaborators. It will be interesting to take into account the seasonal variation as well.
That's all for now,
Haley Recob
The start of the intertidal zone of the Ozette Trail Triangle that Isabel and I surveyed at low tide. Photo taken by H. Recob.
Me after surveying, at the end of the intertidal zone of the Ozette Triangle Trail at high tide. Photo Taken by Dan J, the Olympic National Park Ranger.
Rachel's Blog
Rachel Strober, undergraduate student
1 August 2024
Hi everyone,
Happy end of July! We are lucky to have had some great weather this summer and I am hopeful that you all have been enjoying it outside! I have had a busy month filled with a mix of lab work, a new job, and a ton of random fun. In the lab, Victoria, Alex, Heidi, and I are continuing to help out with the seal diet study. We have been homogenizing fish tissue and performing tissue and scat DNA extractions, along with other tasks for the project. My primers finally came in as well, which will now allow me to start practicing PCR for my independent project!! Vic and Alex are going to teach me all there is to know about PCR before I move on to qPCR, which I will be doing the most of during my project on the sex ratio of salmon in the diet of sea lions.
The summer Whatcom Creek research team has also been continuing observations, and Haley and I are hopeful to keep increasing their frequency as the salmon runs begin. Additionally, keep your eye out as our new MMEL instagram account is soon to be launched! Chloe and Siena have been hard at work formulating ideas and getting the account ready, and I am happy to be helping them out as well. Many fun ideas have been constructed that incorporate both old MMEL traditions, such as seal photo of the week, with new ideas, such as one that depicts a day in the life of an MMEL member.
As far as random fun goes, I have been spending time swimming and exploring new Bham spots with roommates, going to concerts (we love you Noah Kahn), and playing tons of beach volleyball. All in all, I am very excited for everything that is happening in the lab and I am happy to be able to share it with you all as it progresses!
Thank you for reading!
Rachel
Ellie's Blog
Ellie Taylor, undergraduate student
1 August 2024
Hi everyone!
Summer observations are in full swing at the log pond, we’ve been seeing lots of seals and pups swimming around!
As for myself, I’ve been working on the Skagit trail crew! We build new trails, upkeep current trails, and remove invasive species all over the Skagit valley. I love getting to be outside all day and am learning lots about our native trees and plants. In between work trips with the crew, I’ve been trying to read as much literature as possible on the marine mammal gut microbiota. I am still in a rabbit hole of brainstorming ideas for my independent project but am so excited about all the possibilities I have.
Hope you all are enjoying the sunshine!
Ellie
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 August 2024
Hello again!
July has been an extremely busy yet rewarding month. I have jumped back into lab work and it feels good to continue growing my genetic technique skills! I have been helping complete harbor seal scat extractions for a pinniped diet study. I have worked with a lot of scats in the past, but this is the first time working with marine mammal scats! Harbor seal scat is stored in glass bottles filled with ethanol allowing for easy visualization. When pulling the samples from the freezer I noticed they had a variety of colors which may be due to different prey types present within the scat! Below is a photo of the scat gradient! Personally, I think it is quite interesting!
Color gradient of seal scat. Photo by V. Vinecke.
Speaking of lab work, I have been working on my mock mixed samples using synthetic DNA! I am still figuring out the right concentrations to mimic the range my chromosomal X and Y eDNA samples amplify at. Once that has been narrowed in on, I can then move onto creating my mixed samples!
I had the opportunity to volunteer with WDFW to hike the Olympic coast beaches in search of stranded marine mammals. We hiked eleven miles, searched two beaches, and I am happy to report we did not find any stranded marine mammals! We did find a giant lingcod washed up on shore which was quite interesting to see. The view from the beaches was breath taking and it was a blast getting to see a bunch of tidepool species! Below is a photo taken at “second beach” along with coast of Washington!
Second beach. Photo by V. Vinecke.
Lastly, I have sent off my second draft of my thesis introduction and methods to Alejandro and Dietmar! I am eager to continue writing and have been enjoying thinking critically about my project. I am excited to start digging into my results and hopefully find patters regarding sex and salmon consumption! Those are all the updates I have for now! See you next month!
Until next time,
Victoria
Alexandreas's Blog
Alexandrea Otto, graduate student
1 August 2024
Well Hello
July was just as eventful as last month! Since last month, I did again hear back from SMM for the upcoming conference in Perth in the fall and a spot for a speed talk presentation opened up! Additionally, there will be a second round of funding that may provide a small chance and opportunity to receive student aid funds still, fingers crossed!
Before any of that though, I need data!!! Luckily, I have finally handed off (hopefully) the last set of pooled SNP primers to the WDFW Genetics Lab in Olympia, WA!!! I am diving into code again now but in another vein of science-statistics! I’m looking forward to the change of coding “mode”.
I cannot yet bring myself to belief that our past wonderful undergraduate lab managers are graduated from the lab now! Luckily we all met up recently to catch up and everyone is doing very well (-: I will continue to work on my formal goodbye section for them until next month, with additional news/pictures from this summers volunteer work with the marine mammal stranding network!
Til next month with even more updates to come!
Alexandrea