Current Research Blogs
Anna's Blog
Anna Gilboard, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Hi everyone!
October has arrived, and I’ve officially settled back into the rhythm of school(kinda). Between classes, research planning, and lab responsibilities, it’s been a packed but exciting start to the fall quarter.
Since my last update, the biggest milestone in my honors capstone progress has been getting the green light from The Whale Museum’s stranding team to access their dataset. I’ve been corresponding with Research Director Jessica Farrer, and we’re currently working on narrowing down my research question and deciding what data is best suited for my research. I’m really looking forward to diving into the dataset once I receive it!
While I haven’t started analyzing strandings in the San Juans yet, I’ve been laying a strong foundation: finalizing my project proposal, reviewing relevant literature on pinniped strandings, and human-wildlife conflict in the Salish Sea. It’s helped me feel more prepared and focused on the conservation goals behind my project. Once I have the data in hand, I’ll hopefully begin examining the seasonal and spatial trends in strandings and explore whether these events correlate with human activity like boating, tourism, and coastal recreation.
Outside of research, the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab, and school, I adopted a cat! Her name is Stevie, named after the iconic Stevie Nicks and I am obsessed with her. Very exciting!
That’s all from me for now. I’ll check back in next month once I’ve had a chance to start working with the stranding dataset.
Thanks for reading,
Anna
Dawson's Blog
Dawson Little, graduate student
1 October 2025
Hi y'all,
September was a month of transition, shifting from constant fieldwork to focused time at the bench and behind the computer. After a summer centered on trapping and sample collection, this was the month to slow down, get organized, and lay the groundwork for the molecular phase of my project.
I finished setting up our molecular workspace on the Reservation. That included final placement of equipment, labeling and staging of reagents, and the full cleanout and wipe protocol to establish a reliable baseline. I set clear zones for pre PCR and post PCR activities to reduce contamination risk, added fresh bench liners, and stocked dedicated pipettes and filter tips for each area. Freezers and fridges are now inventoried with lot numbers and expiration dates, and I created simple bin labels so supplies are easy to find and easy to restock.
I also finalized the step by step plan for DNA extractions from otter scat. The workflow now specifies tube labeling conventions, swab handling, lysis conditions, inhibitor management, spin column steps, and elution volumes. I built in quality control checkpoints at logical points, including extraction blanks, negative controls, and a small set of positive checks, along with a tracking sheet for yield notes and inhibition flags. The idea is to surface problems early and keep each run consistent so downstream analyses are easier to interpret.
A major win this month was settling on a genetic marker that performs well for my study system. I have been working with former MMEL member, Erin D’Agnese at Wild EcoHealth, to refine marker selection and overall methodology, comparing candidate markers for coverage of the estuarine taxa we care about and for expected resolution in mixed diet samples. That collaboration helped narrow the choice to a marker with strong performance for our focal species and with reference data that will support reliable assignments once sequencing begins.
While most of my time has been in the lab or on the computer, the field still contributed useful context through trail cameras at otter latrines. I captured a number of clear videos this month that help document site use, timing of visits, and repeat individuals. These clips are already informing how I schedule collections and will give helpful behavioral context when I interpret the diet data from scat. They are also a good reminder of the animals at the center of this work on the days that are mostly spreadsheets and checklists.
I rounded out the month by writing short standard operating procedures for bench setup, daily cleanup, and waste handling, along with a quick start checklist for extraction days. I also drafted a simple sample intake form so each scat sample moves through the same steps, and I set up a versioned folder structure for data and notes to keep analyses reproducible. Overall, September was about building capacity and locking in methods. The lab is ready, the extraction playbook is set, and the marker decision is made. This groundwork sets me up to begin extractions and move the molecular analysis forward this October with a clear plan and a space that supports it.
Best,
Dawson
Ellie's Blog
Ellie Taylor, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Hello and welcome back to school!
While summer will be missed, I am so happy to be back on campus and back to lab work! Earlier this month I went back home to Southern California to visit some family and the beloved Californian sea lions, Zalophus californianus (see attached photo). They are very territorial, so it was very exciting to watch them defend the beach from any seals or other creatures swimming nearby. While I was home I also got to see common dolphins, Delphinus delphis playing out in the waves.
California sea lions in southern California. Photo by E. Taylor.
This week I worked with Dietmar Schwarz to perform a qPCR run on our control scats (know sex collections from the Oregon Zoo) to test our new probes and primers (targeting the ZFX and SRY genes). The results validated the probes and primers, and we can now begin using them to identify the sex of the collected scats. This is a huge step forward for us, especially given all the trial and error that we worked through in the spring.
As for the log pond, I want to express my gratitude once again to all the lab managers and researchers that contributed time towards the lab this summer! I have been working to get all of their data entered into the lab's long-term dataset, to hopefully be used in future studies. Since late summer/ early fall is one of the busiest times in the Log Pond, we wasted no time and started fall observations this previous Monday.
Until next month,
Ellie
Siena's Blog
Siena Gorohoff, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Hi! School's back and we’re all in classes again! It’s been nice to see everyone back in the lab and around campus. The first few weeks of classes always feel a bit chaotic but I’m looking forward to getting used to the new schedule, especially with so much more to do in the lab. Before this quarter started, I got to do one last summer observation at the start of September and we got to see a few seals hanging around the creek which feels like a good sign for the fall observation coming up soon.
Fall observations on Whatcom Creek are starting again this week and I think I’ll be on one of the first of the season which should be super fun, the salmon have been coming back to the creek and even in the summer we were starting to see seal activity. I’m also looking forward to starting to work with the data on the project Chloe and I are working on. I’m definitely expecting to have a pretty busy fall, with seal observations, classes, and working on our project. It's going to be a lot of work, but at the same time it’s all pretty exciting.
That’s all I’ve got for this month. Right now is a busy season but soon the project will be taking off and maybe there will be cool updates about that.
Happy Fall!
Siena
Chloe's Blog
Chloe Bentley, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Hi Everyone!
We are finally back in school! It's been exciting starting back up and getting back into the groove of things. I've been traveling so it is nice to settle back down in WA. I have a lot of classes this quarter, but they are all in my field of interest so it has been fun. Siena and I are in the process of getting data from The Whale Museum. We plan to sort through the data to gage the scope of the project and are ready to dive headfirst into this project. We can't wait to see where it goes!
This week is the beginning of fall quarter observations for Whatcom Creek, and everyone is excited to see the salmon return. Hopefully we will observe lots of seals! It is always so impressive to see how they hunt; my favorite is when they roll over on their backs to get a better view of their prey. Unfortunately I can't make it to the lab meetings this quarter because of classes, but I have heard that they are going great!
I can't wait to report back to you all about this upcoming month of observations!
Seals and Salmon
Chloe
Mallory's Blog
Mallory Stonier, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Happy fall!
I hope you all are enjoying the beginnings of fall weather as much as I am. The previous month has been hectic albeit exciting: I settled in post-move, finished summer observations, visited family, and even learned to feed baby squirrels. While I enjoyed my summer, I was antsy to get started again.
Once classes began, things got very busy, very fast. Even in the creek! Salmon are returning in what are predicted to be record numbers this fall at Whatcom Creek. We are seeing seals there hunting, too. I’ve enjoyed watching the Salmon run and climb the ladder before and after observations and when I find myself downtown in my free time. While Camryn and I power through data entry and our fall courses, we are planning to host a tour of the lab for a class of high school seniors this week. We are really looking forward to sharing what we do with them and hearing what kind of questions they have. Who knows, we could be speaking to future lab members! We have also been working with Siena and Chloe on the @wwu_mmel Instagram which is a lot of fun since we have lots of room for both creativity and sharing information that feels important to the lab as a community. Looking forward, we’re hoping to share more photos of our researchers in action and hear their input on what they’d like to see posted. While I have been very excited to see my fellow observers again in meetings and around WWU, it's been great to see campus so active and bustling again after such a quiet summer here in Bellingham in general.
Looking forward, I’m excited to delve into my classes more and hopefully next month begin to talk Smolt data trends with Camryn. We seem to have seen significantly less seals at the creek last Spring but still need to properly compare with two previous years of data. I also can’t wait for future lab social events such as our annual pumpkin carving!
Until next tide,
Mallory
Zoe's Blog
Zoe Hosford, graduate student
1 October 2025
Welcome back to campus!! It’s hard to believe September has already come and gone, and we are already almost 2 full weeks into the fall quarter! I’m doing my best to get back into the swing of school – classes, teaching, and thesis work – while still trying to enjoy the last little bit of good weather. I wrapped up my summer with a trip to Maine to see my family, which was a really good way to round it out, and officially start my 2nd year as a graduate student! (That is still weird to say.)
The school year has started off fast, as expected, with lots of catching up in the teaching lab, and the data world. I am working on finalizing some R code and heat map modeling for part of my thesis data to get a better understanding of possible trends in harbor seal haul-out usage, which will be a very big step for my project! I am very excited to see what this will look like very soon!
I am TA’ing for BIO 101 again this year! It will be very nice to go into teaching labs thoroughly knowing the content and knowing what to expect from students. I really enjoyed teaching 101 last year and am looking forward to getting to know my new students this upcoming year!
I think this next month will be a busy one!
Till next time,
Zoe
Camryn's Blog
Camryn Sumrok, undergraduate student
1 October 2025
Hello everyone!
Fall quarter has started and is going amazing so far! After a crazy and busy September, I am grateful to be back on campus and back in the lab. The classes I am taking are Fisheries Science, Wetlands Ecology, and Hope Agency and Climate Change. I am really enoying the content so far and am ecstatic to focus more on the marine science emphasis of my major.
The quarter just started last week and I am already doing incredible things in MMEL! Mallory and I have been working hard on the Smolt Project and can’t wait to share what we have learned and experienced. Our time has mainly been spent on inputting data into excel and editing our project outline. The MMEL social media (give it a follow @wwu_mmel) has really taken off and gained a lot of traction! We have been crafting some great posts and I love helping manage it. Lab leadership is looking forward to October as we have many ideas for lab events/hangouts! We aim to do pumpkin carving, cookie decorating, and other fun fall festivities so everyone in the lab can bond. I am currently helping Victoria Vinecke with her project on genetically identifying individual seals using eDNA and GTseq. It has been a huge privilege to get to go out in the field and help with research like this, and I am tremendously grateful to Vic for giving me the opportunity! This week, Mallory and I are giving a class of high school seniors a tour of the lab. We are very excited to show them all the incredible work we do and hopefully inspire them.
I hope everyone has a wonderful October! Happy fall!
Seals and Salmon,
Camryn