Current Research Blogs
Camryn's Blog
Camryn Sumrok, undergraduate student
1 May 2025
Hello everyone,
This is my very first blog post! I am beyond excited to be a co-manager with Mallory Stonier on the SMOLT project! The goal of our project is to examine how local harbor seals and their foraging behaviors are affected by the release of the juvenile hatchery-raised salmon at the Bellingham Technical College Hatchery. We have lab members participating in observations from 5:30 to 7:30 in the morning and 6:00 to 8:00 at night every day of the week. We are eternally grateful for all the help and support we are receiving from new lab members, old lab members, and Alejandro! It's been awesome getting to know the 24 new recruits we just hired, and we look forward to organizing fun activities for all lab members to get to know each other. The SMOLT training Mallory and I conducted went swimmingly, and all members in the lab are now familiar with our protocols, equipment, and datasheets for the project. Mallory and I have become very close friends from working on the project together, and I am so grateful for her! I will be continuing my molecular lab work for Erin D’Agnese and Victoria Vinecke this quarter. I aim to complete at least three hours of molecular work a week and will be working with Mallory on this as well. I am also really looking forward to attending the Northwest Student Chapter Society for Marine Mammalogy conference on May 3rd! Spring quarter is starting to ramp up, and I wish everyone the best on whatever project/schoolwork they are working on currently!
Until next time,
Camryn
Dawson's Blog
Dawson Little, graduate student
1 May 2025
Hi y'all,
April has been a month of major shifts in both my research and professional development. What started as a routine push forward quickly became a time to step back, rethink, and make important changes to my project.
On the research side, much of this month was spent reevaluating the original design of my thesis project. After encountering unexpected challenges with DNA extraction from the river otter scat samples I collected in 2023–2024, it became clear that some of my initial plans were no longer feasible. Rather than trying to force a path forward with unreliable data, I worked closely with my advisors and collaborators to redesign key parts of the project. That included triaging the available samples, adjusting the balance between molecular and hard-part analysis, and beginning to coordinate with a new laboratory partner for processing future collections. While it was frustrating at first to rework so much, it ultimately made the project much stronger and better aligned with the realities of the data.
At the same time, this month was filled with opportunities to share my work and connect with broader audiences. I spent much of April helping prepare for the upcoming Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM) conference, which will be held this weekend at Western Washington University. Along with my fellow lab members, I’ve been involved in planning and logistics for the event, and I’ll also be presenting on my river otter research. I’m really looking forward to being able to share the progress I’ve made so far and to hear about the exciting work being done by other students across the region.
In addition to the conference, I’ll also be participating in a guest lecture at Bellingham Technical College alongside fellow MMEL graduate students Alex and Victoria. Together, we’ll be giving a talk about the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab, our individual paths into marine science, and some of the broader topics within marine mammalogy. It’s been a lot of preparation, but I’m excited to have the chance to speak directly with students who might be interested in pursuing careers in marine biology themselves.
Looking back, this month has been a reminder that progress in research isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes the biggest steps forward happen when you allow yourself to rethink, redesign, and open the door to new opportunities. While it wasn’t the month I originally expected, it ended up being one of the most important and rewarding parts of my journey so far.
Best,
Dawson
Rachel's Blog
Rachel Strober, undergraduate student
1 May 2025
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying this nice spring weather! I love seeing everyone outside on campus taking in the sun. It has been a super eventful quarter for me both in the lab and in my classes. I recently had the opportunity to go on seal captures with the WDFW team, where I was helping Victoria with her eDNA collection. We unfortunately didn’t find any seals, but I was able to join in on the hunt for a stranded Dall’s porpoise, which we successfully found and retrieved. It was super cool to get to see one so up close and to watch its necropsy the next day! It was a great experience to work with a team of professionals out in the field, and they were all so welcoming!
Whatcom Creek has been active with the first batch of smolt recently released, and smolt observations are officially underway. It’s been really awesome to see how Mallory and Camryn are running the project and modifying it from past years. For my project, I am super excited to say I just printed my first poster! Although there are still very minimal results, the project seems to be coming together more and more. I recently ran the first PCR with my newly designed primers and am planning to run a gel with Victoria this week to test if it worked
Additionally, we are all very excited for the NWSSMM conference this weekend! The lab leadership has all been working super hard to get everything set up, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the work pay off. It will be awesome to learn about everyone's research and show my own at the poster session!
See you all next month,
Rachel
Mallory's Blog
Mallory Stonier, undrgraduate student
1 May 2025
Hi everyone! My name is Mallory Stonier and I'm from Vancouver, Washington. I have always been a wildlife enjoyer and became interested in working with mammals when I was young. I spent time over the summers at my family's cabin in the Northern Cascades, but it wasn't until I moved to Bellingham that I was introduced to the marine life that can be found here. I am a pre-veterinary student studying biochemistry and, in the future, would like to continue my research into wildlife veterinary and rehabilitation work.
Recently, Camryn and I have taken over the Smolt project that was started by Madison Gard in 2023 and continued by Jack Mezzone into 2024. The research focuses on the changes in seal foraging behavior before, during, and after the release of Chinook Salmon Smolt, or juvenile salmon, from the Bellingham Technical College Hatchery at Maritime Heritage Park migrating to Bellingham Bay. Over the last month, we have been busy with preparations for observations to begin. Observations occur every morning at 5:30h and every evening at 18:00h and each require six observers to record seal surfacing events from the hatchery and estuary out to the mouth of Bellingham Bay. Because of this, the busy work and planning have been difficult to say the least. We trained new undergraduate researchers, remodeled data sheets, coordinated gear and permits, and finally began our first observations on April 28th• We have 40 researchers helping us gather data which makes scheduling complicated, so I would like to thank Celia for all that she does. I also am incredibly grateful to be partnered up with Camryn, we are lucky to be both working together on the project and good friends simultaneously. Moving forward we are looking to define our hypotheses, possibly considering the differences between dawn and dusk behaviors and/or the effects of Smolt density during releases on foraging behaviors and are hopefully expecting the Chinook Smolt release in late May.
Mallory
Ellie's Blog
Ellie Taylor, undergraduate student
1 May 2025
Hello everyone,
The quarter has been once again flying by! Although it's hectic, spring is definitely my favorite time in the lab. This month I've trained all of our new Log pond research assistants, officially written my first abstract and research poster, extracted a lot of scat samples, learned new molecular techniques, and have been working with the other lab managers to plan the NWSSMM Conference! With the conference coming up this weekend, it's been my main focus recently and I'm very excited to learn about everyone's projects as well as get experience presenting about my own.
Observations at Log Pond have been slowly increasing with seal presence! We have lots of new researchers collecting data out there and I'm happy that the seals have been showing up to welcome them into the lab. Smolt observations have also started this week, so that site is going to be getting a lot more use than it normally does throughout May.
I'm very excited for what's to come in this next month! The conference will be starting the month off with a bang, then lots of time in the field doing smolt observations, and hopefully lots of time in the lab as well, validating sex primers for the river otter study with Dawson and continuing my labwork for WildEco Health.
Until next time,
Ellie
Haley's Blog
Haley Recob, undergraduate student
1 May 2025
Hi everyone!
I cannot believe we are already in week 5 of Spring quarter! It feels as though time has been moving at the speed of light. The weather has been getting warm in Bellingham, and I have been trying to spend as much time as possible outside.
After months of intense planning, the Northwest Student Society for Marine Mammalogy is finally here! Maren and I will be presenting a poster on our independent project. I am really grateful for the opportunity to help plan this conference and have an amazing MMEL management team. We would not be able to pull it off without everyone involved so kudos to you all! I am really excited to see the other students apart from the NWSSMM and hear about their research. Maren and I will also be presenting a poster and oral presentation at Scholars' Week with Alejandro and Dietmar.
Maren and I have been working as hard as ever to get the data for our project. We met with Professor Francisco Lasso who gave us great advice on how to find the distance from harbor seal haul out sites to salmon runs and marinas while excluding land in ArcGIS Pro. With the distance data we can now quantify which haul out sites are closest to the marinas and/or salmon runs and compare that to the sex ratios. Working through ArcGIS has been a journey, but I am grateful for all of the support we have gotten to work through it.
The Lab has been busy with field work as the smolt project has officially started! The new lab members are all mostly trained and starting to assist in the projects. We have started seeing seals at both Whatcom Creek and Log Pond which is really exciting. Mallory and Camryn have been working hard to get everything planned out and have been doing a great job. I am excited to see how the data collection will go for the rest of the month.
Until next time,
Haley
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 May 2025
Hey everyone!
It has been an extremely busy but exciting month! Lots of field work, lab work and conference planning. The beginning of April started off with harbor seal captures at Nisqually. Dietmar is currently on sabbatical and with extra time on his hands he was able to come out on captures to help with eDNA sampling for the individual identification project. It was his first time conducting marine mammal field work and it was a really successful day. We were able to get eDNA samples from five individuals! The past two attempts at Hood canal this month were unfortunately unsuccessful. I will be going out one more time next week in hopes of getting samples!
The NWSSMM conference is this weekend, and I am looking forward to meeting new people! I am also excited to spend time with current lab members and see some lab alumni who are attending! A lot of work has gone into preparing for the NWSSMM conference as we are hosting it this year. I will update with pictures next month!
Enjoy a photo of harbor seals hauled out during field work this month in the Puget Sound region. Until next time,
Victoria
Harbor seals sunbathing. Photo by V. Vinecke.
Maren's Blog
Maren Duffy, undergraduate student
1 May 2025
Hello!
Midway through the quarter and things are of course very busy. The data for the sex ratio project has been extracted from GIS and we have it in Excel now! The conference is in a couple days so we are finishing up on how to present what we’ve found, as well as last conference committee planning, and it is pretty exciting! It will be great to print our poster and finish up the conference, then move onto Scholar’s Week and my Honors Capstone presentation. Smolt has also started, so I have gone out on my first observation with some of the new lab members, and it’s great to meet folks who are also psyched on wildlife. Additionally, I have been continuing to work with Wild EcoHealth on DNA Extractions this quarter, working with Julia on weekly batches to help Vic with her tissue mixture samples.
Best,
Maren
Zoe's Blog
Zoe Hosford, graduate student
1 May 2025
Hi everyone,
Another quarter done – how is that possible?? The last month has been very very busy wrapping up the quarter, planning the NWSSMM conference, grading, doing research, and hiring new lab members. This means we officially have new amazing lab members, the conference is just over a month away, and the smolt project is starting very very soon – a very exciting time for MMEL! The last couple weeks of the quarter were pretty chaotic, making me very fortunate for spring break. During break, I had the opportunity to travel the Oregon Coast, which has always been a dream of mine. I am really enjoying being able to explore the West Coast since my move here in September!
I am in the midst of data exploration, looking at various ArcGIS layers of haul-out maps and TKW sightings, along with looking for potential trends and outliers in the data sets I am working with. Hopefully in the next month I will have made immense progress in my research and have a better understanding of what’s to come!
Till next month!
Zoe