Current Research Blogs
Zoe's Blog
Zoe Hosford, graduate student
1 October 2024
Hi all!
My name is Zoe Hosford (she/her), and I am a new graduate student here at Western, joining the MMEL as a biology master’s student! Getting to graduate school to continue my education in marine science with the right program and advisors has been on the horizon for a while!
I graduated with a B.S. in marine science with a concentration in marine biology from the University of Maine in 2023. While in undergrad, I had the opportunity to spend a semester studying in Alaska, completing a marine mammal intensive semester, getting experience with the Alaska SeaLife Center Stranding response program, Dr. Benjamin Weitzman and the USFWS responding to sea otter strandings in and around Homer, AK, and working with the Alaska Beluga Monitoring Partnership to monitor the Kenai River for Cook Inlet beluga whales along with completing eDNA filtering for Cook Inlet beluga whales to determine foraging habits. I also got to complete a full skeletal articulation of an adult beluga whale which is now displayed in the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, AK. Post-grad I have been very fortunate to continue within the marine mammal field in Maine and Florida, working with Allied Whale in Bar Harbor, ME and the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program in Sarasota, FL. I have done copious amounts of work in marine mammal behavioral analysis and necropsies, along with assisting with the management of the North Atlantic humpback whale and fin whale catalogs and living and working at an offshore research station completing marine mammal surveys. But also investigating bottlenose dolphin population dynamics via photo ID, prey and habitat use via purse seine sampling and passive acoustic monitoring. Most recently, I had the privilege of assisting the Maine Department of Marine Resources completing surveys for the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Growing up on the coast of Maine and being very exposed to the coast along with a myriad of environmental sciences throughout my life, I have been very fortunate with my exposure and experience in a specific field I have always been so intrigued by!
I am so excited to start my graduate thesis investigating the influence that the increased presence of transient killer whales has on the haul-out distribution of harbor seals in the Salish Sea over time. I will be utilizing historical seal survey, and aerial survey data, along with opportunistic data in order to analyze and model the relationship between the two species, and potentially down the line, investigating how this has affected relatedness in haul-out structure and foraging behavior.
I haven’t been in Bellingham for long, but so far, I have felt so welcomed by everyone in the biology department at Western. Everything is already very busy, teaching a biology lab, working on my thesis outline and starting my own courses, but I cannot wait for the next 2 years to unfold!
Until next month!
Zoe
Dawson's Blog
Dawson Little, graduate student
1 October 2024
Hi y'all, my name is Dawson (he/him/his). This Fall, I'm starting my first quarter at Western and joining the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab as a master’s student co-advised by Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez and Dr. Dietmar Schwarz. I'm greatly looking forward to this opportunity as pursuing a graduate degree in marine ecology has been something I've worked towards for a long time. I was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Appalachia. I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2021 with a B.S in Environmental Science with a specialization in Environmental and Biological Conservation. For the last two years, I’ve worked as a biologist for the Makah Tribe in Washington studying ways to combat and monitor the spread of invasive European green crab. My prior research experiences have involved the nesting ecology of mason bees, the species delimitation and distribution of cryptic mason bees, the chemical cues and mating behavior of fungus beetles, marsh fiddler crab predator-prey dynamics, and the long term monitoring of salt marshes and wild/scenic rivers.
I'm very grateful to be continuing my work with the tribe during my time in the lab as well as continuing the work of a previous master's student, Bobbie Buzzell. I will be studying the potential of river otters to act as a biotic control for invasive green crab on the Makah Indian Reservation. In addition to Alejandro and Dietmar, I will be advised by the tribe's marine ecologist, Adrianne Akmaijan, who is an alum of the MMEL! For my graduate thesis, I will be collecting otter scats by noninvasive latrine surveys from two estuaries on the reservation and then analyzing scats via molecular analysis to ascertain the proportion of green crab in their diet. I will also be investigating the caloric value of green crab as a prey item in addition to estimating the level of consumption of green crab by river otters. So far, I have started classes as well as written drafts of my project outline and proposal introduction. I'm still in the works of transporting samples and processing supplies to the lab in Bellingham to begin preparation for genetic analyses. I feel very fortunate to be here and am greatly looking forward to getting to know everyone in the lab while integrating into the academic community at Western!
Best,
Dawson
Rachel's Blog
Rachel Strober, undergraduate student
1 October 2024
Hi everyone,
Happy beginning of fall quarter! Although summer was a much needed break, I am excited to be back in classes and it’s great to see campus so lively again! Whatcom Creek has been busy as well with increased seal activity and some feeding happening! We’re just getting the fall schedule going with frequent observations involving everyone in the lab again, and I am hopeful that we will continue to see more activity as we get further into the season. As far as my project is going, I am still formulating an outline and developing skills by helping finish up a previous seal diet study with Dr. Erin D’Agnes and the graduate students. Once new primers come in I will be finishing up with PCR and sending the samples off for sequencing. Then, I hope to get trained and approved for performing qPCR, which I will be using for my sea lion diet study.
The new MMEL Instagram was officially launched last Friday so if you have not followed us yet I encourage you to do so! We have a lot of content in the works that should be fun, exciting, and informational as we show off some of the things we do in the lab and introduce our leadership.
Also, something very cool I was able to attend last week was a friend of mine’s gallery showing off her newest piece relating art and science. She created various art pieces out of bioplastic she hand-made from algae. With a blend of various kinds of algae and certain chemicals, she was able to make an elastic plastic material portraying different designs within it. The algae art is up through October 3rd in Western’s B gallery so I encourage you all to go check it out! It’s super interesting! I included a piece in this post for a sneak peak.
Algal Interpretations by Myrie Murphy.
I hope the start of your quarter is going well!
Until next time,
Rachel
Maren's Blog
Maren Duffy, undergraduate student
1 October 2024
Hello!
September has gone by extremely fast. Haley and I finished up our summer grants and just completed our poster to present at the SURP poster season on Friday, October 4th. While I am certainly looking forward to the classes I am taking, my schedule this quarter is very busy. I am taking Alejandro’s Biology of Marine Mammals class and we are headed out on the WWU boat in Skyline Marina for a field trip on the 5th and I am really looking forward to getting back out on the water before the weather gets bad.
Haley and I are currently working on developing and improving our maps, as well as collecting more data on salmon runs around each haul out site. We have reached out to folks in WDFW and received some helpful advice and direction as we continue to develop our data.
Lab meetings have also started up again and it was nice to see everyone’s faces. I have a couple observations coming up and am excited to get out to the creek. The salmon are running and it is always great to see the seals feeding!
Until next time,
Maren
Haley's Blog
Haley Recob, undergraduate student
1 October 2024
Hi everyone
Fall quarter has officially begun! It’s been so great getting back on campus and seeing everyone in the lab again. I am sad to see summer go but it’s been nice to get back into the swing of things.
September has been a very productive month. Maren and I have been fine preparing a poster for the Summer Undergraduate Research Program’s poster session (This Friday at 4 pm in the IS building if anyone is interested)! We are going to present our research from this summer. We have created maps of marina and salmon run density and their proximity to the haul out sites. So far, we can see preliminary results patterns from the heat density maps. Our hypothesis that male dominated haul out sites will be in areas of higher marina density seems to correlate with the heat density map data. It is a little bit more challenging to justify a result with the salmon run density map as we have yet to obtain salmon abundance data. After we present this Friday, I hope we can soon reach out to folks who know more about salmon run abundance for advice on where we can source more specific information.
September has been a great month for data collection at Whatcom Creek as well. The chinook salmon have finally returned! As expected, more harbor seals have been seen in the creek during this time compared to the rest of the summer. I am so glad that we got the chance to record data for the summer. Now with everyone back in the lab, we will be able to conduct observations nearly every day. I am very excited to see what October will bring!
That's all for now,
Haley
Ellie's Blog
Ellie Taylor, undergraduate student
1 October 2024
Hi all,
It’s great to be back on campus and I’ve been loving seeing everyone in the lab! I spent my last few weeks of summer traveling home to see family, doing lots of rock climbing (before the rain comes), and going on many long hikes! I also got the chance to join WDWF’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network on one of their stranding expeditions. Maren, Olivia, and I were able to go out to the peninsula with them to comb the shoreline for stranded marine mammals and offer them assistance or perform a necropsy to collect data. My team hiked the Ozette Triangle trail and found a seal pup that had fallen victim to a shark attack. It was an amazing learning opportunity to get to see a necropsy be performed in the field and to talk with so many successful marine scientists. We also got to assist on a necropsy on beavers for a study assessing how to introduce beaver species into waterways without spreading disease. I am very thankful for Alex inviting us on this experience and the whole WDFW team for welcoming us and answering all our questions!
Stranding hikes in the Olympic National Park this month were amazing scenic views again but unfortunately/fortunately no fresh harbor seal strandings to add to my sample scheme for genetics. An incredible educational event did happen though that Haley and I were fortunate enough to observe and even aid in the necropsy…a pregnant adult female Pygmy Sperm Whale stranded on the coast. It was an incredible opportunity to learn anatomy and so much more from such an incredible deep-diving marine mammal. Deepest diving marine mammal right away pinnipeds (Southern Elephant Seals!). Additionally last week was one of the most surreal field weeks as I also witnessed my first Orca pod sighting! Washington’s waters cease to amaze my mind, heart, and soul for these capable creatures. The Orcas we sighted seemed to be from the transient population and the male dorsal fin is as dramatically straight and tall as pictures!!! What a week. Lesson to learn about field work in Washington though, you can catch a cold even in the middle of summer. Without proper field gear, its easy to get the sniffles and more after a week in the wet and cold field... Worth it to me still.
This week is the first week of Fall log pond observations, and I am so excited to be working with this group of research assistants. Most of them dedicated their time over the summer to continue observations for the lab, which makes the transition into fall quarter very smooth.
I am sure this quarter will be busy and hectic as they always seem to be, but I am super excited to everything that comes out of the lab this year!
Cheers,
Ellie
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 September 2024
Hi everyone!
Fall quarter is in full swing and campus is bustling once again! I am looking forward to the lab being back into full swing and getting to catch up with everyone! I am excited to have a productive fall quarter as I begin to finish up lab work and get to solely focus on writing soon!
As for recent updates, I have been in contact with the Vancouver BC aquarium to conduct control harbor seal eDNA sampling! I got the chance to tour the rehab/research facility and meet one of the veterinarians on site to nail down a sampling protocol. The facility is extraordinary, and I am looking forward to spending more time at the rehab center later this month while I conduct sampling. The facility was taking care of around 50 seals when I visited, and it was very informative to see how they partition the seals depending on age/capabilities. Updates to come next month on how the sampling worked out so make sure to check back! I have a lot of preparation ahead of me to pull this off so wish me luck! Besides Vancouver sampling, I have been focusing on mock mixed samples and continue to problem solve using qPCR results. I hope to get the mock mixed sample results this month and can focus on getting the methods for it written!
Thanks for reading!
Victoria
Alexandrea's Blog
Alexandrea Otto, graduate student
1 October 2024
Well Hello,
WE HAVE DATA!!! I REPEAT, WE HAVE DATA!!! I have finally received sequencing data back from the WDFW Genetics Lab in Olympia, WA (for my samples and not just for SNP primer optimization). Totaling around 260 mostly tissue samples, I am so psyched to dive into the GTSeq genotyping data and have a look to investigate any genetic population structure present in these harbor seal samples I’ve collected over the past two years now! To have data is a big relief as a graduate student and an exciting step as a scientist! With this hurdle of waiting and trying to get data in the thesis project passed, I feel energized as I can see the end now and write up my last edited thesis draft timeline and data analyses timeline. I feel the momentum and movement in my thesis project more than ever to finish strong and soon! Now its time to dive into data analysis and begin to make further developments in draft writing.
Besides thesis updates, school is back in session and I recently got the opportunity to travel with Victoria to Vancouver and meet with the Vancouver Aquarium and Rescue & Rehab Center! Never in my wildest Nebraskan dreams would I believe I would travel international into Canadian soil and get the chance to talk to scientists and see the amazing marine mammal work being done up North. I am both so excited for Victoria’s cool new study coming up and in awe of the tremendous work the Vancouver Rescue & Rehab does for harbor seal pups with over a 90% success rehabilitation rate! Even the seals had new hat tags made out of biodegradable materials and cut in the shape of hearts that were engineered by a volunteer! Additionally seeing the difference in fur colorations in the harbor seal pups further North were interesting to say the least- a little darker coloration it seems like from other pups I’ve witnessed down South. All to say, excited to for Victoria’s project coming up!
Besides all those exciting updates, it is also exciting to welcome Zoe and Dawson in the MMEL group and family! Zoe’s made a similar cross-country trek I made over two years ago but from even further -Maine! And Dawson is from right here in Washington, already finishing his first thesis field work season strong! So incredibly excited to work with and see in the halls of Biology and the lab Zoe & Dawson with this neat overlap in our graduate studies in the MMEL!
Till Next Time,
Alex