JUNE 2024
Jasper's Blog
Jasper McCutcheon, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hi all,
Can you believe that it’s already June?! I certainly can’t, time seems to be blowing by. With graduation fast-approaching it is becoming a scramble to wrap everything up in time. I have finals to study for, final projects to make, data to analyze, research articles to read, field work to complete, trainings to lead, and of course the many emails that are always needing sending.
Enough about the terrifying future! I want to give a shout-out to all the people who helped organize and run this year’s Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM) conference. I had such an amazing time and learned more than I thought possible. I believe ten members from our lab were able to attend the conference, and it was great being able to spend time with them all outside of academia. The conference itself was packed with fascinating presentations from student researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Washington. There were also two amazing keynote speakers who are at the forefront of Southern Resident Killer Whale conservation efforts. They really opened my eyes to how extensive these efforts are at present. I am astonished by how much we can do for these animals; I just hope it is enough. Most of us from Western Washington University (WWU) participated in the poster session, which was a great introduction into presenting at conferences. The day after the conference we got a tour of the Sealife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research (SR3) facilities just outside of Seattle. Seeing first-hand how scientists are helping marine wildlife was truly inspiring and I am very thankful we got that opportunity. Overall, the conference was exactly what I had hoped for and so much more!
As the quarter comes to a close and my time at WWU wraps up, I will be working on getting as far into doing a literature review as I can while also continuing data analysis. I hope that this will give me the needed foundation to continue building the eventual manuscript for my independent project after graduation.
Well, that wraps up this blog, but tune in this time next month for one last update!
Until then,
Jasper
Maya's Blog
Maya Mijares, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hi folks!
Welcome to my second-to-last blog post! This year has gone by SO quickly, and I cannot believe there are only two weeks left in the quarter (and until I graduate)!
The past month has been full of data analysis, poster-making, and lots of presentations. Kicking everything off at the beginning of the month, the NWSSMM conference was BLAST! It was so cool to talk with other student researchers, graduate and undergraduate alike, and hear about their amazing work. The keynote speakers, both who researched the Southern Resident killer whales, were so inspirational and informative, and I learned so much new information. A highlight was that Isabel and I won an award for the best poster at the conference! I attached a picture of Isabel, Alex, and I in front of our poster at the bottom of this blog.
Smolt observations also started this month! Because there are two observations daily during smolt season on top of regular Whatcom Creek observations, this means that everyone in the lab has a lot on their plate right now. Luckily, the research assistants have been a HUGE help with all these extra observations, and we are so appreciative of them! Being down at the creek at dawn/dusk also means that we get to see some beautiful sunsets and sunrises, along with some cool new animals! Alex, Vic, and I had a pm observation at Whatcom Creek last weekend where we saw a beaver and a muskrat, which are animals that I’ve never seen at our observation site before.
In addition to the conference, Isabel and I presented (twice!) at Western’s scholar’s week. The first presentation was a collaboration between Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez, Dr. Dietmar Schwarz, Alex, Isabel, and myself. Giving a presentation all together was a really cool experience, and allowed us to talk about both our project and Alex’s, as well as get a more in-depth analysis from both of our advisors! We also were featured in a Western Today article about student-faculty collaborations.
In addition to the collaborative presentation, Isabel and I also presented our poster during the open poster session at Scholar’s Week. We did not have time to update our poster with new results, but we were able to explain our new findings by pulling up the new figures on a laptop. Two things that come to mind when thinking about how cool of an experience this poster session was are, one, getting to share our research with non-marine mammal scientists (or people who weren’t even involved in the sciences) and, two, finally getting to see our research project come together and talk about big picture results! I’m excited to continue this process in the coming months.
Looking toward the future, Isabel and I are currently working on cleaning up our sequencing data to hopefully provide some new, clarifying results. I am working on finishing up my MACS capstone paper for the project, as well as starting to prepare my honors capstone presentation that I will give during finals week.
All in all, June is shaping up to be a busy and bittersweet last month at Western! I'm looking forward to updating you on how my last few weeks in college went in my last blog next month!
Maya Mijares
Alex, Isabel, and Maya at the NWSSMM Conference. Photo by MMEL.
Alex, Isabel, and Maya in the lab. Photo by X. Johnson for WWU News.
Olivia's Blog
Olivia Balaban, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hi everyone
I hope you are all excited for summer! It is starting to feel close, and it is weird to have graduation right around the corner. It does not feel like it, but a lot has happened this month. The first week was the NWSSMM conference which was a really fun experience! It was a great opportunity, and it was so interesting to see the kind of research being done at other universities. Also, scholars week was a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed getting to see my friends’ projects. It was also interesting to see how much research was being done across all of Western.
With the quarter ending I am close to wrapping up my project. I have hit a point where we need to rethink some of the math we’ve been using, and I’ve been needing a lot more help. Since it is nearing the end of the quarter everyone is busier than usual, so progress has been slow but I’m hoping to move a little quicker in the coming week.
Thank you for reading.
Olivia
Haley's Blog
Haley Recob, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hi all,
The tail end of spring quarter has been an exciting and busy one! At the beginning of this month, the lab leads, and I attended the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammals (NWSSMM) conference. It was awesome! I really enjoyed learning about the variety of different research projects from students across the west coast have done on marine mammals. It was really inspiring to see the achievements students in my same position have accomplished as undergraduate and graduates. It was also fun staying overnight in Seattle with my lab-mates and made me realize how much I am going to miss those who are graduating.
Following the conference and our poster presentation, Maren and I have been continuing to work on our independent project. We’ve been working hard to get all the logistics figured out before summer, when we’ll start working full-time. Maren and I have started looking at satellite images of the harbor seals haul out sites and categorizing them. We are looking to see potential patterns in the site types that we could correlate with the sex ratios. We have also been continuing to navigate GIS. Trying to dive headfirst into it has been a challenging approach but with more help, I think we can tackle it and apply it to the data we were given. As summer approaches, we seem to have more questions than answers so far but luckily, we have the support from many collaborators and many resources to help.
Harbor seal observations have really picked up at the Whatcom Creek and Log Pond sites in the past month. There has been no shortage of activity as the waterway has frequently been visited by a beaver, muskrat, river otters, great blue herons, and baby goslings (in addition to the harbor seals)! I got to help out on the smolt project again which meant a lot of early morning and late evening observations. Watching the harbor seals zip around the creek and chase the silver smolt has made it all worth it though. It makes me excited for the fall season when the salmon will return, bringing dozens of seals. I have also really enjoyed getting to know the new lab assistants on these observations. I have been fortunate enough to train some as well in photo ID. Hopefully by next year we can start getting through the older photo folders! Side note, I am happy to announce that Maya and Jack are passing the torch to me to be one of the Whatcom Creek co-managers! Starting in the fall quarter, I will help run the Whatcom Creek project with Rachel Strober!! I am sooo excited and can’t wait to start implementing some of my ideas into the lab’s long-term project. Thank you to everyone who has supported and helped me get to this point, I couldn’t have done it without you!
Until next time,
Haley
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 June 2024
It is coming close to the end of spring quarter which means my time as a graduate teaching assistant is coming to an end. It has been such a rewarding and sometimes challenging experience. I have met so many amazing people throughout teaching and will miss making connections with my students! It is a bittersweet feeling knowing next week is the last week I will be teaching organismal biology lab!
It has been a month packed full of activities! It started off with going to the NWSSMM conference which was a blast! I got to see a bunch of people who attended the conference last year and catch up! It is fun seeing how their project has been progressing in the past year! I also got to see a past MMEL manager, Maddie Gard, which was so special! Overall, the conference was really interesting, and everyone had a great time! Also, we watched Dolphins the documentary Alejandro is a part of! It was a great way to unwind after the conference!
I presented the same poster from NWSSMM at WWU Scholars Week and had a blast talking to people about my research! Some of my students stopped by to ask about my research, they all really liked goggles, the harbor seal! I had the chance to check out new and exciting projects happening throughout Western as well!
The last big activity for May was the Smolt Project!! Alex, Jack, and I went out one night when part of the smolt were being released with night vision goggles! We did not see any harbor seal activity, but we were able to see the smolt swimming in the water which was incredible!
Victoria and Alex looking for smolt swimming through night vision goggles. Photo by J. Mezzone.
That is all I have for this month!
Until next time,
Victoria
Jack's Blog
Jack Mezzone, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hey Folks!
This last month has been difficult but easily the most rewarding time of my college career. The combination of classes, Whatcom Creek Project management, and Smolt Project management has led to a month of a constantly packed schedule and seemingly endless communication regarding projects. It has been an incredible opportunity to lead such a great group of folks and one that I will cherish as the sun sets on my time in the lab.
As soon as the month started, we were off to the NWSSMM conference in which I was able to see my project partner Maddie for the first time in nearly a year! Presenting our poster and the conference as a whole was a fantastic time in which my knowledge expanded in the realm of marine mammal research and showed me just how much I don't know about whales, haha. We had some serious MMEL team bonding as we stayed in a VRBO, had meals together, went to the conference, and attended a tour of the marine rehabilitation facility, SR3. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to spend time with!
After the conference, I went back to doing some Whatcom Creek observations as well as all Smolt Observations other than Tuesday and Wednesday mornings due to class interference. Smolt Observations included unlocking the biology building at 4:55 in the morning, picking up/dropping off equipment, and surveying from 5:30-7:30am as well as picking up/dropping off equipment at 5:30pm and surveying from 6:00-8:00 pm. On Saturday the 11th, I received an email from the Bellingham Technical College hatchery manager expressing that 15% of the smolt were to be released on the night of the 11th and that smolt were to be released in small cohorts every other night for the following week. This was a large relief as this meant that uncertainty surrounding release time was gone and sufficient post release data would be attained.
The 15th marked scholar's week which was a great time since I had experience in presenting and communicating about the Smolt Project due to the NWSSMM conference. I was able to share a lot of great information about the project and was able to view and hear presentations from a number of my lab members. On the morning of Thursday the 16th, myself, Vic, and Alex went to view one of the smolt releases at the outgoing high tide which was at 1:30 in the morning. This meant that we got to use the night vision equipment and saw a large number of smolt in the creek!
In general, observations and data collection went very smoothly with only one safety concern causing an observation to end early and one missed morning observation due to a member accidentally sleeping in. While juggling about 30 smolt specific team members and a schedule with 12 people on per day, we ended with 36 observational days, 72 observation times, and 288 site specific observational times (Sites A, B, C, and WC). All in all, 1.75 missed site specific observational times (.6% missed) ended up being a strong number considering all of the moving parts!
After a personal 51 smolt observations and 350+ hours of lab work this quarter, today marks the end of data collection and possibly my last MMEL observation of all time which is quite bittersweet. Although data collection is over, the input and analysis stage is upon me and will be my number one priority until completed.
Until next time,
Jack
Looking for smolt at night. Photo by A. Otto.
Maddie and Jack at the NWSSMM Conference in Seattle. Photo by R. Meade.
Isabel's Blog
Isabel Shier, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Hi everyone,
This past month has been wild! The conference, Scholar’s Week, data analysis, oh my! We started the month out strong with the NWSSMM conference at the University of Washington, which was an amazing experience. Maya and I got to present in the poster session, and our work got voted best poster! More importantly, though, we got to hear so many interesting talks about current research being done on marine mammals by undergraduate and graduate students in the region.
Shortly after the conference, we presented our poster again at Western’s Scholars Week. It was really enjoyable to talk to my peers and professors about the research Maya and I have been working on. We also got an additional opportunity at Scholars Week, where we got to give a talk with Alex, Alejandro, and Dietmar! It was in a panel highlighting faculty-student collaborations. I really enjoyed getting to give the talk, it was surprisingly valuable to have to take a step back and look at the big picture takeaways project. Because of this presentation, we were interviewed and had an article written about us! If you’re curious, click this link..
As far as current work on the project goes post-presentations, Maya and I have mainly been working on data analysis and making figures.
I’ll be graduating on June 14th, which is rapidly approaching! It honestly doesn’t feel real yet, I’ve been too busy to process it. I had my last ever smolt observation this week, and my last Whatcom Creek observation is tomorrow. It’s bittersweet, I’m excited to be graduating and to move on to the next chapter in my life, but I’m going to miss the lab. I’m so thankful that I get to work with so many cool people and do so much cool work.
Well, the next time I chat with you I’ll have graduated! See you then!
Isabel
Alex, Isabel, and Maya at the NWSSMM Conference. Photo by MMEL.
Alexandreas's Blog
Alexandrea Otto, undergraduate student
1 June 2024
Well, Hello!
It seems like every blog post begins with this same line, but it’s never been truer than now, in this final “regular” quarter of graduate school. This month’s blog post reflects on a period that has been incredibly busy, chaotic, and yet so rewarding!
Over the past month, our student worker union on campus, which includes graduate teaching assistants (like myself and Victoria), research graduate assistants, paid undergraduate research assistants, and many others, demonstrated our collective power through a strike. Remarkably, in just two days, we secured a fair contract! The outcome was successful not only because of its brevity but also because we achieved agreements that will set important precedents for future graduate students and undergraduates alike. This was no easy task, but the support we received from the Biology Department and faculty across the campus kept us strong during these chaotic times. I am truly amazed and full of gratitude for the graduate cohort and program I joined over two years ago.
Marching alongside fellow student workers on Western’s campus in a rally’s efforts to agree on a fair contract a week before the campus-wide strike was decided and took place. Photo by A. Otto.
In addition to these events, the student-led NWSSMM conference in Seattle, WA, and WWU’s Scholar’s Week with the lab’s undergraduates were both great successes! The NWSSMM conference was particularly special, as it was the first conference for many for our undergraduates, and it allowed Victoria and me to reconnect with our old/new graduate student friends from last year’s conference across other universities! As a research lab, we genuinely bonded together as a family on this trip. After a long day at the conference, of course we celebrated the only proper way by watching Alejandro’s documentary, “Dolphins” as a lab!
The MMEL at the student led NWSSMM Conference in Seattle, WA, in front of our six posters we presented! Photo by NWSSMM member.
Another memorable experience was WWU’s Scholars Week Faculty/Student Collaboration Presentation. Maya, Isabel, Dietmar, Alejandro, and I presented our preliminary results on the combined molecular methods and power of both mtDNA and nuclear DNA in studying harbor seal sex-mediated gene flow. In all my years in academia, I’ve never had the opportunity to present alongside my advisors and undergraduates in a joint project. It was a very special experience!
Adding to the excitement, our co-authored abstract was accepted as a poster presentation at the Bi-Annual International SMM Conference in Perth, Australia next fall! We are now awaiting the student grant decisions to see if attending is a realistic option. This conference acceptance was another “full-circle” moment for me. Back in 2018, during my internship in Galicia, Spain, I remember my past graduate student mentor from my REU Internship presenting at this bi-annual conference in Barcelona, Spain, and thinking how neat it was to have helped on her project, which won an award at the conference! Then, in 2020, when the conference was held in the US, I remember sitting in my bedroom in Lincoln, Nebraska wondering if I should take the chance to just attend the conference in search of making connections to find a graduate project/mentor. Now, six years later, through the unwavering support of my co-advisors and collaborators, can I take a moment of gratitude for this insanely cool experience and journey it’s been.
Amidst all the chaos, I taught my last BIO204 Lab this past Tuesday. It was a surreal moment that snuck up on me. The smolt project and the mtDNA project are both wrapping up as our amazing undergraduates prepare to graduate and move on to their undeniably bright futures. This past month has been filled with many bittersweet moments. Nevertheless, the work and grind continue! I am in the final coding steps to finish the SNP panel, and soon, samples will be run and genotyped. This summer will be filled with data analysis and writing to complete my Master’s degree.
An early morning smolt project observation set-up photo at the Log Pond field site location C overlooking Bellingham Bay, WA. Photo by A. Otto.
As always, more updates will follow, including a recap of the return of the historical Biology Department Talent/Entertainment Show, which has been one of my main objectives during my time on the Biology Graduate Committee!
Til next month,
Alexandrea